Study About the Capes Portal of E-Journals Non-users

Abstract

This study investigated the non-users of the CAPES Portal of E-Journals, a governmental initiative to offer free access to e-journals to consortiated federal educational and research institutions in Brazil. The research used a, mostly, quantitative research methodology, which collected some qualitative data through a Web Survey. 16.1 % of survey respondents declared that they did not use the Portal. These non-users were asked (1) which were the reasons which led to non-use, (2) if there were other electronic information sources they used, and (3) if they would use the Portal in case the barriers identified for the non-use were remedied. The results show that the non-use of the Portal is caused mainly because respondents lack information about its existence (24.5 % of responses), use other information resources (22.3 % of responses) and prefer printed journals (11.6 % of responses). Another important finding is that 82.1 % of the non-users would become users if the barriers indicated by them as the cause of non-use were solved. The study contributes to the scarce literature on non-users of digital libraries and presents recommendations to improve use based on the results obtained.