Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Date of this Version
Spring 3-29-2021
Abstract
Abstract
Academic libraries have evolved over the years; they have become an important nerve centre for the delivery of academic services in higher institutions of learning. Higher institution library has the primary function of supporting the vision of the university through the provision of adequate and accessible information resources. However, a decline in library usage by students may bring about less effective use of resources provided by the university library. Students should find the library to be a place to source information and thereby act on the knowledge gained. Despite this, the state of knowledge sharing is perceived to be poor among students. Knowledge sharing has been postulated by scholars to help student's academic performance, hence the need to investigate the influence of library use on knowledge sharing amongst undergraduates in Babcock University, ilishan-remo, Ogun State, Nigeria.
Survey research design was adopted for the study. The population comprised 8,968undergraduates. Undergraduates were purposively selected; the Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill formula was used to arrive at the sample size of 387 respondents. A validated questionnaire was administered to the respondents. The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient values for the constructs were: Library Resource Use (0.803), Library Service Use (0.831), Knowledge Sharing (0.772) and challenges faced by Babcock University undergraduates (0.766); while 0.870 was obtained for the total scale. A total of 387 copies of the questionnaire were administered to the respondents with a response rate of 100%. Inferential statistics (simple linear and multiple linear regression) were used to analyse the data.
Findings revealed that library resource utilisation significantly influences tacit knowledge sharing (R2=0.181, p0.05), library resource utilisation significantly influences explicit knowledge sharing (R2=0.284, p0.05) and library use significantly influences tacit knowledge sharing (R2 = 0.369, p<0.05).
The study concluded that library resources were useful in enhancing knowledge sharing among Babcock University undergraduates. Babcock University library administration should provide services that will encourage users to engage in knowledge sharing among undergraduates.