AbstractThe present study entitled as “Use of Open Access Resources by the Research Scholars and Faculty Members of Alagappa University and its Affiliated Colleges: A Study” has been taken up for investigation of Open Access Resources usage by the Research Scholars and Faculty Members of Alagappa University and its Affiliated Colleges. The problem chosen for the present study is to develop the information society. There is a continuous growth in the production and use of Open Access Resources. In this study we tried to find out that up to what level of research scholars and faculty members are aware of using Open Access Resources. The findings shows that out of 456 respondents considered for the study 178 [39%] were male and remaining 278 [61%] were female. The estimated significance value is greater than 0.05 meaning; the null hypothesis is accepted hence, there is no significant difference in frequency of usage of OAR with respect to gender. From the mean score value it is understood that most of the respondents uses OAR “Almost every time”. The study identifies that many courses are available for research scholars and faculty members to learn about open access resources and online programmes.
Keywords: Information need; User study; Academic library; Open Access Resources; Subject gateway; Open Course Ware (OCW); Search engine.