ELECTRONIC INFORMATION RESOURCES AS CORRELATES OF LIBRARIANS’ JOB PERFORMANCE IN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN NORTH-CENTRAL NIGERIA.

Abstract

The study investigated information resources as correlates of librarians‟ job performance in federal university electronic libraries in North-Central Nigeria. The study was guided by two research questions and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level. The study adopted a correlational research design. The population of the study comprised 175 librarians in the eight (8) Federal Universities in North-Central, Nigeria. There was no sampling since the entire population is relatively small and manageable. The researcher developed questionnaires titled “Electronic Information Resources Scale (EIRS)” and „„Librarians‟ Job Performance Questionnaire (LJPQ)‟‟ which were used for data collection. The instruments were validated by three experts, two from the Department of Library and Information Science, and one from Measurement and Evaluation in Department of Educational Foundations, Nnamdi Azikiwe University. Cronbach alpha method was used for a test of internal consistency of the instruments which yielded coefficients of 0.80 for EIRS and 0.78 for WEQ respectively. The researcher together with eight research assistants collected data for the study using the direct approach method and 98% return was recorded. The research questions were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlational Coefficient and the hypotheses were tested using t-test of correlation. The findings of the study revealed among others thatdigital reference resources and institutional repository resources had strong relationship with librarians‟ job performance in federal university electronic libraries in north central Nigeria. Also, digital reference resources and institutional repository resources had significant relationship with librarians‟ job performance in federal university electronic libraries in north central Nigeria. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that University management should formulate formal policy that encourages members of staff and students to deposit their intellectual outputs in institutional repositories to make available electronic information resources to librarians for easy discharge of their duties of preservation, tracking and meeting of information needs of library patrons.