INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY PROFICIENCIES, ACCESS AND USE OF NON-ENGLISH COLLECTIONS FOR RESEARCH ACTIVITIES OF POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS IN UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH-WEST, NIGERIA.

Abstract

This study was focused on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) proficiencies, access and use of non-English collections for research activities of postgraduate students in universities in South-west, Nigeria. The study was guided by two research objectives with corresponding research questions and one hypothesis. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. A sample size of 380 was drawn out of a population of 52,358 postgraduate students. Copies of questionnaire were distributed to the respondents out of which 278 were returned and used for the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data collected. The study also established that the most germane factors affecting Information and Communication Technology proficiencies, access and use of non-English collections for research activities of post-graduate students in the study area are limited language proficiency, exorbitant cost of procuring ICT facilities, and sluggish Internet connectivity. The null hypothesis formulated in the study showed that there is high correlation and the relationship is highly significant (rho = 0.493, p-value <.001). It is among other recommendations that university libraries put up a series of periodic training on emerging ICT skills needed to access the electronic information resources and should provide access to online resources with multilingual interfaces.