SOURCE:

Faculty: Education
Department: Library And Information Science

CONTRIBUTORS:

Tiemo, P. A.
Nwosu, O.

ABSTRACT:

This study focused on the availability and utilization of electronic information resource
databases in federal and state University libraries in South-South Nigeria. Eight research
questions and five null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The descriptive
survey research design was employed for this study. The population of the study was 2,350
consisting of university librarians, lecturers and postgraduate students from four (4) federal
and three (3) state university libraries in South-South Nigeria. The research covered the
whole targeted population. Data were collected through the use of structured questionnaire
in a checklist format. The instruments were validated by experts in Measurement and
Evaluation and Library and Information Science, Delta State University, Abraka and Nnamdi
Azikiwe University, Awka. Pearson Product Moment method was used in determining the
reliability of the two instruments which yielded reliability in section C: 0.74 and Section B
0.86. Data collected were analyzed using frequencies and percentages to answer the
research questions 1-8 and the hypotheses were tested using Z-test of difference in
proportion at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed, among others,
that there were 10 free and 7 fee-base EIR databases available in the federal universities,
while the state universities had 10 free databases and 2 fee-base EIR databases. It was
evident from this study that most of the free-base EIR databases that were available in the
federal universities were not available in the state universities despite being free. The nature
and subscription of available EIR databases is very low. This indicates that these
universities hardly subscribe to EIR databases for teaching, learning and research work.
The study also found that there were no significant differences in proportion in the usage of
EIR databases by lecturers for their various purposes, as lecturers in both universities use
these e-resources for similar purposes. Based on these findings, implications were pointed
out and recommendations were made, which included that there should be an improvement
in the acquisition policies and subscription of more EIR databases in the libraries for
teaching, learning and research work in this knowledge based society where access to
current information is needed in developing the society. The study provided information to
librarians and university management on the strengths and weaknesses of their EIR
databases collection.