AWARENESS AND USE OF OPEN ACCESS RESOURCES AMONG THE STUDENTS OF SELECTED ENGINEERING INSTITUTIONS IN TELANGANA STATE: A SURVEY

The study is an attempt of assessing the awareness and use of open access resources among the students of selected engineering institutions in Telangana state by a survey of 766 participants through a questionnaire. It was found that the level of awareness on the open access resources meant for academic related activities is quite encouraging. In addition, the open access resources accessible through online have been well utilized. The use of academic social networking sites, open access journals, e-books, online lecture videos, etc was found to be quite encouraging. However, a meager portion of the respondents expressed that they did not use open access resources while another portion of the respondents revealed that they were not even aware of some open access resources. Majority of the respondents have used very little some important sources which are very essential for academic and research purposes such as Plagiarism Detection Tools, Manuscript Editing Tools, and Reference Management Tools. The respondents also had some constraints in using open access resources such as inadequate search facility, Lack of up-to-date information, Slow and hidden feedback, Lack of subject coverage, Nonavailability of full text, and Lack of Speed.