A FUNCTIONAL SUITABILITY EVALUATION FRAMEWORK FOR LIBRARY OFF-CAMPUS ACCESS SYSTEMS

Abstract

Off-campus access systems enable library users to access subscribed electronic resources remotely. Systems such as EZproxy, MyLOFT, and eMaktaba are widely used in Kenyan universities to facilitate remote access to electronic resources by students and faculty. Despite their importance, users continue to face challenges, including unreliable authentication, intermittent system performance, and limited access to subscribed resources, which reduce user satisfaction and hinder effective utilisation. Thus, there is a need for a framework to evaluate the functional suitability of these off-campus access systems. However, there are limited evaluation frameworks specifically designed to assess the functional suitability of these systems in academic library environments. Therefore, this research aimed to develop a Functional Suitability Evaluation Framework for library off-campus access systems based on the ISO/IEC 25010 software quality model. The research focused on three functional suitability attributes: functional completeness, functional correctness, and functional appropriateness, to determine the extent to which these systems meet user requirements. A mixed-methods research design was adopted, incorporating a systematic literature review and surveys of users and technical personnel. Three institutions, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST), Murang'a University of Technology (MUT), and Strathmore University (SU) were selected through purposive sampling. The target population comprised 36,016 registered off-campus access system users and 43 technical personnel across the three institutions. Simple random sampling was used to select 384 system users, while a census approach was applied to 43 technical personnel. A total of 371 responses were obtained, yielding a response rate of 86.9%. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, thematic analysis, correlation analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), and multiple linear regression. The regression model demonstrated strong explanatory power (R² = 0.848), indicating that the three constructs explained 84.8% of the variance in functional suitability. Functional correctness (B = 0.411) had the strongest predictive influence, followed by functional appropriateness (B = 0.352) and functional completeness (B = 0.286). These coefficients were normalised to derive weights of 0.390, 0.340, and 0.270, which formed the basis of the Functional Suitability Index (FSI). Based on these findings, a Functional Suitability Evaluation Framework was developed and practically validated by technical personnel using five criteria: clarity, feasibility, adaptability, relevance, and completeness, which showed a composite mean of 4.18, indicating a high level of acceptance of the framework across the evaluated criteria. The main limitations of the research were its restriction to three Kenyan universities, its reliance on self-reported perception data, these were mitigated by selecting institutionally diverse universities, embedding reverse-coded questionnaire items and triangulating quantitative with qualitative data. The research concludes that functional completeness, functional correctness, and functional appropriateness are key determinants of effective off- campus access systems. It also concludes that the functional suitability of off-campus access systems can be evaluated via a framework. Lastly, the research concludes that the developed framework measures the attributes of off-campus access systems. It recommends that universities adopt the developed framework to guide system evaluation and improvement. Future research should extend the evaluation to additional ISO/IEC 25010 quality characteristics such as security, compatibility and reliability, and validate the framework across diverse institutional contexts.