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1 – 6 of 6This study aims to examine the impact of social media on adolescents’ social behavior, personal conduct, interactions, education, communication, attitudes, skills and abilities…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the impact of social media on adolescents’ social behavior, personal conduct, interactions, education, communication, attitudes, skills and abilities. In addition, the study seeks to determine the barriers to social media use by adolescents.
Design/methodology/approach
A convenience sampling technique was used to draw a sample of 300 adolescents from three educational zones in Sri Lanka. A questionnaire survey method was applied to collect raw data and descriptive and inferential statistics were used for the analysis.
Findings
Among the given different social media, YouTube was the most preferred social media for adolescents. Although the majority of adolescents used mobile phones to access social media, they were not high social media users. The impact of social media on adolescents’ education and communication was significantly positive although their intellectual involvement with social media communities was rather low. The use of social media had not decreased the time devoted to studies or seriously complicated adolescents’ social life or encouraged them toward violence and conflict. There was no indication that social media had led to them experiencing mental confusion, health problems, disorderly conduct, social imbalance or suicide.
Originality/value
This study helps to reduce the literature gap of pertinent literature because there is little research information available on social media use in Sri Lanka. Almost all studies based in Sri Lanka in relation to social media have been poorly designed or published in predatory journals. The findings of the present study should be a timely and important resource for policymakers in education, teachers in both government and private schools and many stakeholders not only in Sri Lanka but also in other similar nations.
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Lalith Wickramanayake and Saidu Muhammad Jika
This paper aims to investigate teacher students’ perceptions, intentions, experiences, attitudes, opinions and barriers concerning social media use and impact of social media on…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate teacher students’ perceptions, intentions, experiences, attitudes, opinions and barriers concerning social media use and impact of social media on their learning process.
Design/methodology/approach
A stratified sampling technique was applied to draw the sample, and 242 teacher students were selected as a sample from three higher educational institutions in Gombe State, Nigeria. A questionnaire survey method was used to collect the data. Data analysis was by means of simple and inferential statistics.
Findings
The students widely used mobile phones to access social media, and social media was extremely popular for education, entertainment and communication among them. Educational and informational communities were also preferred by students to other social media communities. The study further revealed that effective social media usage among students enhanced their different types of skills including learning. Unstable electricity connections, security and privacy issues, internet costs and unreliable internet connections were recorded as some barriers concerning students’ social media use.
Originality/value
The outcome of this study will be a unique contribution because the pertinent literature provides little evidence or research highlights concerning teacher students’ social media use. Even more, the results of the present study may be a useful resource for university administrators, education policymakers and innovative teachers in universities – especially in developing countries and particularly Nigeria – when considering integration of modern techniques and technologies with university teaching and learning.
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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate academics' information‐seeking behavior, information needs, and their attitudes and perceptions towards the library system in Sri Lankan…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate academics' information‐seeking behavior, information needs, and their attitudes and perceptions towards the library system in Sri Lankan universities.
Design/methodology/approach
The population of the study consisted of management and commerce academics selected from three universities. The sample included 50 percent from the population and stratified random sampling technique was employed for the sample selection. Data gathering was done by means of questionnaire survey and the received raw data were analyzed accordingly.
Findings
The study found that the majority of academics were more interested in research than teaching. They had good library skills for finding information and accessing services. Most of them were unable to keep in touch with current information due to insufficiency of current resources. The attitudes of the academics towards the library staff were rather unsatisfactory. The interlibrary loan service was not effectively utilized due to academics' unawareness. Most academics were not informed when new publications had arrived, though the library requested their recommendation while acquiring new materials.
Research limitations/implications
This study focused on only one discipline selected from multi‐disciplinary universities in Sri Lanka. This limitation affects in generalizing results within the university system in the country.
Originality/value
It was found that there had been no previous study which had studied information‐seeking behavior of business, management or commerce scholars in Sri Lanka. Hence, this study features distinctiveness within the available literature in the context of Sri Lanka.
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The purpose of this research paper is to look at the overall instructional performance of academic librarians in Sri Lanka and shed light on the challenges and potential problems…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research paper is to look at the overall instructional performance of academic librarians in Sri Lanka and shed light on the challenges and potential problems facing the implementation of quality information literacy (IL) in university libraries.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected by means of a questionnaire, which was sent to all professional academic librarians working in Sri Lankan university libraries. The results were analyzed using frequency and percentage distributions.
Findings
The results reveal that the organizational structures of academic libraries do not clearly acknowledge the academic librarians’ role in library instruction. Though most academic libraries had formal instruction policies, the majority had not appointed instruction coordinators. Academic librarians were not satisfied with the assessment of their teaching by library administrators, even though most of them had teaching experience. Most of the user education programs which they practiced were not up-to-date. Academic librarians’ interest and positive attitudes with regard to library instruction, particularly for IL was the other significant factor explored by the study.
Research limitations/implications
The study focuses only on academic librarians. The exclusion of other university stakeholders such as teaching staff, students, administrators and others from the study poses a significant limitation.
Originality/value
The results of this study can be generalized to academic libraries in Sri Lanka and to academic libraries in other developing countries.
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The purpose of this study is to determine the present status of the school libraries in Sri Lanka that were not developed under the General Education Project 2 implemented during…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to determine the present status of the school libraries in Sri Lanka that were not developed under the General Education Project 2 implemented during 1997-2005.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey was used to collect data from 135 school libraries drawn at random from two educational zones in Sri Lanka. The instrument included objective-oriented close-ended questions to be answered appropriately and analysis was done accordingly.
Findings
The majority of school libraries in Sri Lanka are run by less qualified school librarians with no professional librarianship qualification. Scarcity of appropriate library buildings, inadequate funding and lack of reading materials and other physical resources were common among the studied school libraries. Unavailability of dedicated timeslots within the school timetable for library and information skills sessions had significantly decreased the library usage by students. It was also found that school librarians had rather negative attitudes concerning their job.
Research limitations/implications
Neglecting other stakeholders and taking samples only from school librarians for the study and selecting only government schools by excluding private/international schools and monasteries (Pirivenas) created considerable limitation for the study.
Originality/value
This study derived significant findings which could be used to understand the reality of school libraries in Sri Lanka, and these findings could be used to overcome practical issues which may negatively affect school library development.
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The present study was carried out with the intention of examining what type of instruction applications and help tools have been used to serve clientele via academic library…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study was carried out with the intention of examining what type of instruction applications and help tools have been used to serve clientele via academic library websites and web pages, and how Sri Lankan academic libraries instruct and help users via their library websites and web pages.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample study comprised only 14 academic library websites and web pages out of 223, which were accessible and necessarily presented instruction applications and help tools. Two coding sheets were prepared separately for instruction and help to include classified data, and then the frequency counted from each category by browsing the sample recorded in the coders for analysis.
Findings
The results confirmed that the quality of academic library websites in Sri Lanka in providing online instruction and help was dependent on different variables. The development of above online services remains in its infancy. Most important instruction applications and help tools have not been utilized by the majority of websites in academic libraries. Inaccessibility of such services via the library web reflects not only their malfunction in online instruction and help, but also onsite services of some areas in academic libraries.
Research limitations/implications
Nonexistence of websites or web pages and lack of enough information in library websites caused the exclusion of most of the libraries in the country from inclusion in the sample; this in turn affected this study by limiting it to academic libraries only.
Practical implications
The majority of recommendations originated from the study can be generalized for both web and online service development of any type of library in Sri Lanka.
Originality/value
The deficiency of research on library websites in Sri Lanka provides no clear image regarding the existing situation of online library services. Thus this study contributes towards addressing this gap in the literature and features distinctiveness within the available literature.
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