Non-users’ evaluation of digital libraries: A survey at the Universita degli studi di Milano

摘要

Presents the results of a questionnaire survey of non-users of the digital library services at the Universita degli Studi di Milano. The target audience for the survey comprised students, teaching staff and technicaladministrative staff of the university. The research focused on ‘factual non-users’, who used the service once and then decided to not use it any more. The results showed that factual non-users, despite of limited use of the digital library’s facilities, believed that they were familiar with the service and considered it to be satisfactory. They did not use it any more for various reasons, mainly because they did not need it any longer, or were currently using another service. Some weaknesses in the service were highlighted, in particular its lack of userfriendliness and the limited availability of material in some disciplines. The research also showed that the service was accessed for different reasons, including thesis preparation, research and keeping abreast, but also for personal interests. The results confirm how little is known about the non-users and raise many new and controversial questions which should compel the scientific community to investigate non-users more deeply. The paper was the winner of the IFLA LIS Student Paper Award, 2010.