Students of every field go to library to read books but this trend is decreasing nowadays in this era of technology. Social media has created the e-book craze due to which students prefer to read soft copy instead of hard copy. If the reading interest of the students is seen by going to libraries of different areas, then the interest of the medical students is found to be more than the others. Anamika, a researcher at the Department of Library Information Science of Punjabi University, Patiala, did her research based on this topic. Her research reveals the less usage of library resource materials by medical students and the reasons behind this.
In this research work, Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh, Government Medical College Amritsar, Government Medical College, Faridkot and Government Medical College, Patiala were made subject of the study area. Researcher Anamika has told that 600 MBBS students four Government Medical Colleges of Punjab and Chandigarh were interested in getting samples for this research. Out of which 492 students who completed questionnaires were selected for analysis. It is from this analysis that the results of this research work have been extrapolated. She said that regarding this a pilot survey was conducted as a sample, after which two sets of questionnaires were prepared for students and librarians/library in-charges of selected colleges.
The data obtained through the survey was analysed using appropriate statistical tests. Through analysis of the research, it was revealed that out of the total 492 students, 63.4% are going to library for preparing notes and only 7.3% are going to library for entertainment. About 67.8% Students accessed online journals and e-resources from the library at Chandigarh, 58.8% used PubMed which is a free medical search engine. In comparison, Medscape’s platform was used by very few. 66.9% of these are using e-journals. 95.2% of Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh are Satisfied with their Library Facilities. She said that primary sources were used for this research work.
Personal interviews were conducted with students and library staff for data collection. Thus, all the data was collected offline. So, it can be said that the library policy of medical colleges should be changed according to the demand of time so that the students in the medical field can become capable of finding good treatments through their research.