SERDANG, April 7 - The Sultan Abdul Samad Library (PSAS), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) has recorded an increase in online users using the virtual library services in teaching, learning, and research activities since the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) on March 18, 2020. 

PSAS Chief Librarian, Muzaffar Shah Kassim, said throughout the MCO period, UPM library strives to ensure all online services are functioning well and accessible to all UPM community members without interruption.

“There has been an increase of 11.21% in virtual visitor numbers and access to a few information portals developed by PSAS. For example, there were 104,252 visitors in March, 2020 compared to 93,743 in the previous month.

"The number of hits has risen 50.93% from 1,161,897 in February to 1,753,617 hits in March," he said.

Muzaffar said although all physical library services were closed during MCO, students and lecturers could still access various subscribed scholarly information databases by UPM through the EZAccess Portal at the URL: http://ezaccess.upm.edu.my/ using their respective UPM-ID accounts.

“The number of virtual visitors accessing the EZAccess Portal to retrieve articles, journals, and other materials subscribed by UPM has shown a 22.05% increase in March, which is an increase of 26,039 visitors compared to 21,335 visitors in February.

"The number of hits has also shown a 63.83% increase in March (1,499,820 hits) compared to February (915,461 hits)”, he said.

He said PSAS had developed an information search portal called "Discovery @ Lib" to enable students and lecturers to search for information and library materials in various fields through a search portal at the URL: http://discoverylib.upm.edu.my.

Date of Input: 08/04/2020 | Updated: 08/04/2020 | hairul_nizam