An Investigation of the Awareness and Use of Open Access Initiative at the Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the information environment of lecturers in Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Kwara State, Nigeria, in relation to their information seeking behavior, extent of use of the polytechnic library, perceptions of the resources and services of the library, level of awareness and extent of use of the open access model of scholarly communications, as well as the challenges of accessing and using information resources. It adopted the survey research method, using a questionnaire for data collection, while the descriptive statistics method was used to analyse the data, using tabular presentation and simple percentages. From a population of 280 lecturers for the study, a purposive sample of 164 was drawn. The findings showed that the lecturers' information needs are focused on online use; they hardly use the polytechnic library due to their perceptions of the resources and services of the library. They are, to a greater extent, aware of open access initiatives, but do not publish in open access outlets, while various challenges affect their access and use of information resources for teaching and research. A recommendation was made, among others, that the polytechnic management should pay more critical attention to the library especially in the areas of adequate, current and comprehensive collections on all the programmes of the institution, as well as the provision of wireless internet services on the campus through a public-private partnership arrangement.