Postgraduate Students’ Use of E-Resources in Nigerian University Libraries: What is the Influence of User Education?

Abstract

Introduction. Inadequate methods for acquiring user education could affect the level of library user education possessed by postgraduate students, and ultimately influence the purposes of their usage of e-resources provided in their university libraries. Despite the global acceptance that e-resources are contributing to postgraduate student’s research work, however, it has been documented that there is low use of e-resources in university libraries in Nigeria among postgraduate students. This drift could have negative consequences on their overall development. Therefore, this study determined how influential library user education is on the use of e-resources by postgraduate students in Nigerian university libraries. Methods. A survey research design and multi-stage sampling technique was adopted to select 2,726 from 54,578 postgraduate students from four faculties in 16 federal conventional universities in Nigeria. The data set was collected using a questionnaire and an interview schedule for e-resources librarians/system librarians and was analysed using percentage and Pearson’s product moment correlation. Results. The majority of the students were at the Master’s level (57.5%). The gender shows a ratio of 59.0% male and 41.0% female. Most Nigerian students enrol for postgraduate programmes in their thirties ‘30-39’ years. The use of e-resources by the postgraduates was low (weighted average of 2.45). The relationship between level of library user education and postgraduate students’ use of e-resources was positive, slightly strong, and significant (r = 318; df = 2284; p< .05). Conclusion. User education has positively inclined postgraduate students to the use of e-resources in their libraries. Therefore, libraries should employ all methods for acquiring user education for postgraduate students.