Undergraduates’ awareness and use of electronic information resources in selected private universities in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

An incredible positive effect could be perceived on the undergraduate students’ academic endeavours as a result of their utilisation of electronic information resources (EIRs). Nevertheless, observations and empirical proofs have revealed that the utilisation of some of the EIRs by some undergraduate students is low. Conceivably, this observation might not be unrelated with the awareness associated with the knowledge of EIRs which could upset their utilisation by the undergraduates. Hence, the study investigates the influence of awareness on the use of EIRs by the undergraduate students of Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo and Lead City University, Ibadan, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design of the correlational type was used and the study population included all the 9,563 undergraduates of Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo and Lead City University, Ibadan, Nigeria. The multistage random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 221 and the questionnaire was the data collection instrument. Results established that majority 197(98.5%), 190(71.2%) of the respondents indicated a high level of awareness of E-books and E-news respectively. Most 195(97.5%) of the undergraduate students also agreed that they used EIRs for learning. Finding showed that there is a significant relationship between awareness and use of EIRs by the respondents (r(199) = .445**, p<.05). It was suggested that in a bid to sustain a satisfactory level of awareness towards the utilisation of EIRs by the undergraduate students, libraries should constantly engage students with regular literacy programmes so as to ensure effective use and justify investment on EIRs.