Investigating Effective Factors of User's Understanding of Digital Libraries (Case Study: Digital Library of Allameh Tabataba'i University)

The present study investigates the effective factors of user understanding of digital libraries with the case study of Digital Library of Allameh Tabataba'i University.

The method of research is descriptive – analytic of survey and in terms of target is functional. The statistical population of this study is all students of Allameh Tabataba'i University (18,000 students), of which 378 students were selected by Krejece of Table and simple random sampling method. To collect data, a researcher-made questionnaire was used in order to collect information. The questionnaire included 3 demographic questions (gender, digital library experience and educational level) and 8 components with 25 package questions: system quality, information quality, service quality, usefulness, ease of use, Digital Library Affinity, user satisfaction and user loyalty. For data analysis, t-test, independent t-test and ANOVA were used at a significance level of α = 0.05.

The findings of this study showed that all factors affecting students' perceptions of digital library were significantly different. There is no significant difference in understanding of digital library of Allameh Tabataba'i University in terms of gender and educational level. But there is a significant difference between students' attitudes towards understanding the digital library and the experience of using their digital library.

The results of the study show the overall effect of the students' perceptions of the digital library of Allameh Tabataba'i University, and each of these components of understanding can be defined according to different models in different environments.