A Survey of Library and Information Services to Physically-Challenged Students in Academic Libraries in Ogun State, Nigeria

Introduction The importance of information to the success of any academic institution should not be underestimated. Ukpanah (2006) affirms that in an academic community, information is used for learning, teaching, research and leisure. Information according to Ajiboye and Tella (2007), is used primarily for academic purposes. These findings agree with Kakai et.al (2004), when they observed that students information-seeking behaviours promote academic excellence. Mabawonku (2005) highlights ways in which students seek for information, which include colleagues, the internet, library, friends, family members, etc. Furthermore, Akinade and Ogunyade (2002) and Onohwakpor (2007) asserted that valuable information to students determines to a very large extent their success and future development. Sequel to this, it is imperative for Academic libraries, which are attached to tertiary institutions to support the Teaching, Learning and Research processes in such institutions. Students, according to Adesina (2003) , have been found to be majority of library users in an academic library. Hence, Popoola (2008) affirmed that the information resources and services available in institutional information systems must be capable of supporting research activities among students and faculty members. These students could be challenged or normal library users. The challenged students will need assistance while in the library but the normal students may need little or no assistance. Onifade and Sowole (2009) quoting Ojo rightly noted that, for libraries to add to the advancement of knowledge, they must not only provide resources but also ensure that the resources are effectively used. In this regard, academic libraries should be committed to providing equal access to all categories of students, whether normal or challenged. Therefore this paper attempts to look at information availability and services provided the physically challenged students ( students using wheelchair, crutches, and braces for mobility) to the library, in eight academic libraries in Ogun state, Nigeria, their accessibility to the library and the problems they encountered. Nigeria and the Challenged or Disabled The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that there are approximately 19million disabled people in Nigeria. Furthermore, Yeo,(2005); Barron and Amerena et.al (2007) affirms that disabled people constitute one of the poorest, socially excluded and marginalised groups within the Nigerian society . On 30th March, 2007 the Government of Nigeria signed the UN Convention on the rights of persons with Disabilities, yet, no disability discrimination legislation has been enacted within Nigeria despite the fact that two bills have been introduced into National Assembly. Also, the common view, held by policy makers and the public at large, is that disabled people and disability issues are Charity and Welfare matters and not Human rights. (DFID 2008). Findings by Okoli (2005) also corroborated this and in his findings he revealed that disabled people in Nigeria are living in an environment that is hostile to their yearnings and aspirations. Physically Challenged Lawal-Solarin (2010) in an article titled Banks and the Physically Challenged quoted MSN Encarta Dictionary which defines physically challenged as an inability to perform some or all the tasks of daily life or a medically diagnosed condition that makes it difficult to engage in the activities of daily life. According to the World Book Encyclopaedia (2004), \u27\u27some people are born with disabilities, while others develop them later in life. There are however, many types of challenges or disabilities; both physical and mental, and they vary greatly in causes, degrees and treatments. Common disabilities include blindness, deafness, and deformity, loss of limbs, mental illness, mental retardation, muscular, nervous and sensory disorders\u27\u27

Aspects of the biology of the lagoon crab Callinectes amnicola (Derocheburne) in Badagry, Lagos and Lekki lagoons, Nigeria

A preliminary report of the size, composition, growth pattern and food habits of the blue crab, Callinectes amnicola, (De Rocheburne) in the Badagry, Lagos and Lekki Lagoons (Nigeria) is presented. The collection of crabs from the three lagoons covered the period from May 1999 to October 2000. The carapace length for Badagry Lagoon ranged from 2.2 cm to 16.4 cm with weight of 4.4 g to 252.6 g. The crabs showed a unimodal size distribution. For the Lagos Lagoon, crabs sizes ranged from 3.5 cm to 16.8 cm and weighed 3.28 to 277.1 g. The sizes of crabs in the Lekki Lagoon ranged from 3.5 cm to 16.1 cm and weighed 3.5 g to 262.7 g. Crabs from the three lagoons exhibited negative allometric growth. The food items were similar in the three lagoons and comprised mainly mollusc shells, fish parts, shrimps and crab appendages and occasionally higher plant material

Generating Factor Variables for Asymmetry, Non-independence and Skew-symmetry Models in Square Contingency Tables using SAS

In this paper, a SAS program (macro) is written to generate factor and regression variables required for implementing asymmetry, non-independence, non-symmetry + independence models as well as skew-symmetry models in discussed in square a x a contingency tables having nominal or ordinal categories. While several authors have developed similar factor variables for use with GLIM, we have extended this to the non-independence and the non-symmetry+independence models. The former includes both the fixed and variable distance models as well as the quasi-ordinal symmetry model. Further, our implementation of the asymmetry model in terms of the required factor variable is different from those defined for implementation of same in GLIM. Most of the models described in this paper however assume ordinal categories for the contingency table. The SAS macro developed can be applied to any square table of dimension a. We apply the models discussed in this paper to the 5 x 5 Danish mobility data that have been widely analyzed in various literatures.

Earnings Quality and Bank Equity

This doctoral thesis reports the results of three studies that address the implications of two bank characteristics - bank efficiency and bank earnings quality - for bank dividend policy and specified capital market outcomes. Chapter 1 introduces the thesis. The first study links the market reactions to dividend change announcements by banks to changes in bank efficiency score, our new measure of bank overinvestment problem, derived from a frontier analysis of bank input-output combinations. We find that improvement in bank overinvestment problem, defined as changes in bank efficiency, is significantly and positively associated with market reactions following dividend increases. However, consistent with the moderating role of bank regulation, we find no support for the role of changes in bank efficiency in market reactions to dividend decreases. The second study establishes a link between bank earnings quality and bank cost of equity capital. Using various earnings quality measures, the study finds that banks with better earnings quality experience lower cost of equity capital. Consistent with this primary finding, our results also support the idea that banks with higher earnings quality enjoy higher market valuation and higher price-earnings multiples compared to banks with lower earnings quality. Overall, our results suggest that markets can differentiate between “good” and “bad” earnings and seem to compensate banks with better earnings quality. The third study contributes to the literature by first developing a country-specific index of bank earnings quality. We further hypothesise that banks in countries characterised by high earnings quality pay more dividends than banks in countries with lower earnings quality. Our data give support to this hypothesis. Finally, using modified partial adjustment models that incorporate our index of earnings quality, we find that the dividend-earnings relation is stronger for banks operating in countries with high earnings quality than for banks operating in countries with low earnings quality

Scholarly Communication: The Use and Non-Use of E-Print Archives for the Dissemination of Scientific Information

This study surveyed a randomly chosen sample from a population of 240,000 scholars in nine scientific disciplines from private and public colleges and universities across the United States and Canada. The disciplines included physics/astronomy, chemistry, mathematics/computer science, engineering, cognitive science/psychology, and biological sciences. The survey sought to determine use and non-use of e-print archives in the different disciplines. Results show that 18 percent of the researchers use at least one archive while 82 percent do not use any. Scholars in physics use e-print archives the most and chemistry the least. ArXiv receives the most use and authors\u27 web sites the least use. Reasons for use include dissemination of research results, visibility, and exposure of authors. Reasons for non-use include publishers\u27 policies and technology constraints

Barriers facing people with obesity and type 2 diabetes in weight control: a systematic review

Type 2 diabetes has both non-modifiable and modifiable risk factors, such as heredity and obesity respectively. Obesity or overweight is a key modifiable risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Therefore, weight control through non-pharmacological interventions such as diet and physical exercise are some of the important measures used to reduce the potential complications and mortality associated with diabetes. Although, there are various policies and guidelines to tackle obesity in the UK, controlling weight gain in clinical practice remains a challenge. This systematic review sought to examine the evidence relating to the barriers preventing people with obesity or overweight and type 2 diabetes from making lifestyle changes, such as increased physical activity and changes to diet as a means of weight control

Effects of Livelihood Assets on Poverty Status of Farming Households’ in Southwestern, Nigeria

Poverty as a multi-dimensional phenomenon is determined by a wide range of factors one of which is the non-equity in distribution and scarcity of assets in development opportunities. The eradication of poverty in rural Nigeria remains a hard challenge for the country to overcome despite the various poverty eradication programmes implementation at different levels of government. This study examined the effects of farmers’ household livelihood assets on poverty. Primary data were collected using well structured questionnaire from 135 farming households in Egbeda Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria and analyzed using descriptive statistics, Foster Greer Theobecke (FGT) weighted poverty index and Logit regression model. The result shows that poverty line (PL) which is the two-third of the respondents’ mean per capita expenditure (PCE) is N1770.40 ($11) with 31.9 percent of the respondents falling below the PL while average PCE equals N2636.12 (about$18). The poverty incidence index was 0.296, poverty depth index is 0.054 and the poverty severity index is 0.015. Socio-economic characteristic like Gender (p<0.1), Human assets such as education (p<0.01), farming experience and health status (p<0.1); Physical assets like land and agricultural machinery ownership (p<0.05); Financial asset like cooperative funding (p<0.05) and Aggregate Social capital (p<0.1) will reduce the poverty status of farming households in Southwestern, Nigeria. Based on the findings of this study, the study recommends that access and use of human capital, financial, physical and social capital assets are important to reduce the poverty status of farming households in Southwestern, Nigeria.poverty, farming household, livelihood assets, Logit, Nigeria, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Security and Poverty,