Changing Roles of Academic and Research Libraries in Scholarly Information Communication Landscape: Case Study of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines the changing roles of academic and research libraries in scholarly information landscape using Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria as a case study. Two research questions and one null hypothesis were formulated and tested with respect to changing scholarly information needs of faculty members and postgraduate students as well as influence of online environment on scholarly activities of the scholars in A.B.U., Zaria, Nigeria. A total of 868 samples comprising of 487 faculty members and 381 PG students were drawn from the population and used as sample of this study. The data collected through questionnaire were analyzed using frequency tables and percentages, while the hypothesis was tested using T-test for independent variables. The results indicated that most of the scholars preferred online information environment to print and library-based environment for their scholarly activities. There is also a significant difference in the influence of online environment to scholarly achievements of the scholars. The study concludes by advocating ways by which academic libraries could remain a formidable element to reckon with in Scholarly Information Environment, regardless of the proliferation of the Internet in the scholarly landscape. The study also suggests that libraries must evolve from institutions primarily as the domain of books to institutions that users can recognize as providing pathways to high-quality information in a variety of media and information sources.