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This paper aims to explore the use of Bostick’s (1992) Library Anxiety Scale (LAS) in a developing country perspective to find out the level of anxiety among university students and to identify the underlying factors that contribute to this phenomenon.

A slightly modified 43-item LAS was used to collect data from 350 students at Dhaka University. For data analysis, negatively worded statements were reverse-scored so that all the statements are scored in the same direction. The statistical significance is measured using Mann–Whitney (M-W) and Kruskal–Wallis (K-W) tests. The M-W tests were conducted to examine the differences in students’ library anxiety scores in terms of their age and educational levels. The K-W tests were conducted to examine the differences in students’ ratings on LAS items in terms of their age and faculty enrolment. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on the survey data to examine the factors contributing to students’ anxiety. Finally, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the convergent validity of the measures chosen to represent each factor construct.

The result of this study indicated that library anxiety exists amongst Dhaka University students, as most LAS scores fell above 3 on a 5-point Likert scale. The individual differences in terms of gender, age, educational level and frequency of library visit were not significant for most of the items. The EFA, after several iterations, yielded a five-factor solution for library anxiety constructs although only two factors were found to have met the required reliability scores. The CFA, however, failed to produce any meaningful results. This paper made several recommendations to the university library administration to alleviate the problems that appear to have triggered library anxiety.

This is a pioneering study of the use of Bostick’s LAS in Bangladesh. It is hoped that the findings of this study will encourage researchers to develop anxiety scales which would address the need for library services in developing country context.

The aim of this paper is to empirically examine the usability of the Koha OPAC from a user perspective.

A series of usability tests with Koha were carried out at a private university in Bangladesh. Both experienced and novice users participated in these tests. Experienced users participated only once, whereas novices took part in three successive sessions. At first, novices’ initial performance was recorded. Then, they performed the same tasks after a short training tutorial. Novices again participated in the retention experiment with the same tasks after four weeks. A set of seven tasks was given to the users to see their performance in terms of time taken, number of errors made and success scores. Performance data were captured through a computer screen recording software, and satisfaction scores were obtained using a modified version of Questionnaire on User Interface Satisfaction (QUIS). Comparisons of performance and satisfaction with Koha OPAC were made between experienced users and novices’ initial, learning and retention experiments and amongst novices’ three test sessions.

The results showed significant performance difference between experienced and novices’ initial session. Novices could easily pick up the functionality of Koha OPAC when a brief training was provided. The comparative analysis of performance between experienced users and novices’ learning showed no significant difference between these sessions. There was a significant difference between experienced and novices’ retention in terms of success scores. The comparison amongst novices’ initial, learning and retention sessions showed significant performance differences in time taken and errors made. The QUIS results also showed significant differences in subjective satisfaction for several items between experienced users and naïve sessions, and for one item amongst novices’ three experiments.

This is a pioneering study of the task-based usability of Koha OPAC. The findings from this study will encourage researchers to empirically examine the usability of other open-source ILSs, which might result in improved user performance and satisfaction with these systems.

The aim of this paper was to compare university students’ preferences for searching the library catalogue via the library’s Koha online public access catalogue (OPAC) or its discovery tool VuFind.

A total of 175 students responded to a questionnaire-based survey through which their demographic data, duration (years) of computer use and their self-reported levels of computer skills were obtained. Students were asked what interfaces they use for catalogue searching and to rate their opinion on the relevant interfaces on a seven-point Likert scale. Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis tests were conducted to statistically compare the differences between students’ demographic/individual characteristics and their ratings on the respective interfaces. For those students who used both systems, differences between their Likert ratings were assessed using a one-tailed Wilcoxon signed rank test.

The results showed that there were no significant differences among students in terms of their ratings on either the OPAC or VuFind interfaces. Wilcoxon signed ranks test indicated that significantly more students thought that VuFind was more usable than the Koha OPAC.

This is a pioneering study of the current use of the OPAC and discovery tools by university students and their preferences for searching catalogue information through these systems. It is hoped that the findings of this study will encourage researchers to conduct task-based usability studies with various cataloguing tools and this could yield new and improved interaction designs for library catalogue searching.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the psychometric validity of the LibQUAL+® instrument in a developing country context in Bangladesh.

This study adopted a paper-version of the original LibQUAL 22 core-items to survey library users' perceptions of minimum, desired and perceived levels of service quality of university libraries in Bangladesh. The survey accumulated a total of 544 valid responses over a period of two weeks. The means and standard deviations for each service item were computed for the three service levels. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the original three-factorial structure and to assess the psychometric validity of the LibQUAL instrument. A one-factor CFA and separate CFAs by gender and user group on perceived services were conducted to determine the original three-factor structure of LibQUAL scale. Exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) were also performed on the perceived scores to examine the potential factor structure of the scale. The descriptive statistics including EFAs and the CFA models were performed through IBM® SPSS® Statistics and IBM® SPSS® Amos, respectively.

The findings of this paper showed that all perceived services fell below the minimum scores. The confirmatory factor analyses found poor model fits for the original three-factor solution of the LibQUAL scale. The EFA results also showed no factorial structure similar to the original LibQUAL dimensions. The findings exhibited a low psychometric quality of LibQUAL in academic library settings in Bangladesh.

This study is the first of its kind to empirically examine the psychometric validity of the LibQUAL scale in a developing country perspective in Bangladesh.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the understanding of library terminologies by early career faculty members in a newly established rural university setting at the south coast of Bangladesh.

A campus-wide survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire consisted of demographic questions and 35 multiple-choice questions on library terminologies. The multiple-choice questions asked faculty members to select the correct answer from a set of five answers.

The findings indicate that early career university teachers lack adequate understanding of library terms; in fact, many of them either gave incorrect answers or was unsure about the term. It was found that faculty members had relatively better understandings of commonly used library terminologies, but they had real difficulties comprehending computer and technology-related terms. Significant differences were observed for some of the terms in case of their age, designation and teaching experience.

This current study is unique in two ways: first, this is the first time an effort has been made to empirically examine the understanding of library terminologies by early career faculty members; and second, this study was conducted at a university in Bangladesh where the first language is not English.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the information quality of e-government websites by university-education citizens of Bangladesh. It also investigated citizens' demographic and Internet related variables associated with perceived information quality ratings and the validity of the underlying factor structure of information quality dimensions.

An online survey was conducted to assess information quality of e-government websites among a sample of university-educated citizens in Bangladesh. Descriptive statistics were obtained to examine respondents' ratings on information quality of these websites on a five-point Likert scale. A multiple linear regression model was applied to determine the effect of demographic and Internet use variables associated with information quality ratings on e-government websites. Finally, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to determine the underlying factor structure of information quality dimensions.

The findings revealed that the ratings on most information quality items were close to 4.00 on a five-point scale, indicating a generally high information quality of Bangladesh e-government websites. Out of 20 information quality dimensions, value-added and authority were the two top-rated information quality dimensions while security, completeness, reliability, advertisement, relevance and ease of use were the least rated dimensions. The results of multiple regression suggested that gender, age and the device used for accessing the Internet were significantly associated with information quality of e-government websites. The CFA results indicated that information quality dimensions corroborate the factor structure of information quality dimensions used in earlier studies, although the model fit statistics were not fully validated.

The focus of this study was confined to university-educated citizens in Bangladesh. Therefore, the results of this study may not be generalized to other demographic groups in Bangladesh or elsewhere.

This paper can provide guidelines for developing high-quality, informative and citizen-centric e-government websites and suggest ways on how these websites can be evaluated for information quality.

This study is the first to examine the information quality of e-government websites from the citizens' perspective in Bangladesh. The findings of this paper can assist responsible government agencies in making the websites more informative and useful for a diverse group of users.

The purpose of this paper is to use scholarly communication and citation data to rank the universities in a developing country perspective in Bangladesh.

This paper used publication and citation data from Scopus to rank the universities in Bangladesh. The number of papers published in each year during 2008-2018 by the select 33 universities, faculty per capita, the two-year citations and the number cited articles were used to arrive at a yearly weighted score and overall score for each university. The overall score was used to produce the ranking of the universities in Bangladesh.

The findings indicate that the ranking system can be implemented at the national level as an annual exercise to rank the higher education institutions in developing country perspective.

This is the first time an effort has been made to rank the universities in Bangladesh using publication and citation data. The findings of this paper could help policymakers, administrators and academicians to understand how the universities are performing in terms of scholarly activities.

The main aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which the major public university libraries in Bangladesh are meeting students' service expectations through analyzing LibQUAL+ core items.

The survey data were obtained from students using a paper version of the questionnaire consisting of LibQUAL+ core 22 service items at four top-ranked public universities in Bangladesh. Students rated the items on three service levels each using a nine-point scale: Minimum level, Desired level and Perceived Level. Descriptive statistics, i.e. mean and SD were obtained and service adequacy gap (SAG) scores between perceived and minimum levels were computed to see whether the libraries are meeting students' minimum expectation. Non-parametric Wilcoxon sign rank test was conducted to examine the differences between minimum and perceived scores. Finally, Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis tests were conducted to see the effect of students' demographic variables on their ratings on minimum and perceived scores.

The findings revealed that the service performances of major university libraries are lagging far behind from students' minimum expectation (minimum > perceived). There are significant differences between minimum and perceived scores. Significant differences are also found in students' gender, age and enrolment level concerning their ratings on minimum and perceived service levels.

The result of this study analyzes the service quality of major university libraries in Bangladesh. These findings can be used to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the library services.

LibQUAL+ has been used mostly in academic libraries in developed countries but this is for the first time a paper-version of the instrument was used in university libraries in Bangladesh.

This paper aims to investigate the use of smartphones for academic purposes by students at Dhaka University, the top-ranked university in Bangladesh.

Students currently using smartphones answered a questionnaire survey, which focused on whether or not students used smartphones for academic works and, if so, for what purposes they used them and their opinion on the advantages of using smartphones for academic purposes. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze demographic and academic characteristics of the students in relation to their smartphone usage. Non-parametric analyses were performed using Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis tests to compare between students’ demographic and academic variables and their opinion on the advantages of academic use of smartphones.

The findings indicate that a vast majority of university students used smartphones for academic purposes. They, on average and across the board, had a positive perception toward academic use of smartphones. Although there were some differences in terms of gender, age, place of origin and duration of smartphone use, these differences were largely due to fact that a smartphone is a relatively new addition to the life of most students who participated in this study.

Research investigating the academic use of smartphones in the perspective of developing countries is virtually non-existent. This is the first time an effort has been made to examine the use of smartphones by a large sample of university students in Bangladesh.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Library and Information Science (LIS) students’ understanding of infodemic and related terminologies and their ability to categorize COVID-19-related problematic information types using examples from social media platforms.

The participants of this study were LIS students from a public-funded university located at the south coast of Bangladesh. An online survey was conducted which, in addition to demographic and study information, asked students to identify the correct definition of infodemic and related terminologies and to categorize the COVID-related problematic social media posts based on their inherent problem characteristics. The correct answer for each definition and task question was assigned a score of “1”, whereas the wrong answer was coded as “0”. The percentages of correctness score for total and each category of definition and task-specific questions were computed. The independent sample t-test and ANOVA were run to examine the differences in total and category-specific scores between student groups.

The findings revealed that students’ knowledge concerning the definition of infodemic and related terminologies and the categorization of COVID-19-related problematic social media posts was poor. There was no significant difference in correctness scores between student groups in terms of gender, age and study levels.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time an effort was made to understand LIS students’ recognition and classification of problematic information. The findings can assist LIS departments in revising and improving the existing information literacy curriculum for students.