Awareness and Attitude of Lecturers toward Establishing Institutional Repository in Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State, Nigeria

This study focused on the awareness and attitude of lecturers toward the establishment of institutional repository (IR) in Niger Delta University, Nigeria. The population consist of 214 academic staff in the College of Health Sciences (CHS), 145 academic staff were randomly selected. A self-designed questionnaire with a five Likert point scale was used in collecting data. The study revealed that lecturers’ awareness of institutional repository was high. Most of the lecturers agreed that if the repository is established in the university it will enable them to deposit their work but this will violate the copy right law. Among the recommendations was that librarians should create more awareness of IR and educate lecturers on the dangers of giving out the copy right of their work out to commercial publishers. Keywords: Awareness, attitudes, lecturers, research outputs and institutional repository

Institutional Repositories, as Emerging Initiative in Nigerian University Libraries

Scholars and researchers have increasingly expressed dissatisfaction with the existing model of scholarly communication such as high subscription prices for journals, heightened awareness that universities might lose print materials that are not properly archived and restricted access. These issues have contributed to the quest for alternative modes of preservation and dissemination of information such as institutional repositories (IRs). IRs had been considered one of the emerging initiatives in Nigeria university libraries. The success of IR is dependent on the awareness of and perceived benefits of IR by lecturers. The main purpose of the study is to assess the level of awareness of and perceived benefits of IR among lecturers in federal universities in the South-South zone of Nigeria. The study revealed that lecturers in South-South federal university in Nigeria are aware of IR and its benefits. The study concludes that universities should encourage promotional activities geared towards creating awareness of IR which will in turn enhance positive attitude towards IR establishment in universities. Keywords: Institutional Repositories, Open Acces

Towards institutional repository sustainability: Lecturers awareness, patronage and content submission to the University of Cape Coast repository

Having been hardest hit by the crisis of inadequate funding for journal subscription, academic institutions, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa have embraced open access institutional repositories as alternative means of scholarly communication. Upon the embrace of this approach to knowledge sharing, the University of Cape Coast’s Institutional Repository, UCCSpace, like most academic repositories, has had to contend with the issues of sustainability in the area of content recruitment. The study thus assesses lecturers’ awareness and perception of institutional repositories in the context of content population and sustainability of IRs. Through the Descriptive Survey Design, the study engages 714 lecturers in a survey, yielding a 21.8% response rate, with the questionnaire analyzed descriptively. The results indicate that the respondents were generally aware of open access institutional repository concept with a positive perception about their value. Ironically, they had little knowledge of the existence and operations of UCCSpace, and equally contributed less to its content owing to reasons of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), fear of plagiarism and absence of water-tight peer review, accounted for the low patronage. The study recommends the education of lecturers and other members of the university community, increasing repository awareness via physical and virtual platforms, addressing issues of IPRs and instituting motivation schemes to encourage content submission

Institutional Repository Awareness amongst Library and Information Science Students of Federal Polytechnic Offa, Kwara State, Nigeria

This study investigated awareness of Institutional Repositories (IRs) amongst students of the Department of Library and Information Science, the Federal Polytechnic Offa. Descriptive survey research design was adopted; one hundred and fifty (150) students, which constituted the sample for the study, were selected using simple random sampling technique. Questionnaire was the instrument for data collection and data were analyzed using simple frequencies and percentages. From the study, it was established that the respondents were aware of institutional repositories and that there was an institutional repository at the Federal Polytechnic, Offa. Also, it was revealed that lectures/lecturers (33.1%) were the respondents’ most indicated source of information about the existence of an IR in the institution, followed by library/librarian (18.2%). Further, findings showed that respondents had a positive attitude towards IR development as majority (47.9%) strongly agreed that IRs were a good idea; followed by those (26.5%) that indicated ‘agreed’. It was recommended that the institution’s IR would require more advocacy to create an all-round awareness and patronage for it; also the government should increase funding for institutions to aid in Information and Communication Technologies’ development

Awareness and Usage of Open Access among University Lecturers in Nigeria

The study examined the level of awareness and usage of Open Access among lecturers in the Faculties of Arts and Education, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria. A questionnaire designed by the researchers was employed to collect data for the study. The study revealed that lecturers had high level of awareness of Open Access and used them for conducting and publishing their scholarly works; however their level of awareness of Open Access content were higher than their actual use of the contents. The study further revealed that some lecturers used some open access contents, such as, e-journals, e-dictionaries and e-encyclopedias daily, weekly, monthly and whenever the need arises while some others like e-handbooks, e-guides and e-technical reports were not used at all. It further revealed that Open Access journals were the most utilised of all the Open Access contents surveyed amongst ot her findings. Many recommendations were proffered amongst which were sensitisation of faculty about benefits, challenges and policies guiding Open Access use through information literacy training provided by academic librarians and that academic staff should made themselves available for information literacy training programmes so as to make wise and effective use of Open Access to enhance their academic status. Keywords: Awareness and Usage of Electronic Resources; Open Access Scholarly Communication, Nigerian Universities, Nigerian Lecturers’ Use of Electronic Resources; Scholarly Publishing

Awareness and Attitudes of Faculty Members towards Developing Institutional Repository in Federal University, Kashere Gombe State Nigeria

The study investigates the awareness and attitudes of faculty members towards depositing scholarly information resources in institutional repository of Federal University Kashere Library. A survey design was employed for the study. The population of the study consists of 415 faculty members, with sample size of 250 respondents and the instrument used in data collection was questionnaire. A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed but 236 (94.4%) were returned duly filled. The study reveals that the faculty members under study are aware of the institutional repository but majority of them have not deposited their scholarly resources in the institutional repository. Many faculty members were very much interested in contributing course materials, dissertations and conference / seminars proceedings than scholarly journal articles, pre-prints/post prints and books in the future. The study recommends that the University management should encourage faculty members to contribute to the institutional repository by providing some incentives such as acknowledgment, provide sufficient research grants, and sponsor lecturers to attend conferences, seminars and workshops. Make contribution to the institutional repository as an institutional mandate. University Library should organize orientation programmes, seminars and workshops at regular intervals to create awareness on the benefits and effective use of institutional repository. Keywords: Institutional Repository, Awareness, Attitudes, Faculty Member, Scholarly Information Resources, Library, Nigeria

Lecturers\u27 Awareness, Perception, and Utilization of Institutional Repositories in Two Universities in Nigeria

The purpose of this study was to examine the lecturer\u27s awareness, perception, and utilization of institutional repositories in two universities in Nigeria. The universities include Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and the University of Jos. The research design adopted for the study was correlational research design, while the questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. The questionnaire was grouped into five sections and most of the questions were close-ended. Also, the validity and reliability of the questionnaire were done in order to obtain the desired results. Out of 642 questionnaires distributed, 473 were completed, returned, and found suitable for use. Descriptive and inferential statistics were then used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that lecturers\u27 level of awareness of IRs was moderate, this was indicated by a weighted average of 2.58 (65%). The findings also revealed the lecturer\u27s major sources of awareness of IRs were through University\u27s website 417 (88.2%), library sensitizations 286 (60.5%), and colleagues 288 (60.9%).The Majority of the lecturers slightly utilized IRs 243 (51.4%) for depositing scholarly materials. However, the majority of the lecturers indicated that they did not encounter many constraints when utilizing the repositories. In the course of the study, three hypotheses were tested and the findings from the hypotheses revealed that there was a positive significant relationship between awareness and utilization of IRs, perception, and utilization of IRs, awareness, and perception of the importance of IRs. It was concluded that an increase in the awareness and perception of IRs by lecturers increases their utilization of the IRs. Hence, recommendations were made to the library management of the two universities to intensify their advocacies, awareness campaigns, and sensitization excises in order to increase awareness and perception of lecturers which would in turn increase the utilization of the repositories

Awareness, Perception, And Utilization Of Open Access Resources Among Delta State University Research Scholars: A Research

The fundamental goal of this study is to evaluate the level of awareness, perception, and utilization of Open Access Resources among Delta State University Research Scholars in Abraka, Delta State. The study objectives was to determine the level of awareness of Open Access Resources among Delta State University Research Scholars, find out how Research Scholars became aware of Open Access Resources, determine Research Scholars\u27 perceptions of Open Access Resources, ascertain the extent to which Research Scholars use Open Access Resources, find out the purpose of Research Scholars\u27 use of Open Access Resources; as well as identify the factors impeding Research Scholars\u27 use of Open Access Resources in Delta State University Abraka, Delta State. The method of survey research was used, and the instrument used to collect data was a questionnaire. Two hundred and fifty questionnaires (250) were distributed to respondents, with a total of two hundred (200) of the two hundred and thirty-seven (237) duly completed were declared usable for the survey. Tables, frequency distributions, and percentages were utilized to assess replies. The findings indicated that the major problem encounter in using open-access resources include, delay in downloading the materials, unreliable power supply, inadequate computer terminals to access the Open Access resources and lack of search abilities, while majority of the researchers were aware of e-Journals, e-Books, e-Theses, and Dissertations etc. Attending conferences/seminars/workshops, and self-exploitation on the internet and through colleagues were the primary sources of awareness of the open access resources by the research academics. This demands the librarians to build additional knowledge regarding Open Access materials to the study academics. It was also found out from the open-ended question that the study researchers have limited awareness of alternative open-access pathways such as green and gold, and were worried about sharing the Open Access resources as they were not familiar with copyright issues

Digital resources in an academic hybrid library: assessment of usage pattern among history and international studies postgraduates in a Nigerian University

The purpose of this inquiry is to investigate the usage pattern of academic hybrid library digital resources by history and international studies postgraduates. Qualitative case study was adopted as the research design of the inquiry. Focus group discussion, observation and interview were employed as data tools. Among the inquiry’s outcome, it was disclosed that there were varieties of digital resources in the hybrid library under study. It was also disclosed that the history and international studies postgraduates were aware of the available digital resources. However, it was disclosed that only few participants were utilising the library’s e-books and databases due to specific barriers. It was further disclosed that mainstream participants were utilising the resources in their IR. Based on the outcomes obtained, it was recommended among others that the library should organise series of sensitisation for the postgraduates on the need to increase the usage of the digital resources. It was also recommended that the postgraduates should be trained on how to access the digital resources. Finally, it was recommended that complex login procedures to some of the digital resources should be simplified to optimise their usage by the postgraduates and other library users. From previous literature, no inquiry was found that examined the usage pattern of digital resources in an academic hybrid library by history and international studies postgraduates

Open Access Scholarly Communication Practices at the University of Zambia

Open access plays a significant role in expanding access by enabling scholars more equitable participation in research and development activities globally. However, little is known about researchers’ awareness and adoption of open access at the University of Zambia. To address this gap, this study investigated open access scholarly communication practices at Zambia’s premier University. Using a survey research design, data were collected from a sample of 67 participants via an online questionnaire. Findings showed that though all (67) of the respondents were aware of open access and were upbeat towards this new form of scholarly communication, 79.1% had used OA platforms more to access scholarly content than to disseminate their own research output while 21.9% used open access publishing models to disseminate their research output. The misapprehension about open access and lack of digital skills were the major barriers to open access adoption. The paper recommends that the open access committee at the University should proactively sensitise the University community on the benefits of open access. This study contributes to the growing literature on scholarly communication practices in Zambia by offering evidence from the University of Zambia