CHALLENGES OF UTILIZATION OF ONLINE INFORMATION RESOURCES BY UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR INFORMATION SERVICES

The purpose of this study is to explore the direct and indirect factors underlying the students’ challenges with the use of online information resources in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and propose the implications of these challenges. This study used qualitative descriptive inductive content analysis that enabled the researchers to reveal who said what with respect to the research questions. Data were collected from a total of two hundred third year undergraduate students who visited the university library between September, 30, 2015 and March 31, 2016. The data collection was done through a questionnaire developed by the researchers. While the demographic information of the participants was illustrated in descriptive statistics, qualitative data were analyzed through inductive content analysis to represent participants’ views on each of the research questions. The results revealed that few online resources were widely used and that the participants preferred accessing these resources from Cyber cafes. The greatest of the direct factors underlying students’ challenges with the use of online information include lack of browsing skills, low internet bandwidth and insufficient ICT infrastructure, whereas the indirect factors include lack of internet access at home, absence of online assignments, lack of motivation to use online information and majority of the students not having personal laptops. The statistical difference in the opinion of the students on the direct and indirect factors was not significant. The paper concludes with the implications of these challenges for information services

CHALLENGES OF UTILIZATION OF ONLINE INFORMATION RESOURCES BY UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR INFORMATION SERVICES

The purpose of this study is to explore the direct and indirect factors underlying the students’ challenges with the use of online information resources in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and propose the implications of these challenges. This study used qualitative descriptive inductive content analysis that enabled the researchers to reveal who said what with respect to the research questions. Data were collected from a total of two hundred third year undergraduate students who visited the university library between September, 30, 2015 and March 31, 2016. The data collection was done through a questionnaire developed by the researchers. While the demographic information of the participants was illustrated in descriptive statistics, qualitative data were analyzed through inductive content analysis to represent participants’ views on each of the research questions. The results revealed that few online resources were widely used and that the participants preferred accessing these resources from Cyber cafes. The greatest of the direct factors underlying students’ challenges with the use of online information include lack of browsing skills, low internet bandwidth and insufficient ICT infrastructure, whereas the indirect factors include lack of internet access at home, absence of online assignments, lack of motivation to use online information and majority of the students not having personal laptops. The statistical difference in the opinion of the students on the direct and indirect factors was not significant. The paper concludes with the implications of these challenges for information services

Awareness and Utilization of Electronic Databases for Scholarly Research by Faculty of Education Lecturers in Federal Universities in South East, Nigeria

This study was designed to investigate the awareness and utilization of electronic databases for scholarly research by faculty of education lecturers in federal universities in South East, Nigeria. Six (6) research questions were formulated to guide the study. In conducting this research, the researcher used descriptive survey design which was considered most appropriate for this study. The study was conducted in the South East zone with a population of five hundred and ninety-one (591) lecturers in faculties of education from three selected federal universities. The instruments used for data collection was the questionnaire and interview schedule. The validity of the research instrument was established by three experts. One of the instruments which is a questionnaire, contains 86 items from cluster 1-6. A total of 591 copies of the questionnaires were distributed and 527 were filled and returned for the study. Data obtained from the questionnaire was analyzed using mean and percentages. Findings from the study revealed that faculty of education lecturers are aware of the electronic databases highlighted in the study and electronic databases listed are utilized by faculty of education lecturers for scholarly research. The study identified erratic power, shaky network, indifference, know-how deficit and poor computer literacy as hiccups of awareness and utilization of electronic databases for scholarly research. The study recommends that institutional heads and management should be sensitized on the need and importance of subscribing to relevant databases; Training and Re-training of lecturers as well as library staff should be constant; Internet facilities of the University like the local and wide area networks (LAN and WAN) should also be improved and maintained to facilitate easy access to the databases among others