The use of the internet and e‐mail among Sudanese librarians: a survey report

The objective of this research paper is to assess how the internet is used, in particular for email‐based library services in Sudan.

This research is based on primary data: a structured field survey was conducted among six information institutions in Sudan. Because the number of librarians in these institutions was thought manageable, all librarians in the selected institutions were surveyed. The response rate reached 88.1 per cent. The SPSS package was used for data analysis, and the alpha value found to be 79 per cent.

The major patterns of internet use were: chat sessions; checking e‐mails; and surfing professional sites. The majority of the sample did not utilize email for library services as such. The low use of internet resources for library services was due to inadequate access and inadequate time that can be devoted to internet activity, rather than a matter of lacking skills per se. But it was also found that there was a real need for training on using internet for library services. Moreover, lack of English language skills were a factor: findings indicated that there is a positive correlation between the level of English language proficiency and the level of using the internet.

For practical reasons the fieldwork data was collected only from Khartoum state. More research work could be done in the other major cities to complete the view. More studies are needed to highlight the nature of internet training needs, and user attitudes that influence the current patterns of internet use.

This paper is an original work that fills a gap in the literature about the use of the internet among the Sudanese librarians. This paper is of value to practitioner librarians and researchers, while LIS instructors may use the research results to develop the LIS syllabus and curriculums.