Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Date of this Version
Summer 10-6-2017
Document Type
Article
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Introduction. The rapid change in university libraries setting has necessitated new tools for searching information, particularly for e-resources by postgraduate student’s users. The preference for e-resources by postgraduate students has been to some extent determined in previous studies by accessibility to information and communication technology (ICT), user education and computer literacy.
Method. A survey research design and multi-stage sampling technique was adopted to select 2, 726 from 54578 postgraduate students from four faculties in 16 federal conventional universities in Nigeria. The data set was collected using questionnaires, a test and an interview schedule for e-resources librarians/ system librarians and was analysed using percentage, Pearson’s product moment correlation and multiple regression.
Results. The usage of e-resources among the postgraduate students was adjudged low (x = 2.45) with a slightly above average user education (x =2.60) and medium computer literacy (56.3%). In addition, there was a low level of accessibility to ICT facilities (x = 2.45). ICT accessibility (r = .78), computer literacy (r = .74) and user education (r = .32) had positive relationships with postgraduate students’ usage of e-resources. The level of user education, computer literacy and ICT accessibility jointly and significantly predicted postgraduate students’ usage of e-resources in Nigerian university libraries (F (3, 2281) = 1168; R= 0.778; R2= 0.606). Further, user education (β =.056), computer literacy (β = .064) and access to ICT facilities (β = .819) contributed relatively to the prediction of use of e-resources. This shows that the higher the postgraduate students are exposed to user education, ICT facilities and computer literacy skills, the better the use of e-resources for their researches.
Conclusion. User education, computer literacy and access to Information and Communication Technology facilities are predictors of the use of e-resources by postgraduate students. However, to further enhance the use of e-resources among postgraduate students, university libraries in Nigeria should employ constant library orientation and computer literacy programmes. In addition, more ICT facilities should be procured to increase accessibility.