INFORMATION USAGE PATTERN OF STUDENTS IN SELECTED MEDICAL COLLEGES OF COIMBATORE CITY: AN IMPACT ANALYSIS

Application of ICT in library and information work has revolutionized the traditional concept of libraries from a ‘storehouse of books to an intellectual information centre' connoting the concept of electronic or digital library. It has opened up a new chapter in library communication and facilitated global access to information crossing the geographical limitations. Using ICT, libraries are also playing a very important role in facilitating access to global information and knowledge resources.The paper explores the impact of ICT based resources and services available in three medical libraries on the undergraduate students. A total 50 questionnaires each were distributed to the medical students of the three colleges by convenient sampling to represent the overall population. The total number of responses received back from the users was 120 with a response rate of 80%. The findings revealed that Research purposes were found to be the most used option for respondents on the purpose of using ICT tools and services which amounts to 71.67 percent. Also use of e-resources witnessed that e-books were found to be the most used amongst various e-resources which accounts for 70 percent. The other used resources include e-journals (56.67%), e-magazines and e-newspapers (42.5% each), etc.