THE USE OF MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES FOR WEB 2.0 BASED SERVICE DELIVERY TO GRADUATE STUDENTS IN GHANAIAN UNIVERSITIES: THE CASE OF THE UNIVERSITY FOR DEVELOPMENT STUDIES (UDS), GHANA

Abstract

This study attempted to find out how mobile technologies could be used to implement Web 2.0 based service delivery to graduate students based in the Graduate School of the University for Development Studies (UDS) Library. A 23 item questionnaire was administered to a sample of 155 participants who were selected by means of simple random sampling. A total of 119 questionnaires were retrieved and found to be adequate for analysis and interpretation. The collected data was analyzed and interpreted using the SPSS package and Microsoft Excel and was presented in the form of text and graphs. Findings indicated that graduate students overall had very good abilities with regards to the usage of the Web 2.0 applications; that they will like to access their library‟s resources through the Web 2.0 applications using their mobile devices and the services they will like to access include reference services, circulation services, searching the OPAC, accessing library news, e-resources and subject guides in that order. There are varied kinds of mobile library services, examples of which are MOPACs, mobile reference, mobile instruction, mobile collection and mobile tours. However, the UDS Library does not provide any Web 2.0 mobile based services. The main challenges in implementing these Web 2.0 mobile based services include cost of Internet access, slow Internet connectivity and insufficient funds to acquire needed equipment. Based on these findings, some recommendations were given.