Student Intention to Use Online Library Services of a Locked-Down University: A Quantitative Study

Literature Review

An online library is a library without walls in which a significant proportion of the resources does not exist in tangible form but is accessible electronically. An online library is a collection of services that supports users in creating, dealing and sharing information and organization/presentation of information objects. The collection of information artifacts is available for access via digital format. There are various services provided by online libraries including remote reference services. Online library services offer multiple advantages including quick addition to the collection, quality control, Improved search, quicker access to information, and reduced bureaucracy (Ameen et al., 2019). Online libraries are highly dynamic and able to hold inter-linked, multimedia objects as well. Online libraries support documents and significant meta-data which can be extracted automatically. From access control point of view, online libraries can be distributed and ubiquitous and their physical/logical organizations can be separated (Chung et al., 2010). Online libraries can support multiple layers of access control. Online libraries can support two-way user-communication and quick interaction. Online libraries support symmetric search, complex interactions, navigation, and social filtering (Sharon & Frank, 2020; Asabere et al., 2021).