Influence of Information Literacy Skills on Postgraduate Students’ Use of Electronic Resources in Private University Libraries in South-West, Nigeria

Uloma Doris Onuoha,Pauline Oghenekaro Adeniran

doi:10.4236/cn.2018.104014

Abstract

The introduction of new technologies has had a significant influence on teaching, learning and research activities in universities. This has offered university libraries opportunities to provide information resources in a variety of formats. This study investigated the influence of information literacy skills on postgraduate students’ use of electronic resources in private university libraries in Nigeria. The study adopted the survey research design. The study population comprised 2805 postgraduate students in five private universities offering postgraduate programmes in South-West, Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used in the selection process. A purposive selection of four faculties from each of the five universities was carried out. Proportionate sampling technique was used to select the sample size of 550 postgraduate students as the respondents for the study. Findings revealed that there was a significant positive correlation between information literacy skills and use of electronic resources (r = 0.28, p < 0.05). The study concluded that the utilization of electronic resources promoted access to current information among postgraduate students in the selected private universities in South-West, Nigeria. The study recommended that the management of private university libraries should ensure a continuous provision of electronic resources with adequate information communication technology tools to facilitate their use.

Highlights

In the past, most university libraries provided information in print format such as print textbooks, newspapers, monographs, magazines and so on, but with the advancement in technology, most libraries have expanded their collections to include electronic resources abbreviated as e-resources
This study investigated the influence of information literacy skills on postgraduate students’ use of electronic resources in private university libraries in Nigeria
Postgraduate students would be missing out in research materials that would have otherwise improved the quality of their research work thereby lowering the standard of research work and contribution to the society as a whole. It is against this background that this study investigated the extent to which information literacy skills could influence e-resources utilization by postgraduate students in private universities in South-West, Nigeria

Summary

Introduction

Most university libraries provided information in print format such as print textbooks, newspapers, monographs, magazines and so on, but with the advancement in technology, most libraries have expanded their collections to include electronic resources abbreviated as e-resources. In The Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, Second Edition [1] defined an electronic resource as “material (data and/or program(s)) encoded for manipulation by a computerized device. This material may require the use of a peripheral directly connected to a computerized device (e.g., CD-ROM drive) or a connection to a computer network (e.g., the Internet)”. Electronic information resources, in reality, have become essential in the academic environment They serve as motivating factor to students as they provide the opportunity to transmit, acquire or download process and disseminate information on any subject of interest. These resources serve as veritable sources of information which students could tap into to aid their class assignments, write research and term papers, and search for information on their subject areas and so on

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