A study to assess agricultural E-resource use and its impacts within the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture consortium

Electronic resources (E-resources) enable students, lecturers, librarians and researchers, to conduct multiple searches, print citations and full text and access publications remotely through hyperlinks to related content. These processes are important to advance published research. Despite existing challenges in information services, recent research reveals that e-resources can positively impact research techniques and skills, successful acquisition of contracts and grants, increase the number of published papers and citations and raise the number of graduating doctoral students. Through the Centre for Applied Biosciences International (CABI) and the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) collaboration, over 32 universities in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa have gratis privileged access to CAB Abstracts and CABI Compendia, effectively reducing constraints associated with high subscription costs. This case study supplements earlier research on similar initiatives under Research 4 Life and INASP’s Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERii) by evaluating awareness, access, use and impacts of CAB Abstracts and CABI Compendia within the RUFORUM consortium. This case study will investigate the impact of e-resource usage among lecturers, librarians, researchers and students in 32 agricultural universities in Africa The study objectives will aim at; (1) Determining awareness and use of CAB Abstracts and CABI Compendia (2) Determining the impacts of CAB Abstracts and CABI Compendia with a focus on the amount of time saved when conducting research and the effect on teaching and research. (3) Identifying factors influencing access and use of CAB Abstracts and CABI Compendia. The study aims to use purposive sampling. A total of three hundred respondents from 10 Universities that participated in CABI training sessions will be selected to respond to online surveys for data collection. Findings from the case study will be useful in developing strategy to enhance awareness, access and use of e-resources by Africa’s Tertiary Agricultural Institutions.