Cd-rom Databases As Information Sources For African Resb-archers A Ease Study Of The Cd-rom Service At Addis Ababa University Library System.

This thesis is a result of the study that was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of CDROMrndatabases in meeting the research and teaching needs of African researchers, takingrnAddis Ababa University Libraries as a case study. The study was carried out by meansrnof a survey in order to get a user appraisal on how their needs for current informationrnwere being met through the CD· ROM search facilities available in the UniversityrnLibraries.rnThe survey results showed that the service was being underutilized, the major contributingrnfactor oeing, tne lack of awareness abourllie existence of the service-. - The m~tlro-d'nharrnthe Libraries had employed in publicizing CD· ROM were proved to have been ineffectivernand users suggested how the Libraries could improve the publicity of the service.rnAlthough the number of staff and students who had actually used CD·ROM facilities wasrnvery small in proportion to the entire user population, their satisfaction rate was very lowrnand they pointed out certain weaknesses ot the service and recommended measures to berntaken in order to redress the situation.rnThe respondents who had not used CD-ROM service in the Addis Ababa UniversityrnLibrary System expressed a desire to utilize available databases . The majority of thernrespondents were in favour of sustaining CD· ROM even at the expense of journalrnsubscription and they also overwhelmingly welcomed the idea to have them pay for therndelivery of full text articles provided this would quench their hunger for currentrninformation.rnAfrican university libraries have been urged to carry out periodic evaluations of the CDROMrnservice in order to determine the extent to which it contributes to the fulfilment ofrnthe research and teaching needs of the institutions.rnOn the basis of the analysis of the survey results recommendations have been made to thernend of ensuring effective and appropriate utilization of CD-ROM databases. Thernrecommendations include a systematic and consistent User Education Programme,rnincluding orientation of users on the CD-ROM Service and demonstrations; training ofrnmanpower on how to conduct literature searches on CD-ROM; locating the workstationsrnwere they are visible and approachable by users rather than putting them in the basementrnor offices; and tlie enac men of a policyOl1information- to- g-overnl helltilization ofrnavailable information resources and services, including the effective and appropriate usernof CD-ROM databases . In order to save time for the users, it has been recommended thatrndatabases be created on the articles received through document delivery and that these firstrnbe checked before conducting the search on the CD-ROM databases.

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