Studies have shown that several factors exist that negatively impact access to library services offered through mobile phones by students. Availability and good performance of the wireless network infrastructure is one of them. On many university campuses, the Wi-Fi infrastructure either has limited coverage or is unreliable. For instance, the ECAR (2015) study of undergraduate students’ ownership and use of mobile devices in the USA indicated that students living on campus rated their network experiences considerably lower than students living off-campus whereby only three in five students stated that they had reliable access to Wi-Fi throughout their campus (58%) or in classrooms or instructional spaces (63%) (Dahlstrom et al. 2015). The reason is due to the large number of mobile devices connected to the campus network. The USA study revealed that 61% of students connected at least two devices to the campus network at the same time.
Although
All institutions may face this challenge, it is particularly problematic in the developing world as inadequate funding for the procurement of bandwidth coupled with unreliable electricity supply all conspire to frustrate the provision of an efficient campus Wi-Fi network.
The literature has also shown that cost is a factor in accessing library and information services using a mobile phone. For instance, a study malaysia phone number library conducted by Song and Lee (2012) of international students enrolled at the College of Business at the University of Illinois found that the high total cost of ownership (costs for handsets and monthly data plans) was the main reason 39% of the respondents did not own a tablet computer. A study conducted by Luo (2014) at San Jose State University revealed that some of the respondents to the study did not access the SMS library service because they did not have a texting plan on their mobile phone contracts.
Although
Cost has been identified as a factor in access to library services through mobile phones, trends of mobile phone usage as seen in studies by Lo et al. (2016) and Vassilakaki, Moniarou-Papaconstantinou and Garoufallou (2016) show that students still used their mobile phones to access social media and to communicate with their friends and relations using emails, SMS and chats. It is therefore possible that students are prepared to pay for services they value, and access to library services is not one of the services on which students consider it worth spending their financial resources. An alternative view could be the availability of alternative means of accessing library services, such as laptops or walking into the library to access the services, which have prompted some students to prioritise their spending on.
Other services
In summary, the literature reviewed revealed that ownership of a mobile phone is key to accessing library services and resources through these devices. Much as this is the case, the type of mobile phone owned could have a bearing on use as mobile phones differ substantially in terms of power and functionality, which ultimately affects usage.
Smartphones
for instance, are the most powerful type of mobile phone as they have computing power equivalent to that of some computers . Therefore, discovering mobile phone ownership rates and what is telegram? functionality is key to determining potential deployment of the mobile phones for accessing library services and resources. Technological characteristics of mobile phones and cost of accessing mobile phone services have also been highlighted as factors that could impact usage of mobile phones for accessing library services.
However
The literature has shown that students use mobile phones more for communication and social networking than access to library services. The observed disparities in usage ca cell numbers motivates questions of whether. The technological factors and cost are indeed. The main reasons for the reported low usage of mobile phones for accessing library services or whether other factors are responsible. This study intends to provide answers to this question.