ACCESSIBILITY AND PERCEIVED USEFULNESS OF LIBRARY ELECTRONIC INFORMATION RESOURCES ON POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS' ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES IN NORTH-CENTRAL NIGERIA

Abstract

The study determined the accessibility and perceived usefulness of library electronic information resources on postgraduate students' academic activities in North-Central Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to: determine the level of accessibility of library electronic information resources for academic activities by postgraduate students in North-central, Nigeria and to determine the level of perceived usefulness of library electronic information resources for academic activities by postgraduate students in North-Central, Nigeria. The population of the study is 15,338 postgraduate students enrolled in the government-owned Universities in North-Central Nigeria as of the 2015/2016 academic session. A survey research design was adopted for the study. The study was guided by two research objectives. A questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection to a sampled population of 566 postgraduate students. Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as percentages, mean scores, and standard deviation. The study revealed that postgraduate students have access to e-books, e-journals, films, e-newspapers, e-theses, bibliographic databases, e-reports, CD-ROMs, and e-zines at a very high level. Findings also revealed that postgraduate students' perception of the usefulness of library electronic information resources is very high. It was concluded that postgraduate students have access to e-books and e-journals among other relevant electronic resources. It was recommended that university library management should always grant maximum access to the postgraduate students on other relevant electronic resources which is not limited to only e-books and e-journals and that quality orientation and training should be given to the postgraduate students upon getting admitted into the university so that they would have a better understanding on how to make use of these resources to enable them to address the various gaps in knowledge and also achieve academic excellence.