ACCESSIBILITY, USE OF ELECTRONIC INFORMATION RESOURCES AND RESEARCH OUTPUT OF LIBRARIANS IN  UNIVERSITIES IN EKITI, ONDO AND OSUN STATES, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

 The accessibility of electronic information resources enhances librarians research output by providing various information needed for research. The availability of electronic information resources increases access and use of information materials which will be of immense benefit to librarians in their research work. Librarians are regarded as academics and are expected to publish like other academic staff, but it seems that librarians record low research output when compared with lecturers or other academic staff. The aim of this study is to investigate accessibility, use of electronic information resources and research output of librarians in universities in Ekiti, Ondo and Osun States.

The survey research design was adopted for the research. The population of the study was 160 librarians from 18 universities in Ekiti, Ondo and Osun States. Census was used to include all the 160 librarians that participated in the study. A self-structured questionnaire titled “Accessibility, Use of Electronic Information Resources and Research Output questionnaire” was used to collect data. Cronbach’s alpha reliability test was used to validate the instrument with value ranging from 0.7 to 0.81. 89.4% (143) was the return rate of the questionnaire. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics  (frequency count, tables, percentages, standard deviation and means) for research questions while inferential statistics ( Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and ANOVA) were used for the hypotheses.

There was no significant relationship between electronic information resources accessibility and research output of librarians in the study locale (r = -0.13, N = 143, P = 0.117).The study showed no significant relationship between electronic information resources use and research output of librarians in universities in Ekiti, Ondo and Osun States (r = -0.05, N = 143, P = 0.561).The combination of accessibility and use of electronic information resources did not significantly influence research output of librarians in the universities (R = .13, F _{2140 =} 1.30, P >0.05). Findings also revealed that there was high level of accessibility of electronic information resources and that librarians frequently used AGORA, JSTOR, HINARI, E-Library, TEAL, EBSCOHOST, OARE, E-Directory and Science Direct E-Journal. Librarians published mostly on hardcopy journals, book chapters, co-authored textbooks and conference/seminar/workshop papers. The major challenge faced by librarians in universities in Ekiti, Ondo and Osun States was lack of time due to library routine tasks.

This study concluded that most librarians in universities in Ekiti, Ondo and Osun States have access to electronic information resources but they do not maximize these resources for their research work. Hence this study recommended that librarians’ routine task should be minimized so that they can have time to embark on research activities using the electronic information resources.

Keywords: Research output, Librarians, Accessibility, Use of electronic information resources, Universities