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The use of electronic resources by academic staff at The University of Ilorin, Nigeria

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Abstract

The use of e-resources is now commonplace among academics in tertiary educational institutions the world over. Many academics including those in the universities are exploring the opportunities of e-resources to facilitate teaching and research. As the use of e-resources is increasing particularly among academics at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria; remarkably there have been no single study documented on its use by academic staff in the university. In the light of this, this study assesses the use of electronic resources by academic staff at the University of Ilorin. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the respondents that took part in the study. Questionnaire was used to gather data. Descriptive analyses including percentage and frequency count were used to analyze the data. Of the 847 academic staff at the University of Ilorin, 184 academic staff was taken to represent the sample for the study. Five research questions were developed and answered by the study. The results demonstrate that majority of the academic staff use e-resource for research, curriculum development and self educational development. The study also revealed that search engines and private subscription are the most avenue use to access electronic information. Use of e-resources by academic staff is reported to be hindered by slow Internet service, lack of constant power supply, low availability of e-resources, and inadequate online access. The study concluded that electronic resources usually provide opportunity of getting current and up-to-date data/information, but this invaluable information sources have not been fully utilized by these academic staff. Based on the conclusion, the study recommends that the Internet facilities at the university should be improved to facilitate easy access to the e-resources in other to encourage more usage; and that, the University should re-orientate academic staff on how to access the electronic resources/databases subscribed to by the University for effective and efficient usage.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Science, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

    Adeyinka Tella

  2. Department of Library and Information Science, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria

    Adeyinka Tella & Dauda Morenikeji Ibrahim

  3. Department of Library and Information Science, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria

    Faith Orim

  4. Department of Information Communication Science, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria

    Suleiman Ajala Memudu

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  1. Adeyinka Tella
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  2. Faith Orim
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  3. Dauda Morenikeji Ibrahim
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  4. Suleiman Ajala Memudu
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Correspondence to Adeyinka Tella.

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Tella, A., Orim, F., Ibrahim, D.M. et al. The use of electronic resources by academic staff at The University of Ilorin, Nigeria. Educ Inf Technol 23, 9–27 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-017-9577-2

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