Julie Mohedano

LIS 708

14 December 2021

An Analysis of MLIS Students’ Use of Online Databases

In the modern era, online databases are a staple of research in higher education institutions. Nonetheless,

many students rely on only the databases they are most familiar with or even avoid using them altogether,

focusing on sources found through other online search methods. This seems to be the case, even when students

are explicitly taught in classes about how to conduct effective database research. While research has been done

on students’ satisfaction with databases, there is no existing literature that focuses on students in the library

science field. It is important to assess the confidence in database usage of students in the library field as they

themselves may go on to instruct others on database usage, especially if they go on to work at school or

academic libraries. Even in a public library setting, librarians are often responsible for assisting patrons with

research. This may involve instructing patrons on how to use databases or utilizing them to conduct research on

behalf of patrons. Therefore, it is imperative that those looking to work in libraries and information

organizations be knowledgeable and confident regarding online database usage. To try to understand what may

stop Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) students at Dominican University from fully utilizing

the wide ranges of online databases available to them, this study sought out answers to the following research

questions:

1. What are the challenges that MLIS students face when using databases?

2. Does the number of MLIS credit hours taken impact users’ confidence in database searching?

Literature Review

Previous research that has focused on user satisfaction with surveys has highlighted populations such as

undergraduates, students in the sciences, and even faculty. Yet, there is no existing literature focusing on

students of library sciences.

Faculty Use of Databases

 As research is an important aspect of the work done by faculty in academic institutions, studies have

been done on faculty’s use and understanding of online databases. The fact that faculty may also have a hand in

teaching students how to utilize online databases must also be considered. Atakan et al. (2008) found that over

time, faculty understanding, and usage of databases increased when comparing results from two surveys

conducted at Ankara University. Research conducted at Israeli universities by Bar-Ilan et al. (2003) involved

analyzing data already collected by library systems to determine faculty’s use of online resources. Faculty were

also surveyed, with 50% stating that they find electronic services indispensable, a number that is sure to have

grown. Khan et al. (2009) conducted research to find out how often faculty used online databases at two

universities in New Delhi, India. Results showed that faculty frequently used databases, primarily for the

purposes of updating their knowledge and conducting research.

Student Use of and Familiarity with Databases

Research confirms that students’ lack of database usage tends to be connected to lack of knowledge

about databases. Chukwu and Njoku (2018) found this to be the case when they surveyed students at the Federal

University of Technology Owerri in Nigeria. Lack of awareness of databases and lack of access to technology

to use them were the main reasons for low database usage in this postgraduate student population. Islam and

Shiekh (2020) surveyed students at a university in Pakistan and found that postgraduate students’ computer self-

efficacy has a direct impact on how useful they perceive online databases and how easy they find it to use

databases. Thus, an importance must be placed on building general computer skills so that students can fully

utilize online databases. Tlaluka and Fombad (2017) similarly found that students could use more training

regarding databases. The undergraduate students interviewed showed a low-level awareness of electronic

resources in general, confusing databases for other types of resources and heavily favoring only two databases,

SABINET and EBSCOhost. Ukachi (2015) found similar results when surveying students and interviewing

university librarians in Nigeria. It was found that use of electronic resources was low and there was a

correlation between this and students’ information literacy skills.

Research has also been done with methods beyond surveying, with existing data consulted to analyze the

use of online databases. Tripathi and Kumar (2014) looked at data that is already collected by e-resource service
providers to assess popularity of different resources. Looking at the number of downloads allowed for the most

popular databases to be identified. It was also clear that overall electronic resources were gaining popularity and

they were utilized more during periods such as before exams, proving that they are being used for academic

purposes. Beyond simply looking at database use from the perspective of user knowledge, the design of the

databases themselves can also be analyzed and considered a factor that may affect how useful they are to users.

Research on Database Design and Usability

Research on the design of research databases has generally been done through usability studies where

subjects are given tasks to complete using online resources. Imler and Eichelberger (2014) had students perform

usability tasks and the low level of success was attributed to the differing layouts from database to database.

Only 25% of students that took part in the study were able to successfully complete all the tasks, which each

involved printing the full text of an article. Unsuccessful completion occurred when students printed an abstract

instead of the full text. When asked to define terms such as abstract, most students could do so. Thus, it was

concluded that the design of the databases themselves led to the students’ failure to find the full text of articles

as each database used had different wording and placement that led from the abstract to the full text. Vilar and

Zumer (2008) did a two-part study where they surveyed both experts and everyday users about features of

information retrieval systems. When surveying everyday users, they found that many functions such as search

history and indexes were not even used much by these users. What was considered “user friendly” varied

greatly in each database analyzed due to the databases having such differing interfaces.

Haggerty and Scott (2019) similarly utilized a usability study to assess the search box and interface at

the University Libraries at the University of Memphis, which offers a search box with tabs that can be used to

search different online resources. Undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and staff all took part in

this study. The subjects were asked to find 6 specific resources and then to search for general topics of interest

while thinking aloud, allowing researchers to get their opinions of the native search functionality and resources.

The users fared better when simply using the quick search function, partially because if searching for a direct

resource by name this path takes less clicks. Those who tried to use more specialized search functions ran into

issues of specificity, for example, by searching for an article title in the search box for journal titles. Discussion
with participants suggested that most would prefer the search options to be simplified, with only one search box

and no tabs or links underneath this box.

Cassidy et al. (2014) had all students in their study search for the same items but while divided into three

groups with different tools. One group was told to use only the equivalent of a quick search function; one had

this same function but with the option to search keywords, titles, and authors; and the last group had no quick

search function and had to choose what type of search to make. Less than half of the students were able to

successfully complete each task, with only one completing all tasks correctly. Student confidence was much

higher than the reality, with most saying they felt they had completed the tasks correctly. Some reasons for low

success rate were identified as confusing labels on results, such as books and book reviews being denotated by a

book icon, and use of jargon students did not understand to identify sources as many were unsure of the

difference between periodical and journal articles, for example. Thus, in this study, a combination of issues with

the database search system itself and students’ lack of knowledge culminated in difficulty using the search

functions.

While the scope of our research does not allow us to do usability tests, the findings related to why

students struggled with database use can still be used with information from the other types of studies to try to

gain a full picture of database usage. As MLIS students may be in positions where they themselves become

instructors on how to use databases, it is especially important that they are comfortable and confident in their

electronic database usage.

Method Statement

Theoretical Perspective & Methodology

The theoretical perspective that most applies to our research is interpretivism. Crotty (1998) states that

interpretivism “looks for culturally derived and historically situated interpretations of the social life-world.”

Another important aspect of interpretivism is that it does not seek one objective truth. There is no hypothesis

being used in this research and interpretation applies to both participants when looking at the survey questions

and researchers when looking at the data. The methodology used in this study is survey research methodology.
Data will be created from answers to survey questions which will then be analyzed utilizing statistics. Said

statistics will then be interpreted in order to attempt to answer our research questions.

Demographics

The data for this survey was gathered from the Fall 2021 offering of the course LIS 708 at Dominican

University. The survey was sent to all the MLIS students in this course, with a total of 7 completing the survey.

Demographic questions on the final survey were minimal as this was not a major focus of our research. One

respondent has already completed a master's degree, with the rest all stating their highest completed degree as

an undergraduate degree. Most respondents, five (or about 71%) have completed their previous studies in the

field of humanities, with the other two respondents identifying their previous studies as in the realm of “social

sciences, social work, law,” which were listed together as one option. The options for fields of study were

adapted from those in the survey conducted by Bar-Ilan et al. (2003).

Students were also asked how many credit hours they have already completed in the MLIS program.

This question received more varied responses than the other demographic questions, with replies ranging from 6

to 24 hours. The mode number of credit hours taken was 24 hours, the median 18 hours, and the mean

17.14285714 hours. While the mode is 24, the data set is small, so this was only the given answer by two

respondents whereas every other respondent gave a different answer, all lower than 24. Per the Dominican

University website (n.d.) the MLIS degree is completed at 36 hours. The mean, median, and mode of this data

suggest that most respondents are at least about halfway through earning their MLIS degree.

Methods

The survey was created on a Google Forms document which allowed for data to be exported to Google

Sheets for analysis. Prior to being sent out to the full LIS 708 class, a pilot version of the survey was taken by

the four members of the Database Group. After adjustments were made and an Informed Consent section was

added, the survey was sent out to the rest of the class. Beyond the Informed Consent section, all survey

questions were presented in one section. Firstly, ten Likert-scale questions were presented, with 1 representing

disagree and 5 representing agree. After this, three demographic questions were asked in the form of questions

with set answers that could be selected. All questions were required to complete the survey. Responses were
anonymous, with the date and time of completion collected by Google Forms being the only identifying factor

for each respondent. The full survey can be reviewed in the appendices. Data that was exported to Google

Forms was primarily analyzed quantitatively as the Likert-scale responses were converted to numbers.

Limitations

The primary limitation in this study was the small sample size. The LIS 708 class does not consist of

that many students to begin with, and they did not all complete the survey, resulting in only seven respondents.

In general, larger samples are better as small samples “will not be representative of the population” (Matthews,

2018, p. 59). Additionally, the usage of one single survey with primarily Likert-scale questions produces limited

results. While the researchers considered having some open-ended questions on the survey, the scope of our

research assignment led us to determine that this would make analysis more difficult. While having quantitative

data that results from Likert-scale questions makes for more straightforward analysis, it also gives respondents a

limited avenue to express their feelings on the survey’s topic. Additionally, as discussed in the literature review,

the lack of usability tests means that we are only able to analyze how respondents feel about their database

usage skills rather than observing and analyzing the true extent of their database usage skills.

Findings

This section discusses the data results from the survey that was completed by seven MLIS students.

Though the questions were all listed in one section, they can be divided into the following categories ease of

database use and potential barriers during database use. Responses were analyzed through the usage of mean,

median, mode, and standard deviation.

Ease of Database Use

The survey opened with questions asking if students find databases easy to use and if they can easily

find what they are looking for on a database. Most respondents agreed or strongly agreed with both statements,

“I find library databases easy to use” (mean=3.71, median=4, mode=4, SD=1.11) and “I can easily find what I

am looking for on a database” (mean=3.57, median=4, mode=4, SD=0.98). As can be seen from the standard

deviation, most respondents answered between 3-5, showing that they were neutral or in agreement with only
one respondent choosing 2 as the response to both statements, indicating disagreement. This data indicates that

most MLIS students find databases easy to use.

Later in the survey, students were asked about their comfort level with database features such as limiters

and facets. Two similar questions were posed about whether students feel comfortable using such features to

narrow down lists of results and when developing queries. In the case of these questions, agreement was the

most common answer. Answers to both were in fact identical, resulting in both questions having a mean of 3.71,

median of 4, mode of 4, and standard deviation of 0.49. While responses were clustered closer together, the vast

majority, five out of seven respondents (71%), chose 4, indicating agreement. None said that they strongly

agreed with these statements. This shows that while even more of the respondents are comfortable with the

usage of database features, none feel confident enough to state they “strongly agree" while some did feel that

level of confidence when answering the more general questions.

At the end of the survey, respondents were asked about their agreement to the statement “I can easily

find a full-text article when the full text for the resource is available via the database.” This question came about

after reading Imler and Eichelberger’s (2014) research which involved a usability study and found that many

students struggled to locate full texts, often printing out abstracts when asked to find specific works. As a

usability study was not within our scope, we attempted to see if respondents were confident in their ability to

locate full texts rather than abstracts. As with the other questions about ease of database use, most students felt

that they agreed with this statement. The mean, median, and mode were all 4, with a standard deviation of 1.

Most students, four out of seven (57%) responded with 4, indicating that they agreed with the statement. Two

others responded with 5, indicating that they strongly agreed. The remaining student was an outlier with a

response of 2, indicating disagreement. This once again shows that students overwhelmingly feel comfortable

using online databases.

Potential Barriers During Database Use

Several questions were asked about respondents’ access to technology needed to access online

databases. Respondents overwhelmingly strongly agreed with all these statements. Responses were identical

regarding the statements “I have reliable access to the internet” and “I have access to internet-enabled devices”
(mean=4.57, median=5, mode=5, SD=0.53). The third statement, “I have access to high download speeds”

(mean=4.14, median=5, mode=5, SD=1.21), still netted mostly strong agreement though there was greater

variety in answers. While most still answered this question with responses ranging from 3-5, one answer of 2

results in the higher standard deviation. These answers are in line with what one would expect from the small

sample demographic of master's students in the United States. While internet access is not a given throughout

the country, it is still more common than in many of the countries where other research on databases has been

conducted. Nonetheless, in order to work from the existing literature, we felt it was necessary to consider

internet access a potential barrier to database access.

Another possible barrier to database use that was identified in past research was lack of knowledge on

how to effectively utilize databases. In order to attempt to gauge respondents’ database knowledge, we

presented the statement “I have undergone prior database usage/ training.” This question had the greatest

standard deviation of the entire survey, 1.38. The mean was 3.29, median 3, and mode 2. This shows that

despite all being MLIS students at Dominican University, respondents have had varying levels of formal

training on how to utilize online databases. Three respondents (43%) disagreed with the statement, indicating

that they have received little or no formal database training. While bias may lead one to assume that those with

less training have less credit hours in the program, this is not the case as one of the respondents who disagreed

with this statement also reported that they have completed 24 credit hours in the MLIS program.

Lastly, we attempted to gauge if the databases themselves were a barrier to usage by presenting the

statement “I often find databases hard to access due to their interface or features being incompatible with my

physical and/or cognitive needs.” This question is of note in that it is the only one where disagreement denotes

confidence in database usage. The mean, median, and mode were all 2, with a standard deviation of 0.58.

Respondents overwhelmingly disagreed with this statement, with five of the seven (71%) choosing 2. The other

two respondents chose 1 (strongly disagree) and 3 (neutral), showing that none agreed with the statement.

The findings seem to indicate that the respondents all feel very comfortable with database usage.

Barriers identified by other researchers did not seem to apply to this sample demographic. The primary area
where there is inconsistency in the experiences of respondents is regarding formal database training, which

warrants further discussion.

Discussion

This study aimed to discern what challenges MLIS students may face during database usage along with

if the number of credit hours they have taken impacts their confidence in database usage. Limitations of the

survey being primarily made up of Likert-scale questions make these questions difficult to answer based on this

data alone.

What are the challenges that MLIS students face when using databases?

Much of the previous research done regarding barriers faced by database users was done in parts of the

world where access to high-speed internet is nowhere near as universal as it is in the United States. Thus,

common barriers identified in past research included simply being unable to access databases due to complete

lack of internet access, lack of computer access, and/or lack of high speeds when the internet was available. It

was not surprising that this barrier virtually did not exist for respondents to this survey, with only one answer

swaying towards disagreement given over all three questions that asked about technological barriers.

Similarly, respondents did not seem to have issues with other barriers identified in past research such as

database interfaces or features. Training on database usage was the only barrier that may have affected

respondents, though without a usability study it is not possible to fully gauge if those who indicated they had

less training struggle more with database usage. Overall, this research helps us determine some things that are

not challenges for this group of MLIS students, but without a usability study or open-ended questions directly

asking about students’ challenges.

Does the number of MLIS credit hours taken impact users’ confidence in database searching?

While respondents indicated that they had completed a wide range of different amounts of MLIS credit

hours, confidence in database searching was universal amongst all respondents. This makes it difficult to

consider correlations. The respondent with the lowest number of completed credit hours, 6, stated that they

strongly agreed that library databases are easy to use and agreed that they can find what they are looking for in

databases. This seems in direct contradiction to the presumption that fewer credit hours would equate lower
levels of database confidence. The two respondents with the highest number of credit hours, 24, stated

agreement and neutrality to the statement about finding databases easy to use and both were neutral regarding

the statement about easily finding what they are looking for in a database. These respondents therefore

expressed less confidence than the respondent with the fewest credit hours. This once again seems to contradict

the presumption that bias would lead to which would be that those with more credit hours would be more

confident in their database usage. With the small sample size, it is difficult to have much certainty with

answering the question, but with the data we do have it seems that the number of MLIS credit hours taken do

not impact users’ confidence in database searching.

Overall, the small sample size and limitations of using only one survey with mainly Likert-scale

questions make it difficult to concretely answer any research questions. Nonetheless, the survey found that

MLIS students at Dominican appear to be confident in their database searching skills, which is a good sign for

students who may someday be instructing others on database usage. Still, the inconsistency in formal database

training suggests that formal training should be incorporated into the curriculum. Further research with other

supplementary methods such as open-ended questions and usability testing could help with reaching more

concrete conclusions about online database usage, ideally leading to changes to databases themselves or how

students are taught about their use in order to make for more effective searching.
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 Appendix A

Informed Consent

Title of Research: An Analysis of MLIS Students’ Use of Online Databases

Investigators: Erin Haddad-Null, Julie Mohedano, Ivan J. Sanchez, Sarah Yarbrough - Dominican University

1. Introduction and Purpose of the Study

The goal of this study is to see what makes searching with databases difficult for MLIS students. To figure this

out, we are asking about what things about databases themselves might make it hard to use them and what

technology limitations students may have.

2. Description of the Research

You will complete this survey in order to take part in this research.

3. Subject Participation

MLIS students enrolled in LIS 708 section 01 in the Fall semester of 2021 will participate in this study.

4. Potential Risks and Discomforts

There are minimal risks to participants in this study. The survey does ask participants to disclose personal

information related to educational attainment. While survey responses are kept anonymous and confidential,

there is still a very minimal risk attached to sharing personal information.

5. Potential Benefits

People who participate in this study will help us understand ways to make database usage more effective for

MLIS students.

6. Confidentiality

Your responses are completely anonymous as the survey does not ask for any identifying information. Data will

be aggregated via Google Forms and will only be accessed by the investigators.

7. Voluntary Participation and Authorization

Your decision to participate in this study is completely voluntary. If you decide not to participate, it will not be

held against you in any way.

 Appendix B

Database Survey

Likert-Scale Questions,

1=Strongly Disagree

2=Disagree

3=Neutral

4=Agree

5=Strongly Agree

1. I find library databases easy to use.

2. I can easily find what I am looking for on a database.

3. I have reliable access to the internet.

4. I have access to high download speeds.

5. I have access to internet-enabled devices.

6. I have undergone prior database usage/ training.

7. I feel comfortable using database features (i.e. limiters, facets, etc.) to narrow down large results lists.

8. I feel comfortable using database features (i.e. limiters, facets, etc.) when developing queries.

9. I often find databases hard to access due to their interface or features being incompatible with my physical

and/or cognitive needs.

10. I can easily find a full-text article when the full text for the resource is available via the database.

11. Indicate highest level of completed education

_ Undergraduate

_ Master's

_ Doctoral

12. Indicate number of MLIS credit hours completed

_3

_6
 _9

_ 12

_ 15

_ 18

_ 21

_ 24

_ 27

_ 30+

13. Please indicate fields of completed study (more than one can be selected)

_ Humanities

_ Social sciences, social work, law

_ Sciences - math, physics, chemistry, earth sciences, teaching science education, applied

sciences

_ Life sciences, medicine, agriculture - biology, medicine, dental medicine, pharmacy, nursing,

agriculture, agricultural engineering

_ Engineering - computer science, engineering, architecture