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This paper is based on a Master’s dissertation whose objective was to determine the purpose for which students of the University of Dar es Salaam use the Internet (see www.udsm.ac.tz/). It was to determine if students were using the Internet for academic purposes. The study also investigated the level of students’ access to the Internet, as well as the problems students faced in Internet use. The web site has specific information on faculties, institutes, and departments, including training programmes. The Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) has been installed at the Main Campus and UCLAS libraries, replacing the manual card catalogues. The OPAC has simple and advanced search options, using ADLID software. Plans are underway to convert the manual catalogue of MUCHS library into an online catalogue. The survey method was used as the basic method for data collection, employing the questionnaire and the interview. Participant observation and focus group discussion are other methods used. The study revealed that the level of students’ access to the Internet was low, and the major reason was that at the time of the study, computers with Internet facilities were inadequate. The findings also revealed that the students who had access to the Internet were not using it effectively. They used it mainly for communication with friends and relatives more than for academic purposes. The cause of this was found to be lack of skills required for effective use of the internet. The study recommends the provision of more computers with Internet facilities, increasing Internet access speed, as well as providing more chances of training in Internet use.

The purpose of this study was to analyse Internet use and related issues among the health care professionals at the Health Sciences Centre of Kuwait University. A questionnaire was administered to all the 180 faculty members in HSC. The response rate was 76.6 per cent. The extent and patterns of their use of the Internet for 12 applications were analysed. The current level of skills was examined and perceptions for improving them were explored. Also, the impact of the Internet on professional and personal development was explored. Problems related to access and use were also investigated. It was found that the Internet had become a vital instrument for research, information, and communication in the lives of these professionals. Respondents wished to be further empowered through rigorous training and the alleviation of problems that inhibited their Internet use.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the level of awareness and utilisation of the internet for academic research and learning among level 400 (final year) students of Ghana's oldest business school.

The study utilised a cross‐sectional survey approach because it was restricted to final year students in the 2003–2004 year graduating class. The study also employed a convenience sampling technique and was executed by means of questionnaire administration and personal interviews. The final year students were asked to fill the questionnaires before a business policy lecture. The basic research instrument used in this research was a structured questionnaire with both open and close ended questions. Apart from questionnaires, in‐depth interviews with the respondents were also conducted with the respondents because we felt that because we were dealing with a research that had to do with technology, there could be latent issues that could only be uncovered by open discussions. Data were analysed and presented by means of simple descriptive statistics.

Developing countries, especially in sub‐Saharan Africa, are often rich in the resources of people and staffing, if not in material resources. The promotion of information literacy is essentially dependent on using people differently, that is to better effect, not on injecting more resourcing into under‐funded services (although this is also important in many regards). Authorities at teaching universities, including lecturers, and heads of departments, must, as a matter of urgency, adopt mechanisms for creating better information skills and internet usage awareness among the students. This should focus on what the internet is, the services available through the internet, and the basic skills required to use the internet. This policy is not limited by resourcing, it is simply a new way to better use the richest resource of developing nations, the people and their talents.

Owing to the exploratory nature of the research, the results cannot be generalised with certainty. The research however gives pointers to gaps in the internet use propensities of business students in Ghana's business school and an internet education policy has to be instituted immediately to properly prepare students for an increasingly online Ghanaian business environment.

The University of Ghana Business School should move towards the setting up of instructional labs. These labs should work in close association with the school's library to ensure that students are properly trained on business, teaching and research uses of the internet.

One of the first studies focussing on business students at the disadvantaged end of the global digital divides which regards skills training rather than resourcing as a key issue in information usage.

The objective of this research paper is to assess how the internet is used, in particular for email‐based library services in Sudan.

This research is based on primary data: a structured field survey was conducted among six information institutions in Sudan. Because the number of librarians in these institutions was thought manageable, all librarians in the selected institutions were surveyed. The response rate reached 88.1 per cent. The SPSS package was used for data analysis, and the alpha value found to be 79 per cent.

The major patterns of internet use were: chat sessions; checking e‐mails; and surfing professional sites. The majority of the sample did not utilize email for library services as such. The low use of internet resources for library services was due to inadequate access and inadequate time that can be devoted to internet activity, rather than a matter of lacking skills per se. But it was also found that there was a real need for training on using internet for library services. Moreover, lack of English language skills were a factor: findings indicated that there is a positive correlation between the level of English language proficiency and the level of using the internet.

For practical reasons the fieldwork data was collected only from Khartoum state. More research work could be done in the other major cities to complete the view. More studies are needed to highlight the nature of internet training needs, and user attitudes that influence the current patterns of internet use.

This paper is an original work that fills a gap in the literature about the use of the internet among the Sudanese librarians. This paper is of value to practitioner librarians and researchers, while LIS instructors may use the research results to develop the LIS syllabus and curriculums.

This brief paper aims to examine the extent to which lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) older adults in Australia used the internet for social, informational and instrumental needs, including how internet use changed during COVID-19.

The authors used a survey advertised to LGBTIQ+ older adults (N = 394), recruited as a sample of convenience, on social networking sites and via LGBTIQ+ and aged care organizations.

Self-reported internet use decreased during COVID-19, with various significant between-group differences in purposes of internet use and sexuality, gender, living arrangements and time.

The internet can be a critical form of social contact for LGBTIQ+ older adults, and this is among the first studies in Australia about their internet use during COVID-19. Findings from the study suggest patterns of internet use may be decreasing among LGBTIQ+ older adults during the pandemic.

This paper aims to examine the use of the internet among the females of Tarbiat Moalem University (TMU) in Tehran. It further aims to consider their favourite sites, issues and their attitude toward using the internet in Iran.

The study was implemented through a descriptive survey methodology. A self‐designed questionnaire was distributed and 80 valid samples were collected. The population were all females affiliated to TMU including 21 academic staff, 40 masters and doctoral students and 19 staff members.

The study found that there is a significant relation between academic females' use of the internet and their social ranking. As social ranking increases the use of the internet grows. The findings also revealed that as users navigate more through the internet they would find more hidden threats and vague content.

Some suggestions provided by this study include providing suitable web pages for females according to their needs and culture; enhancing internet access especially from their homes; providing good information pertaining to internet security and proper use; and seeking to refine Iranian attitudes to international web pages.

The paper provides insight into a group of Iranian academic females' use of the internet. It will help researchers to achieve a closer view to such women's conditions and it is therefore of use to web developers who might design better content related to female interests especially in Iran.

Emerging technologies are shaping the way we use information and undergraduates are early adopters of technology; however the purpose of their use of these devices has been of concern. The purpose of this paper is to examine use of internet capable handheld devices among Information Resources Management (IRM) undergraduates at Babcock University, Ilisan, Nigeria.

Non‐experimental ex post facto design was adopted for the study. Total enumeration was used to capture 220 IRM undergraduates. Using an adapted ECAR study, six questionnaire with reliability value (x=0.89) were administered; all questionnaires administered were retrieved and used for the study.

The study revealed that the majority (90 per cent) own handheld devices, used mainly for social networking, checking of information, instant messaging and e‐mails. Most of the students (70 per cent) are frequent users of their devices for internet activities, expending about 2‐100 h on a weekly basis. Factors which include slow network connection, limited access, and other ways of internet access, battery life and cost hinder use of the internet via handheld devices.

The use of internet capable mobile technology is crucial in engaging higher education students.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of cybercafés in Ilorin, Nigeria. The main objectives of the survey were to determine the characteristics of the users, how they had learnt to use the internet, their self‐reported levels of internet use skills, the internet services they used and for what purposes, the aspects of the internet they desired to learn more about and their assessment of the cybercafés they patronized.

A survey method was employed for the study. Data were collected from 18 cybercafés in Ilorin, Nigeria, by means of questionnaires and analysed using frequency counts and percentages.

The findings revealed that the majority of the cybercafé users were students, aged 21‐25 years old, males and unmarried. Most of the respondents considered themselves only moderately skilled in the use of the internet and largely used e‐mail, online chat, e‐publications, file transfer protocol and the world wide web, all of which they desired to learn more about. The six aspects of the cybercafés evaluated, except browsing speed, were judged satisfactory. It was concluded there is a need to promote greater use of the internet in Nigeria generally.

The research findings will help to fill a gap in the knowledge of cybercafé usage in Ilorin, one of the largest towns in the North Central Zone of Nigeria. The findings will also assist cybercafé operators in Ilorin in particular to improve their services.

Increasingly the Internet is being used by students to gather a variety of data and gain an extensive range of experience as part of their learning activity. The paper discusses how the Internet may be used to support learning and teaching and some of the motivation underpinning its adoption. It refers to use of the Internet in a final year module on multimedia run by the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at De Montfort University, one of the main purposes being to promote collaborative student project work. The authors present an analysis of feedback that has been gained from students’ experiences of using network technology. The article concludes by outlining some of the issues raised by using the Internet as a learning and teaching resource.

To investigate internet usage in a Nigerian suburban setting – Abraka Delta State.

The study employed a questionnaire to collect data from 150 respondents.

Revealed the personal characteristics of the respondents, different aspects of their internet use such as duration of internet usage access time, motivation for using the Net, search engines employed, internet skills acquisition, frequency of internet use, evaluation of internet information content, problems encountered while using the internet as well as way forward.

The findings will assist the LIS world to know the patterns of internet use in developing world and provide the needed data that will assist policy makers and stakeholders to seek ways of making the dwellers better users of the Net.