Exploring the effect of individual differences on user perceptions of print and electronic resources

Purpose – Individual differences are critical in determining how individuals think and behave in different ways. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of individual differences on users’ perceptions of print and electronic resources in terms of ease of use, usefulness and usage in the hopes that a better understanding of these effects can help Chinese university libraries to meet the diversified information needs of their users more specifically and appropriately so that the second-level capability divide and third-level outcome divide of library information resources can be much reduced. Design/methodology/approach – Data collected from 273 library users were used for data analysis. The independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and two-way ANOVA were employed. Meanwhile, the quantitative analysis is supplemented by the qualitative interviews which present richer data about the use of specific types of print and electronic resources. Findings – The effect of basic chara...

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