Die benutting van 'n universiteitsbiblioteek se tydskrifversameling deur die skep van tuisdatabasisse

Abstract

The aim of the study. The Committee of University Principals' memorandum of agreement between South-African libraries relating to the mutual rendering of certain library services, does not make provision for undergraduate students to obtain information via interlibrary loans. It states that each university library must provide fully for the needs of its own students up to Master's degree level. The purpose of the study is to investigate the use of periodicals by undergraduate students, as well as the feasibility of creating in-house databases to enable access to information in periodicals. The method. A theoretical overview of the information needs of undergraduate students concerning periodicals as information sources is given. Commercial bibliographic databases can be used to provide access to information in periodicals, and their use by undergraduate students is therefore discussed. Factual information for the theoretical section was obtained through an empirical study in which questionnaires and personal interviews were used as research techniques. The study group consisted of undergraduate students at a university library. Core findings. The research findings indicate that undergraduate students have pertinent needs with regard to the use of periodicals as information sources. This fact, in conjunction with the encouragement of a self-tuition approach to teaching at the university, indicates that undergraduate students deserve status as researchers. This emphasises the need for university libraries to make their own periodical collections more accessible and useful. Commercial bibliographic databases are mostly used to gain access to information in the periodical collection. Because of budget restrictions university libraries find it impossible to own all or even a representative number of the periodicals these commercial bibliographic databases refer to. It is, therefore, necessary to provide other means of access to the periodicals in the collection, including those that are not sufficiently indexed by commercial databases. Concluding remark. The creation of in-house databases is suggested as an alternative to commercial bibliographic databases for accessing the periodicals collection. This will ensure that undergraduate students can make optimum use of all the available periodicals in the university's collection.