Seminar To Encourage Use Of Online Resources
By Shareen Han

Brunei-Muara - Over 300 participants attended a five-day seminar to utilise reference materials from online databases, as part of the Ministry of Education's e-government drive to promote electronic resources in local academic institutions.

It is hoped that the use of electronic resources would better help teachers and students to access credible information from peer-reviewed journal articles.

The seminar, which started from February 25 at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), was also intended to expose teachers, students and librarians to make full use of the electronic resources which are available in schools.

"The availability of these resources will help transform our education system and bring it in line with those of other developed countries in the world today," said the Ministry of Education's permanent secretary.

During the opening of UBD Information Week, Dato Paduka Hj Sheikh Adnan Sheikh Mohamad said that the use of online resources will also mark a shift for local libraries from a traditional approach to more efficient digital library. "Using online database is new for me, but a lot-of reference and information can be found and it is useful," said a librarian from a secondary school, who did not want to be named.

The participants at the seminar said that it is easier to search for information from the online resources, compared to the traditional approach.

Sean Chia, senior sales executive of American-based Cengage Learning, said that most students use Google search to find information for their studies, but online databases allow students to search for more credible information because majority of journals are, peer-reviewed by academics. “They are also easier to find because the subjects are grouped in the same category," he said.

He added that general feedback showed that online resources are well received because it is user-friendly and no training is required.

Participants were able to learn from international speakers on the accessibility and usability of electronic reference resources and electronic journal databases, where UBD's library is the coordinator of Brunei's e-education digital library initiative.

The Virtual Library Systems, which is the Ministry of Education's digital library project, was launched last year to provide a comprehensive, dynamic digital library service to support academic research.

Held in conjunction with UBD's Information Week, the seminar saw a number of online resources being introduced, including Proquest, Oxford Reference Online, McGraw Hill's Access Science and Annual Reviews.-- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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