AWARENESS AND USE OF OPEN ACCESS SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS AMONG THEOLOGICAL FACULTY MEMBERS IN KARNATAKA: A STUDY

This study assesses the level of awareness and attempts to understand faculty members' awareness and use of open access scholarly publications among 85 theological faculty members in Karnataka. It also identifies challenges faced by faculty members while accessing such open access resources as well as sources faculty members found helpful in discovering and learning to use such resources. This study has found that theological faculty members are partially aware of open access resources; Biblical Studies.org.uk and Google CSE are well known to them but the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) and Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) are less known to them. With regards to their use of Open Access Resources, Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) for theological journals and Biblical Studies (www.biblicalstudies.org.uk) are most used while INFLIBNET UGC Theses is not used. Participants identified the lack of relevant articles, scattered information and too many results as some of the problems faced while accessing Open Access Resources.