ACCESSIBILITY AND USE OF ELECTRONIC INFORMATION RESOURCES AND SERVICES IN MTN UNIVERSITIES CONNECT LIBRARIES

(A CASE STUDY OF NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES)

By

Author

Presented To

Department of Education

ABSTRACT
This study investigated the availability, accessibility and use of electronic information resources and services in MTN Universities connect in Nigerian Universities. Six research questions and four null hypotheses were formulated and tested with respect to the type of electronic information resources and services; extent of use of electronic information resources and services and purpose of use of electronic information resources and services in MTN Universities Connect in Nigerian Universities. Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total number of 273 registered library customers from the 4 MTN Net libraries in Nigerian Universities were drawn as sample size. A questionnaire was used to collect data for this study. The data collected were presented and analyzed using Frequency distribution tables, percentages and histograms. While the hypotheses, were tested using T-test and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMC). The study found among others that Sabinet online reference database; Ebscohost reference database, Nation Academic press databases, Virtual Libraries online, Science Direct online, E-books online Libraries, Linguistics Database online, Guternberg online Library, Free Library online, Google Search Engine and E-newspaper were the electronic information resources available in the 2 MTN libraries studied. Also, it was found that Email Services, WWW Services, Databases Services and Printing Services were the electronic information services available in the 2 MTN libraries studied. SABINET online reference database, EBSCOHOST, JSTOR, Nation Academic press database, Virtual Libraries Online, Free Library Online, Google Search Engine and E-newspapers were the type of electronic information resources that are highly accessible with the highest frequencies of over 60% response scores in the two MTN UniversitiesConnect Libraries studied. There is no significant difference between the ABU and UNIBEN MTN Universitiesconnect libraries customers in the type of electronic information resources and services they preferred most. The study concluded that electronic information resources are vital and are the backbone of any dynamic collection, most of the electronic information resources such are full text databases, electronic books are not publicly available free of charge and they are expensive, and they offer creative possibilities for expanding access as well as changing learning behaviour and academic research in Universities. Lastly, management of the MTN UniversitiesConnect Libraries should ensure that all hick ups such as power outages, denial of access, network fluctuations and system breakdowns are minimized in order to promote access and use of the electronic information resources and services in the libraries.