EXTENT OF UTILIZATION OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY- BASED LIBRARY RESOURCES BY POSTGRADUATE RESEARCHERS IN UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH EAST NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to evaluate the ICT-based library resources in Nigerian universities. This is with the aim of investigating the extent of utilization of ICT-based library resources for postgraduate research in Nigerian Universities (federal, state, and private). Six objectives and six research questions guided the study. A sampling technique was used in carrying out the work. A total number of five hundred and ten (510) respondents were used for the study. The instruments for data collection were questionnaire and observation checklist. Five hundred and ten (510) copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the postgraduate researchers in the three universities in the South East Nigeria and three hundred and sixty-six (366) were returned representing 72% return rate. The following statistical measures were employed for the data analysis: frequency table, mean (X) and Standard deviation (SD). The findings revealed that there was a significant difference in the mean ratings of postgraduate students in Federal, State and Private universities on the utilization of ICT-based library resources for research. However, the researcher observed that faculty of Education postgraduate researchers were predominant users of ICT-based library resources. The findings also revealed that postgraduate student’s lack of fund, high cost of internet use, incompetence of library staff, lack of access to ICT resources, lack of ICT skills by users and lack of awareness of ICT-based library resources are some of the challenges affecting the use of ICT-based library resources. Based on the findings, it was recommended that university libraries should make the cost of ICT-based library resources affordable; update the skills of librarians on ICT-based resources; educate the postgraduate research students on the use of ICT-based library resources and make university websites freely available to the postgraduate student researchers.