Factors influencing on acceptance of digital library by faculty members of agricultural educational and research institutions in Guilan Province

Digital libraries have become an inevitable part of higher education and research institutions. Though the exorbitant costs are spent on access and utilization of them, research findings indicates potential users may still be ignoring them. This study assesses influencing factors on acceptance and intention of academic staff of agricultural higher education and research institutions in using of digital library based on original model designed by Venkatesh et al. (2003); a model called “The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology” (UTAUT). The model has four independent constructs of performance expectance, effort expectance, social influence and facilitating conditions; four moderator variables of gender, age, experience and voluntariness of use and together influence the dependent constructs of behavioral intentions, usage behavior. In this regard a descriptive survey for studding 85 faculty members of agricultural educational and research institutes, who were selected by disproportional stratified sampling method, was used. The validity of the questionnaire was approved by experts’ opinion. The estimated reliability, using Cronbach’s Alpha, was 0.78, which was an acceptable reliability. The collected data were analyzed using statistical, Partial squares least technique, SPSS and SPLS software tools. The results showed that effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions variables are effective factors on use of digital library.