Browsing by Author "Marasinghe, M.P.L.R."

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Development and validation of a tool to predict information seeking behaviour of medical undergraduates, Sri Lanka
(University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2022) Marasinghe, M.P.L.R.
Information seeking behaviour is a set of actions expressing information needs, searching, evaluating, selecting, and utilizing information. This study aimed to develop and validate a tool to measure the information seeking behaviour of medical undergraduates in Sri Lanka. Final year students and the students, who had completed four years of study in the academic programme in medical faculties in universities of Colombo, Kelaniya, Peradeniya, and Eastern University in Sri Lanka were invited for the study. The elements of information seeking behaviour were defined by thentatically analyzing the content of nine focus group discussions with medical undergraduates of the four faculties. The scale was developed based on the Integrated Behavioural Model. The preliminary scale had 60 items and was pretested. The responses ofa field test with the participation of 436 medical undergraduates were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and psychometric analysis. The tool was refined to include 40 items, and the revised version was administered to 645 medical undergraduates. The 40-item tool supported the good model fit using the absolute fit indices (RMSEA= 0.053, SRMR=0.066). The sub-components of the 40-item tool partially matched with the theoretical framework. The reliability of the entire tool was acceptable (Cronbach’s α = (0.744) and domain levels were in the low to the acceptable range. The internal consistency of the domains; “Intention” (Cronbach’s α = 0.634), “Habit” (Cronbach’s α = 0.561) and “Knowledge & skills” (Cronbach’s α = 0.540) was acceptable in reliability and the domains of “Environmental Constraints” (Cronbach’s α = 0.470) and “Salience” (Cronbach’s α = 0.438) was low in reliability in the 40-item tool. The finalized 40-item tool named ‘Kelaniya Measure of Information Seeking Behaviour’ (KMISB) demonstrated an acceptable level of psychometric rigour in terms of XXV ate reliability and structural validity. KMISB can be used to evaluate and predict information seeking behaviour of medical undergraduates effectively. It facilitates identifying the best practices of information seeking and improving the quality of ae higher education.
The Impact of Gender Differences on Job Satisfaction of University Library Professionals.
(Journal of the University Librarians Association of Sri Lanka,, 2018) Marasinghe, M.P.L.R.; Wijayaratne, A.
This study examined the influence of gender on job satisfaction among university library professionals in Sri Lanka. The survey design was adopted for the study. The general objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of gender differences on the level of job satisfaction among the professional staff of the university libraries in Sri Lanka. Five parameters were considered, namely; work, co-workers, compensation, promotion and supervision. The population of the current study consisted of 125 library professionals of 15 universities under the University Grants Commission in Sri Lanka. All members of the population were given the opportunity to participate in the study. A semi-structured questionnaire was used as the main data collection instrument. The response rate was 64%. Cronbach's alpha values of all variables are above 0.6 (work: 0.764, co-workers: 0.864, compensation: 0.661, promotion: 0.614 and supervision: 0.963). The instrument used to measure each variable in the current study is reliable and all the items are positively correlated to one another. the mean of job satisfaction of all aspects; work, co-workers, compensation, promotion and supervision is higher in Females (0.9200, 0.8021, 0.6521, 0.6667, 0.7243) than males (0.7277, 0.6406, 0.5250, 0.3854, -0.0052). The results indicated that there is a significant difference of job satisfaction between male and female university library professionals only in the "supervision" parameter. The overall job satisfaction of both male and female (3.77) university library professionals is equal. However, equal treatment to both genders will help to achieve higher satisfaction levels. The findings of the study will be helpful for librarians and administrators to develop a motivated and productive workforce for organizational success.
Information Seeking Behavior of Students of the Medical Faculty, University of Kelaniya
(University of Kelaniya, 2012) Marasinghe, M.P.L.R.
The study investigated the information seeking behavior of the medical students of the University of Kelaniya. The objectives of the study were to examine how the medical students obtain required information; to identify the types of library services frequently used by the medical students; to determine if the medical students sought current information; to ascertain the problems encountered by the medical students in the process of seeking information and to identify the additional library services preferred by the medical students. Structured questionnaires were distributed among 248 medical students randomly selected out of a population of 865 students. Comparison of information seeking behavior of students at each level was performed with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of Conoco 4.5. Major findings include: all 3 levels other than level 4 showed a somewhat similar pattern of information seeking. Students in level 1 seem more keen in library usage for finding answers to questions, while level 3 for research work and experimental purposes. Level 4 students use color guides/ atlases and dictionaries/glossaries/encyclopedia for accessing information than those at the other levels. The result shows that the Medical Library is the most frequently used place of the best access for information gathering of the students. The respondents especially relied on text books and online full text journals for current information. Clinical practice and lecture hours are the major limiting factors for level 4, more than other levels. The medical students have totally agreed that up-to-dateness of the collections is the major issue. The development of the novel collection and the provision of new editions of text books are recommended by the respondents and the number of copies of frequently used text books should be increased based on their demand. The improvement of Information Technology (IT) is also essential in the library for enhancement and ease of retrieval of information for the students.
Potential use of blood-fed mosquitoes as evidence in forensic casework
(Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, 2007) Marasinghe, M.P.L.R.; Sirisena, D.M.; Bandara, K.B.A.T.; Hapuarachchi, H.A.C.; Abeyewickreme, W.
Medico - criminal entomology has been an important source of evidence in forensic investigations for many years. However, it has not been widely used to provide direct evidence for personal identification in forensic casework so far. In this study, we made an attempt to determine the usefulness of human DNA extracted from blood-fed mosquitoes as evidence in forensic casework. Approximately 1500 adult female mosquitoes of same age from four different species, i.e. Culex quinquefasciatus, Armigerus sabalbatus, Aedes aegypti and Anopheles tessellatus were fed with the same volume of human blood and maintained under the same environmental conditions. Three batches (N=1, 5 and 10) of randomly selected blood-fed mosquitoes were crushed and blotted onto filter paper strips separately at two hour intervals subsequent to blood meals up to 48 hours to determine the longitudinal variation in the extraction of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplifiable human DNA from mosquitoes. Human DNA was extracted from filter papers using a chelex-100 extraction protocol and amplified by PCR technique using human primers. Amplified products were run in 1.5% agarose gels. PCR amplifiable human DNA could be extracted from mosquitoes of Cx. quinquefasciatus and An. tessellatus up to 48 hours subsequent to blood meals. However, this duration was up to 46 and 42 hours in Ae. aegypti and Ar. Sabalbatus, respectively. The amount of amplifiable DNA was inversely proportionate to the post-feeding duration, but increased with number of mosquitoes at each time interval. Amplifiable human DNA could be extracted even from a single mosquito of four different species even after 48 hours from a blood meal with slight variation among species. However, as the amount of DNA decreases with time interval, more mosquitoes will have to be used for extraction in late sample collections. Similarly, it may be required to use a highly sensitive PCR protocol when analyzing such samples. Blood-fed mosquitoes collected even after 2 days from a crime scene may be used as a source of direct evidence for personal identification in forensic casework.
Providing access to public health information via the institutional repository, Faculty of Medicine: A feasibility study based on medical undergraduates.
(University of Kelaniya, 2013) Abeygunasekera, C.M.; Marasinghe, M.P.L.R.
Community Medicine Clerkship and Community Attachment programs provide opportunity for medical undergraduates to learn how public health services are provided to the community. Their knowledge on health promotion, disease prevention, healthcare planning and management, demography and understanding epidemiology of diseases in the Sri Lankan context are very important. They are expected to read from diverse information sources to gain this knowledge, in addition to field based learning. As most of the recommended reading materials are considered grey literature sources, students are in a difficulty to access those resources within the library. Students face difficulties in accessing available online materials too, as some of the websites do not provide the information in a user friendly manner. With the understanding of possible barriers to access information, the Medical Library, University of Kelaniya, has developed a repository collection on ‘Public Health Information Resources,’ which are recommended as student reading materials for Community Medicine Clerkship and Attachment programs. This is under its online Institutional Repository (IR), developed using DSpace Software. This repository provides links to access a collection of resources published by different institutes. This is in addition to university libraries, which develop online digital repositories to preserve and distribute the intellectual scholarly information of the parent institute. A questionnaire and the User Guide to access the repository were given to a sample of fifty (50) students from Batch 21, who completed the Clerkship programme. Response rate to the questionnaire was 82% and more than 80% of students who were among the respondents ranked the collection as a useful resource which fulfilled their public health information needs. Barriers to information access were also assessed. Respondents have identified a list of difficulties they had in the past. Based on the feedback received, a resource collection inclusive of students’ suggestions is being planned to be introduced to the next batch of students.
Use of Library and Internet Facilities for Seeking Information among Medical Students at Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya
(Faculty of Computing and Technology, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Solangaarachchi, D.I.K.; Marasinghe, M.P.L.R.; Abeygunasekera, C.M.; Hewage, S.N.; Thulani, U.B.
Information plays a vital role in education. Students are always seeking information as an aid for their studies. With the development of the internet, which is proving to be an incomparable information resource for learning and research, students are more inclined to use it for finding information. For medical students, many of the tools that support medical education and transmit health research are now available online. There are e-books, e-journals, subject-specific databases, academic and professional websites with numerous educational resources. Therefore, the internet is considered as a rich information resource that can support medical education worldwide. The study was conducted with the objective of assessing the frequency and purposes of using the faculty library and internet facilities by medical students of Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya. A survey was carried out from May to June 2016 on MBBS students at Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya. Students who are in their second to fifth academic years were included in the study while first year students were excluded as they were considered to be still in a period of adjustment to the system. Data collection was done using a self-administered questionnaire distributed among the students that visited the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) centre and medical library of the faculty. Two hundred forty six (85%) students responded to the questionnaire. This consisted of 27% (n=67), 20% (n=48), 30% (n=75) and 23% (n=56) from year 2 to 5 respectively. According to the responses provided in the survey, information required by medical students are mainly sought by library material (70.3%), the internet (59.3%), using personal text books (54.9%) and discussions with colleagues (37.4%). Only 13.9% of the students stated that they visited the library at least once a day, while 33.9% goes there several times a week. Those that visit the library once a week or less, but more than once a month represented 30.2% of the responders. A considerable proportion (22%) visits the library less than once a month (or never goes there). The main resources accessed in the library by students were: textbooks (92.7%), past papers (36.2%) and journals (4.9%). When it comes to frequency of internet usage 82.8% of the medical students stated that they accessed it several times per day. While 11.9% accessed internet only once a day and 5.3% accessed internet less frequently than that. Devices used by the responders for accessing the internet included smartphones (55.7%), tablets (32.9%), laptops (32.9%) and desktops (13.0%). When it comes to data access method for connecting to the internet, mobile data (75.8%) and Wi-Fi (73.2%) were most prominently featured, whereas dongle connections (20.3%) and wired connections (3.7%) were less popular. The most frequent reasons noted for accessing the internet were: for finding information related to studies (53.3%), for emailing (30.1%) and using social media such as Facebook (37.0%). Based on the responses of the sampled students, the faculty internet facilities (Wi-Fi or wired) were used by 80.9%. The times of the day for logging on to the faculty internet for most students were ‘12 noon-2 pm’ period (47.5%) and ‘after 4 pm’ period (22.8%). When inquired about problems faced while finding information via the internet: 55.3% noted connection being too slow as an issue, while 34.6% found the inability to access faculty network E-resources outside of the faculty as a hindrance. The other issues expressed were: not having enough time (16.7%), lack of ICT knowledge (6.9%), inadequate information searching skills (6.9%) and not having a device to connect to the internet (2.4%). The results show that even though less than 50% of the sampled students are regular (at least several times a week) visitors to the library, over 70% seek information related to their studies from library material. In contrast, while nearly 95% of the students were daily internet users, only around 60% used it as a source of information. Only about 53% utilised the internet for their academic requirements. The efforts of the university in providing internet facilities appears to have been worthwhile, with over 80% stating that they are consumers of the faculty Wi-Fi and/or wired internet connections. Yet, mobile data connections were the most frequently noted method of obtaining web access. This is reflected by the finding that smartphones and tablets were the most frequently used devices when accessing the web compared to laptops and desktops. The finding of the study that; more than one fifth of the students rarely visit the library could probably mean that they rely on personal text books in their studies. In addition it could also be a reflection of the influence of ICT in academic activities of students. These findings could be explained by the ever increasing influence of ICT in education as well as day-to-day life. Especially, availability of Wi-Fi within the faculty, affordability of mobile internet connections and, handheld devices like smartphones and tablets becoming versatile while also becoming accessible for most people has clearly made an impact in this regard. Recent upgrades to the faculty internet facilities may alleviate the complaint of slowness in connection. Expanding the Wi-Fi network to student hostels and the North Colombo Teaching Hospital at Ragama would help in addressing unavailability of faculty network E-resources outside of the faculty. Even though library based information seeking is still prominently featured, findings of the study show a possible shift towards the internet becoming the main source for information among medical students. The faculty medical library and ICT centre have to be sensitive when it comes to student information source preferences. By working together and adapting to the changing landscape, these two departments of the faculty could play an ever increasing role in improving students’ use of educational resources online.
User satisfaction of library services: A case study of undergraduates in Speech and Hearing Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya
(University of Kelaniya, 2013) Marasinghe, M.P.L.R.
The university library is a service institution that continuously caters to the needs of teaching-learning processes and research activities. This study investigates the user satisfaction of undergraduate Speech and Hearing Sciences (SHS) students of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya. The objectives of the study were to assess the use of current information sources and services available at the Medical Library by the undergraduate SHS students; to determine how satisfied undergraduate SHS students are with the current library resources and services and to identify the unmet needs of the undergraduates for the future improvement of the library services.