• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.43-56
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• 2016

Introduction. Inadequate methods for acquiring user education could affect the level of library user education possessed by postgraduate students, and ultimately influence the purposes of their usage of e-resources provided in their university libraries. Despite the global acceptance that e-resources are contributing to postgraduate student’s research work, however, it has been documented that there is low use of e-resources in university libraries in Nigeria among postgraduate students. This drift could have negative consequences on their overall development. Therefore, this study determined how influential library user education is on the use of e-resources by postgraduate students in Nigerian university libraries.Methods. A survey research design and multi-stage sampling technique was adopted to select 2,726 from 54,578 postgraduate students from four faculties in 16 federal conventional universities in Nigeria. The data set was collected using a questionnaire and an interview schedule for e-resources librarians/system librarians and was analysed using percentage and Pearson’s product moment correlation.Results. The majority of the students were at the Master’s level (57.5%). The gender shows a ratio of 59.0% male and 41.0% female. Most Nigerian students enrol for postgraduate programmes in their thirties ‘30-39’ years. The use of e-resources by the postgraduates was low (weighted average of 2.45). The relationship between level of library user education and postgraduate students’ use of e-resources was positive, slightly strong, and significant (r = 318; df = 2284; p< .05).Conclusion. User education has positively inclined postgraduate students to the use of e-resources in their libraries. Therefore, libraries should employ all methods for acquiring user education for postgraduate students.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.47-64
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• 2024

The role of librarians has evolved beyond traditional bookkeeping and cataloging to include dynamic responsibilities in research information retrieval. This study examined the determinants influencing effective research information retrieval among Nigerian librarians, specifically focusing on ICT competencies, web competencies, and web search strategies. A descriptive survey was conducted, sampling 112 librarians from eight universities using questionnaires as the data collection instrument. The findings revealed that all three determinants-ICT competencies, web competencies, and web search strategies-were positively correlated with librarians' effective information retrieval for research in university libraries. Among them, web search strategies had the most significant impact, while web competencies had the least. Additionally, the combined influence of these determinants accounted for 68% of librarians' effective information retrieval for research. A multiple regression analysis was performed, yielding an F-ratio value of 37.85, which was significant at the 0.05 level. This underscores the importance of these determinants in shaping the effectiveness of information retrieval practices among librarians in university libraries.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.43-61
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• 2019

The purpose of the study is to investigate the influence of demographic factors (age and job status), level of ICT skills possessed by respondents and ICT use on task performances of library personnel. The study employed correlation design. Thirteen public universities were purposely selected while total enumeration was adopted to study 248 library personnel made up of librarians and library officers in public university libraries in South-west, Nigeria. Data was collected by questionnaire. The study established significant positive correlation between age, job status, ICT skills and task performance. Also, Anova test found significant joint influence of age, job status, ICT skills and ICT use on task performances of respondents. The study further indicated that age, job status, ICT skills possessed by respondents and ICT use had relative significant influence on task performances of respondents. It is therefore recommended that, library personnel must leverage their demographics positively to bring about positive disposition to their jobs while all categories of staff must ensure they possessed the requisite ICT skills that will ginger ICT use for effective task performance.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.53-73
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• 2024

The purpose of the study is to investigate the development of institutional repositories in university libraries in Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research design. Online questionnaire, IRs investigation, and interview methods were used to collect data from the 21 university libraries that have developed IRs in Nigeria. The study revealed that only few universities have successfully developed open access IRs to preserve and manage their intellectual outputs emanating from their universities. Contents such as journal articles, theses/dissertations, and conference / workshop papers were found to be the most popular contents that are hosted in the IRs. The interview revealed that although few respondents mentioned having IR policy statements in areas such as access policy, submission policy, preservation policy, content policy and copyright policy, the majority mentioned not having any defined policy in their IR. Also in the interview, inadequate fund, challenge of collecting contents for the IR, shortage of skilled ICT personnel, and inadequate facilities were the most mentioned challenges encountered in the development of IRs in Nigeria. Findings from this study will inform University Librarians, university management and policy makers on the need to provide the necessary infrastructure and formulate policies for smooth development of institutional repositories to make research visible globally. The results will therefore provide important data and insight into the development of institutional repositories in university libraries in the context of developing countries.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.49-65
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• 2018

Are the benefits derived from ICT based reference and information service worth the financial and other commitments devoted to it? In an attempt to answer this, this study delved into finding out the perceived benefits; the rational for ICT based reference services in Nigerian university libraries. The main objectives were to find out the purposes for using ICT facilities in reference services delivery and the perceived benefits derived from using ICT resources in reference and information services. Being a survey, questionnaire was used to collect data from the librarians of twelve (12) universities; two (2) each sampled from the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Data was analyzed using frequencies, mean scores and standard deviations. ANOVA statistical analysis was used to test the hypothesis of no significance difference in the benefits derived from ICT based reference services using p-value of 0.05 to calculate the level of significance. Findings showed that librarians and library users made use of ICT facilities for different reference purposes especially to obtain information they need using the internet. Other reference needs for which patrons used the ICT facilities included: - access to current e-books and e - journals, user education and access to global information in other libraries. Provision of current awareness services (CAS) and selective dissemination of information services (SDI), on-line searching using workstations in the library, provision of on-line public access catalogue (OPAC) services, keeping statistics of users of the reference section and compilation of bibliographies. Further findings showed that the librarians and library users derive a lot of benefits from their use of ICT facilities in reference services. The results showed that easy retrieval and dissemination of information to patrons were ranked highest by the librarians amongst others.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.59-76
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• 2024

The prominent role accorded to social media in the academic community for research, teaching and learning revolves around its significance among users. Social media offers a platform for individuals to engage with and share perceptions relating to different disciplines. This current research was conducted to investigate the level of awareness and frequency of social media technology use among postgraduate students of Library and Information Science in Nigerian universities. The descriptive survey design was used for the study. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from 919 library and information science (LIS) postgraduate students in the universities. In all, 742 copies out of the 919 distributed were returned and found usable, thereby making the return rate to be 81%. Data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation. The study revealed that the LIS postgraduate students frequently use social media such as Wikipedia (x=3.94>3.50), Instagram (x=3.86>3.50), Facebook (x=3.85>3.50), Zoom ($\overline{x}$=3.78>3.50), LinkedIn (x=3.69>3.50), YouTube ($\overline{x}$=3.54>3.50), Twitter (x=3.52>3.50). The study established that students use social media tools for their personal, professional and research activities. The study also found that the level of awareness and use of social media by the students was high. The study recommended that the use of social media should be incorporated into the LIS curriculum including training sessions for the students on how to use the media effectively.

• International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.47-68
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• 2019

The study investigates the utilization of open access repositories for visibility of academic publications by lecturers in South-East, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to investigate the types of academic publications available, platforms used in self-archiving, level of satisfaction derived by lecturers with the contribution of open access repositories, challenges and strategies. It adopted descriptive survey design. Proportionate stratified sampling technique was used to draw a sample size of 418 from the total population of 4,187 lecturers. Questionnaire and observation check list were used for data collection. Frequency count, percentage, and mean score were used to analyze the data. The study revealed that there are enough academic publications available such as books, journals, projects, and thesis with the exception of handouts. It also revealed that Google Scholar, Research Gate and Open Access Journal were the main platforms lecturers use in self-archiving; while other platforms like Institutional Repositories, among others were minimally employed. Lecturers are less satisfied with the contribution of open access repositories. All the suggested challenges such as inadequate power supply, poor network, lack of awareness and inadequate research grants were all accepted. Similarly, all the suggested strategies for improving them were accepted. Recommendations were made based on the findings such as more awareness creation on importance of open access repositories; re-training of lecturers and provision of adequate ICT infrastructures that will improve the utilization of open access repositories by lecturers which could enhance the global visibility of academic publications from the Nigerian Universities.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.26-46
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• 2017

This article investigates perceptions and use of Open Access journals (OAJs) by master's degree students in two universities in the southwestern part of Nigeria. A descriptive survey design was used in the study and the study population was comprised of 7,423 master's degree students in the University of Ibadan and 1,867 from Obafemi Awolowo University. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 249 and the data collection instrument was a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, mean, standard deviation, correlation, and regression analyses. The findings revealed that OAJs were used for learning, dissertation writing, personal research, and development. OAJs were not frequently used because of download delays, unavailability of Internet facilities, and limited access to computers terminals, among other issues. OAJs were found to be of relative advantage, positively perceived, and found to be compatible with existing values and quality assurance in scholarly publications, hence their use for academic activities. The regression analyses showed that there was a significant positive relationship between positive perception, perception of relative advantage, perception of compatibility, perception complexity, and master's degree students' use of OAJs. Negative perception was found to have a significant negative correlation with the use of OAJs. This article recommends that quality assurance of OAJs should be ensured in order to boost users' positive perceptions to increase their patronage and usage of these scholarly outlets for various academic activities, which will in turn encourage research and development across the various institutions of higher learning in Nigeria.