CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
The university libraries are
libraries established to cater for the academic and research needs of the
university. They serve the reading and research interests of undergraduates, lecturers,
researchers, and other users. University libraries are big repositories of
information and knowledge from all fields of learning to the academic community
of students and staff that they serve. University libraries, which are academic
libraries, provide support to members of an academic community, including
students, researchers and lecturers
University libraries collections are
tailored towards achievement of the institution goals of teaching, learning and
research. They serve the students, lecturers, administrative members of the
academic community as well as others. They are central to learning, research,
and have always depended on relevant new technologies, which on the other hand
are driven by emerging trends in education and research. The major function of
University libraries is to provide resources to meet the needs of users. Their
materials are diversified to support teaching and programmers that take place
within them. Therefore, the University library has to build a strong collection
of information resources in physical and digital formats to cater for the
knowledge requirements of students, faculty members and research scholars of
the institution.
Akintunde (2006) submitted that,
librarianship continues to hold a central place in higher education worldwide.
It has remained the strength of the best traditions in academics worldwide.
Nonetheless, significant progress will have to be made for Nigerian higher
education libraries to be in the main stream of the digital revolution. This is
because library services today require more global networking in delivering
services.
However, the
twentieth century was shaped by sweeping changes in communication technologies.
The emergence and use of information technology is the century’s most significant
development affecting scholarly communication. The application of computers to
information processing has brought several products and services to the scenes.
Consequently, the academic community has undergone tremendous changes during
these years, assuming new dimensions influenced by technology-driven
applications. Thus, libraries are using technology to improve the management of
scholarly information to strengthen and speedy access to scholarly information.
Electronic-Databases
(e-databases) have become an established component of many academic libraries’
collection. These databases often contain journal articles, or references to
such articles, e-books, reference sources, conference papers and reports among
others. There are various types of these databases such as bibliographic,
full-text, directory, numeric and multimedia.
E-databases are
widely available and can be accessed from anywhere and by many users at the
same time. It is therefore convenient to use. University libraries, therefore,
spend large amounts of money on these resources to satisfy the teaching,
learning and research needs of its faculty and students. As universities spend
substantial amount of money on subscription of these databases, it is only
appropriate and economical that these databases are optimally utilized to
contribute to the academic achievement of students and faculty and also to get
value for money.
In spite of the value
of e-databases and ensuring that it is available for use by library clients,
studies have shown that usage is not up to level expected or is simply
underutilized. Reasons most often advanced for not using the databases include
lack of awareness, preference for other sources like general search engines
such as Google, lack of search skill, lack of adequate ICT infrastructure, bad
downloading time, and at times sheer attitude of users. The manifestation of
these reasons may differ from place to place or from situation to situation.
Dukic (2013) and Ahmed, 2013b), for example, indicated that usage of
e-databases in developed countries is more than in developing countries
basically because of poor ICT infrastructure and huge cost of such resources.
Anaraki and Babalhavaeji (2013) also pointed out that where students are not
aware of existence of e-databases they tend to use general search engines to
meet their information needs.
Online electronic
information resources usually consist of online books, online journals, online
magazines,online newspapers, online theses, dissertations, online databases
which are likely to be alternative through media EBSCO HOST, DOAJ, JSTOR,
HINARI, are some of the examples of
online electronic databases, these are available on the internet either through
open access or commercially (Kumar, and Kumar,2010). On the other hand, offline
electronic information resources include e-journals, e-dataarchives, e-
manuscripts, e-maps, e-books, e-magazines, e-theses, e-newspapers,
e-mail,e-research reports, e-bibliographicdatabase and CD-ROM databases which
are accessible through some electronic machines.
According
to the International Federation of Library Association and Institution (IFLA)
“electronic databases” refer to those materials that require computer access
whether through personal computer, mainframe, or handheld mobile device. They
may be either accessed remotely via the internet or locally. They include:
e-journal, e -books, full text (aggregated) databases, Indexing abstracting
databases, reference databases, numeric and statistical databases, e-images,
e-audio visuals resources. (IFLA, 2012)
1.2 Statement
of the problem
University Library is a repository of resources; it is an integral part of the educational system whose primary function is to serve users (students, researchers and staff). Computers and related electronic database have come to play a central role in education. Electronic resources are the prime ingredients and they become a common part of the suite of most academic library resources today. E-databases have brought about a shift in the provision of library services and information by providing wide access to resources from different parts of the world with ease. E- resources provide many advantages over the traditional print based resources. They contain current information because they are updated frequently. They offer advanced search capabilities, and offer flexibility in the storage of results. They enable access and use of information without restriction of time and location.(Kumar and Kumar 2010). Academic libraries provide access to information resources in various formats including electronic information resources services. This is through open access international donors or annual subscription of online databases such as HINARI, JSTORE, DOAJ, AJOL, EBSCOHOST etc. and other offline information resources, to facilitate access to information resources to users. However, preliminary investigation revealed that most electronic information resources in the Nigeria university Libraries were underutilized (Olusanya, 2014) and there is no element of publicity regarding their availability and usage (Stephen,2012). This brought about the need to investigate the availability and usage of E-databases in Academic Libraries Kwara state.
1.3
Objectives of the Study
The main purpose of
this study is to examine the awareness and uses of library electronic databases
by lecturers in university libraries in two selected colleges in kwara state university.
The objectives of the study are as follows;
1. Identify the types of available library
Electronic databases that lecturers are aware of in the selected colleges in
kwara state university.
2. Investigate the
types of library E-databases used by lecturers in selected colleges in kwara
state university.
3. Ascertain the
extent of use of library e-database by lecturers in selected colleges in kwara
state university
4. To find out the purpose
of use of electronic Resources available in the academic libraries in kwara
state university.
5. Identify factors that affect the use of library e-database by lecturers and those problems militating against the use of E=databases in the selected colleges in kwara state university.
AWARENESS AND USAGE OF E-DATABASE BY LECTURERS IN TWO SELECTED COLLEGES IN KWARA STATE UNIVERSITY, MALETE, COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND COLLEGE OF ICT
