Browsing by Author "Markwei, E.D."
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Item Awareness and Use of the Internet by Academic Staff and Students of the University Of Ghana(University of Ghana, 2001-10) Markwei, E.D.The aim of the study was 10 find the extent of awareness and use of the Internet and its sources by academic staff and postgraduate students of the University of Ghana. The purposes for. motivations. the limitations and barriers in using the Internet were explored; so were the differences in use among staff, students, and faculty. The survey method was used. Questionnaires were distributed to 175 academic Staff and 216 postgraduate students. One hundred and twenty three (123) and 121 usable responses were received from staff and students respectively. The responses have been presented and analyzed. The main findings of the study indicate that, both staff and students are fully aware of the Internet and most of its services. Academic staff in general use the lnternet and its services more than students. However. both staff and students from the science faculty use the Internet and its services more than those from the Arts and Social Science facu lties. The study also established that, among the services. Email is highly used by both staff and students. The main motivation far using the Internet is communication with friends and colleagues; and the main limitation in Internet usage is slow data transmission in the case of staff, and difficulty in locating information in the case students. The main barriers to using the Internet arc: frequeat1y disrupted service and inadequate time available to users for accessing the net. A significant relationship has been established between Internet use and age of student, faculty of student, and computer usage of both staff and students Both staff and students found the Internet a very useful resource that. provides them with information in their subject fields. The main reason for non-use of the Internet is inadequate training The study recommended among others, the training of staff and students to use specific tools to ensure effective use of the internet in all their academic pursuits.Item Everyday life information seeking behaviour of urban homeless youth(University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, CA, 2013-03) Markwei, E.D.Youth homelessness, or the issue of street children, is a growing phenomenon in cities across the world, including Sub - Saharan Africa. Homeles s youth, like all adolescents, deserve relevant information for successful transition to adulthood and for mastery of the challenges of homelessness. The pre - requisite for efficient provision of quality information services to any group is knowledge and un derstanding of their everyday life information seeking (ELIS) behaviour. The main objectives of this study of homeless youth in the market area of Accra, Ghana are to investigate their information needs, sources of information, patterns and problems encoun tered in information seeking and to determine how libraries and other stakeholders can meet their information needs. The study adopted the interpretive tradition and the ethnographic methodology. The field activities involved recruitment of 41 homeless you th, comprising 22 males and 19 females, ages 15 to 18 years using a snowball sampling procedure, collection of data using the critical incident technique and in - depth interviews, transcription of recorded interviews, and identification of categories and th emes from participant interviews through content analysis using the NVivo qualitative data analysis software. The findings revealed eleven categories of needs comprising physiological, safety, esteem and sel f - actualization needs. P referred sources of infor mation are primarily interpersonal. Other sources are television, radio, print media and libraries. Information seeking patterns include active and passive searching, passive attention, and a heavy reliance on a social network of fr iends. Barriers to meeti ng information needs include cost, lack of education, lack of time, lack of access to relevant information and educational infrastructure, information poverty, powerlessness, and lack of confidence. iii The study is significant in many ways. It is the first st udy of ELIS behaviour of homeless youth in Africa. It makes a new proposition that, in an environment of limited information resources , people rely on their social networks to meet their information needs. The findings of the study add to knowledge and und erstanding of youth information seeking behaviour and ELIS of y outh, especially homeless youth . They have implications for information dissemination and public library after - school programs and policies to facilitate provision of services and information r esources for homeless youth in Ghana.Item The Impact of Social Media on Ghanaian Youth: A Case Study of the Nima and Maamobi Communities in Accra, Ghana(The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults, 2016-06) Markwei, E.D.; Appiah, D.Social media has been widely adopted in the twenty-first century, with high enthusiasm among youth around the world. Research on new media practices in Ghana has been described as wide open, with very few studies focusing on youth social media use. The main objectives of this study were to investigate the extent of social media use and the purposes, access, and challenges of its use by the young people of Nima and Maamobi, two suburbs of Accra, Ghana. One hundred fifty youth ages 11–19 and five adult Internet café attendants participated in the study. The findings revealed patterns of young people’s social media use consistent with similar studies of youth in other countries, with high use among the youth in these two economically and educationally disadvantaged communities. The study revealed the need for young people to have a greater awareness of the risks of social media use. The conclusions include recommendations for nationwide education of youth in Ghana about responsible use of social media, with policy and educational interventions led by multiple stakeholders, including school and public libraries and government agencies, to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of social media use among Ghanaian youth.Item Impacts of Information and Communication Technology on Libraries in Ghana: A review(Library Philosophy and Practice, 2019-09-24) Markwei, E.D.; Bilson, A.P.K.E.The purpose of this article was to provide a review of literature on the impacts of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on Libraries in Ghana. Some of the ICT impacts identified were in the area of cataloguing and classification, online public access catalogue, acquisitions, video conferencing, web 2.0 and social media tools, online searching and retrieval, electronic resources, digitization, electronic/digital libraries and institutional repositories, library website, indexing and abstracting, technical services, bibliographic instruction/library instruction, mobile digital library, interlibrary loan and document delivery, information access and video and photo libraries. Our review indicates that despite the tremendous changes brought about by ICT to Ghanaian libraries, they are still faced with a lot of challenges that needs to be addressed to enable these libraries to operate efficiently to provide the required information resources to its users. It also proposes recommendations for policy makers especially management of institutions with libraries, practitioners especially Librarians, researchers, students and all others who have an interest in library activities. Some of these recommendations include the provision of funding for ICT equipment and infrastructure, maintenance and updating of ICT equipment, training of users and staff, involvement of Management in ICT related issues in libraries, provision of uninterrupted power supply supplemented with standby generators and the provision of fast and uninterrupted bandwidth.Item Internet awareness and use in the University of Ghana(Information development, 2005-12) Badu, E.E.; Markwei, E.D.Reports on a study to find the extent of awareness and use of the Internet and its resources by academic staff and postgraduate students of the University of Ghana. The purposes for which Internet resources were used and respondents’ perceptions of the usefulness of the Internet were also explored. The main findings indicate that both staff and students are fully aware of the Internet and most of its services. Academic staff in general use the Internet resources more than students. However apart from e-mail, frequencies of use of Internet resources are very low. The study established that e-mail is highly used by both staff and students. Both staff and students found the Internet a very useful resource. The main reason for non-use of the Internet is inadequate training. Both staff and students need appropriate education and training of to ensure effective use of the Internet in all their academic pursuits.Item Marketing Library Services in Selected Private Universities in Ghana(University of Ghana, 2016-07) Lamptey, W.O.; Markwei, E.D.; Alemna, A.A.; University of Ghana, College of Education, School of Information and Communication Studies, Department of Information StudiesDespite the huge investments made by libraries into building their collections, studies have shown that these collections remain underutilized. This situation, coupled with declining library budgets, as well as growing competition between libraries and other information providers, has compelled libraries to adopt effective marketing approaches in order to continually remain visible and relevant. The adoption of marketing in libraries has been found to bring about numerous benefits to libraries hence its increased adoption among libraries worldwide. This study investigated the attitudes of library staff towards the marketing of library services in selected private universities, available marketing strategies and plans, and how they are applied in the promotion of their services to patrons. A total of 21 professional and para-professional library staff from three private universities participated in the study. The main data collection instrument was semi structured interviews used to elicit information about their knowledge of marketing, existing marketing policies, attitudes towards marketing, strategies used in marketing and the challenges encountered in marketing of services and resources. Data gathered was analysed thematically. The findings revealed that the study participants are fully aware of benefits of inculcating marketing activities into their daily routines and were making efforts at making their users aware of their products and services with the use of various strategies including social media. Some of the challenges that hindered the success of marketing in the libraries are lack of funds, lack of knowledge of marketing techniques by staff and a lack of marketing policy to guide marketing in the libraries. Creation of marketing policies, organization of seminars on marketing for library staff as well as proactively advocating for more funds from the right people within the university community is suggested to improve marketing of their services and resources.Item Reading outside the library: how the Internet has affected reading in China(Information Development, 2005) Badu, E.E.; Markwei, E.D.; Huang, Q.Edited version of a paper presented at the World Library and Information Congress, 69th IFLA General Conference, Berlin, Germany, 1–8 August 2003. There are already more than 20.83 million host computers and 59.10 million Internet users in China. Most of them get access to the Internet at home, office or school, and a few at the library. Their needs for e-books or science and education are among what they mostly searched for through the Internet. It has been predicated that a lot of reading is done outside the library. How has the Internet been used to encourage reading in China? This paper looks at three noticeable ways starting from news online, digital journals and e-books, the printed editions of which are the main categories of traditional publications. It is also pointed out what would improve reading further, and how traditional publishing and libraries have been affected.Item Services, resources and benefits of the Internet available to academics in Ghana(Ghana Library Journal, 2002) Markwei, E.D.The internet, or the International network of computers, offers many services and resources which academics in Ghana can exploit to enhance their academic pursuits. The paper discusses some of these services, namely e-mail, telnet, ftp, Archie, newsgroups, and information discovery services like gopher, WAIS, search engines, directories and information gateways. The benefits to be derived from the use of the Internet by different categories of academics, particularly lecturers, students, administrators, researchers, librarians among others, are discussed. The major benefit is access to information on any conceivable subject located on library catalogues, online databases, newsgroups etc. These sources abound on the Internet for scholarly work. Other benefits are book selection medium, acquisitions, and virtual universities.