Use of electronic information resources by undergraduates of federal university of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Electronic information resources now serve as important sources of information to students and lecturers in Nigerian universities. This study aims to investigate the usage of electronic information resources by undergraduates of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. Using the descriptive survey research approach, the simple random sampling was used to select participants from among the undergraduate students from 200 to 500 levels that came to use the library within the study period. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire tagged ‟Usage of Electronic information resources‟‟. A total of 200 questionnaires were administered, of which 184 were duly filled giving a response rate of 92%. The findings revealed that 92.4% of the respondents had used electronic information resources, with 51.8% of them being frequent users. The major electronic resources used by students were internet search engines, e- lecture notes and e-books and they use it for completing class assignments, to obtain course related materials and to keep abreast of latest development in their field. The main access points were home/hostels and university e learning centres; only 31.2% of respondents had used the library to access electronic resources and 84.9% of them were satisfied with the library electronic resources. The major barriers hindering effective use of electronic resources were insufficient skills, difficulty in finding relevant information and frequent power outage. Training students in information searching skills by the library; the provision of networked computers in Departments and Colleges and lecturers giving assignments that require use of electronic resources would increase the use of electronic information resources among undergraduates.