AVAILABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY OF ELECTRONIC INFORMATIONRESOURCES: A PANACEA FOR EFFICIENT UTILIZATION BYPOSTGRADUATE STUDENTS IN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES INSOUTH EAST

Abstract

The study investigated on accessibility and utilization of Electronic Information Resources
(EIRs) by postgraduate students in federal universities libraries in South-East Nigeria. This
study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of the study consisted of
2,027 post-graduate students in the federal universities in Southeast Nigeria. The study sample
size was 1000 postgraduate students drawn through the use of proportionate stratified
sampling technique. Three exploration questions directed the review. Data was collected using
a structured questionnaire titled “Accessibility and Utilization of Electronic Information
Resources” (AUEIR). The instrument was properly validated by three (3) experts. The
reliability of the instrument was obtained using Alpha that yielded co-efficient values of 0.89,
0.78, 0.74, 0.89, 0.88 and 0.79 respectively for the five clusters and an overall value of 0.83
which was considered high enough to judge that the instrument is reliable. Frequency counts
and percentages were used to answer research question one while mean and standard
deviation was used to answer research questions two and three. The results showed that
accessibility of electronic information like CD-ROM, web, WWW, and e-mails were used
generally while accessibility of electronic information like e-journals, e- books, and ecatalogues were utilized in university libraries in South East, Nigeria. The results of this study
revealed that the purpose to which electronic information resources are utilized included using
library’s electronic information resources to source materials for research/project writing,
utilizing library’s electronic information resources to do class assignments, amongst others.
The major hindrances to the utilization of electronic information resources observed by
postgraduate students in federal universities in South East, Nigeria are inadequate computer
terminals; constant challenge of network connection. In view of these, some recommendation
s were made, for the Federal government, university authorities and library management to
improve massively on the bandwidth and promote the internet connections for easy retrieval of
e-resources by students and other library clienteles/users.