Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of user satisfaction in the context of academic web digital library (DL). A model based on the re-specified information system success model was developed and tested using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. Design/methodology/approach – The study employed survey research methodology with self-administered questionnaire as the research instrument. The questionnaire was developed based on the instruments used by previous researchers. The population of the study was students enrolled for the bachelor’s degree in the Faculty of Information Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. These students were chosen because of researcher’s easy access to the sampling frame. Descriptive analysis and inferential analysis which include SEM were executed using IBM SPSS and AMOS statistical software. Findings – The findings indicate that information quality, systems quality, service quality, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and cognitive absorption are significant predictor of users’ satisfaction with the web DL. Research limitations/implications – Instead of collecting data from students from various faculties, this study only covered students enrolled in one faculty. In the same light, as the respondents were from one faculty, they only report their experience of using one DL. Given these limitations, the results obtained are narrowed in terms of generalizability. The second limitation of the study is related to the predictor variables which only focussed on six variables only. Practical implications – From the practical viewpoint, the instrument that has been developed can be used as a diagnostic tool for continuous improvements of the DL. Originality/value – From the theoretical viewpoint, the study has developed an empirical based framework that depicts critical factors influencing DL satisfaction. Researchers specializing on the assessment of DL effectiveness can consider adopting the framework for future studies. Alternatively, the framework can be further extended by integrating other variables such as users’ characteristics or organizational characteristics.

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Para-professionals in the library services are library associates, library technicians, or library assistants who assist the professional librarians in library-related task. Mining the literature unveiled that studies investigating the required competencies on para-professional are still very limited. To address this gap, this paper reports a study that was conducted with the purpose to identify the required competencies of para-professionals in the library services. Adopting the survey research methodology, data were collected using questionnaires from 502 para-professional librarians working with the Sarawak State Library in Sarawak, Malaysia. The findings suggest that all the seven sets of competencies, namely general competencies; Agency and Organizational Knowledge; Reference and Research; Collection Management; Content Organization and Structure and Library Technology Management are either moderately or highly required by the para-professionals. Based on these findings, the appropriate training needs could be identified.

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Purpose In addition to instrumental assumptions, behavioural researchers suggest the study of individual traits such as personal innovativeness (PI), users’ satisfaction and other theoretical beliefs for example quality and general usage patterns as the latent determinants of early and post-adoptions of technological innovations. In the context of Higher Education Commission digital library of Pakistan, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of PI, quality of digital resources and generic usability of digital libraries (DL) with users’ satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach To guide the conceptual model of this study, five hypothesized relationships were formulated. Adopting a quantitative approach, snowball sampling techniques were used. A total of 464 users of DL enrolled in different programs of study in the universities of Pakistan participated and responded to the survey. For data analyses, partial least squares, a method in the structural equation modeling was used. Findings Analyses reveal positive and strong relationships of PI, quality of digital resources and generic usability of DL with users’ satisfaction. Thus, the findings of this study established personal traits as the significant determinants of intention to adopt DL. Research limitations/implications The decision of effective adoption is manipulated by the extent of users’ willing (PI), level of satisfaction, the image of quality and users’ past experience with the use of related innovations. Thus, librarians in addition to the system features should also focus on individual characteristics and quality of resources that probably influence adequate adoption of DL. Originality/value In the Pakistani context, this study is the first attempt that examined the relationship of PI, the usability of DL and quality of digital resources with users’ satisfaction. Research model of this study can be used in future research. Also, this study extended the scope of theories of adoption towards DL.