International Journal of Knowledge Content Development & Technology

Research Institute for Knowledge Content Development & Technology (건국대학교 지식콘텐츠연구소)
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The Perceived Benefits of Electronic/digital Reference Services in Nigerian University Libraries: a survey

  • Uzoigwe, Comfort U. (National Open University of Nigeria, Enugu Study Centre) ;
  • Eze, Jacintha U. (Department of Library and Information Science, Enugu State University of Science and Technology)
  • Received : 2018.04.23
  • Accepted : 2018.05.25
  • Published : 2018.06.30
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Abstract

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.

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