Browsing by Author "Jing, Chen"

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    Gender and cognitive factors influencing information seeking of graduate students at Kenyatta University Library
    (2020-07) Masinde, Johnson M.; Wambiri, Daniel M.; Jing, Chen
    Background: Gender has been identified as a possible influencing factor in users’ information- seeking process. Previous studies have alluded to the fact that gender as a variable may be useful for a better understanding of the cognitive and social background of human information processing and may have important implications in the information-seeking process. Although a number of studies have investigated gender, amongst other variables, as having an effect on the information-seeking process of users, no attempt has been made to investigate the relationship between gender and cognitive factors on the information-seeking patterns of graduate students of Kenyatta University Library. Objective: The study investigates gender and cognitive factors influencing the information- seeking process of graduate students at Kenyatta University Library. Methodology: To achieve this objective, the study developed a theoretical framework which can be used by academic libraries as a basis for implementing both digital and reference desk services in order to meet the dynamic user needs. The study then investigated whether there were any gender differences through the correlation coefficient in the context of expectancy theory. The motivational process amongst the male and female users was then examined to establish whether there was any difference. Results: This study found no gender difference in all the variables considered, including interaction service quality, outcome (need satisfaction,) service satisfaction, users’ performance of service, past experience, expectancy and effort. Conclusion: This study found no gender difference in all the variables investigated. The implication of the findings was that there is no need for mainstreaming gender in service programming in the library service.
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    Researchers’ Perceptions of Research Data Management Activities at an Academic Library in a Developing Country
    (2021-12) Masinde, Johnson M.; Jing, Chen; Muthee, Daniel W.
    This study investigated researchers’ perceptions of RDM activities at the Mahatma Gandhi Graduate Research Library (MGGL) to recommend measures to enhance managing, sharing, and reusing research data. The study was underpinned by the DCC curation lifecycle model and the community capability model framework (CCMF), which enabled the investigator to employ a descriptive research design to capture data from a broad cross-section of 330 researchers purposively. The data was analyzed using SPSS to generate descriptive and inferential statistics that enabled the investigator to address the research problem. Though the library had policies on research data, quality assurance, and intellectual property, study findings evidenced no explicit policies to guide each stage of data curation and capabilities. There were also inadequacies in the knowledge and skills capability, technological infrastructure, and collaborative partnerships. Overall, RDM faced challenges in all examined capabilities. The study recommends establishing an RDM unit within the library to oversee the implementation of RDM activities.