Student Engagement with Online and Digital Library Services in a Federal University Setting

Abstract

The rapid advancements in information and communication Technology (ICT) and the dynamics of globalization have brought about tremendous transformation in the ways things are done and information acquired, and handled across various industries, organizations, institutions and bodies as well as other fields of human endeavors and knowledge acquisitions and libraries especially academic libraries are said to be at the epicenter. This study took cognizance of this development to assess the online and digital information services provided by a given university library to her student-users with a view to identifying the challenges and ways to improving the website for effective online information service delivery to student-users and by extension all users. The study applied a descriptive survey design and was guided by four research questions formulated in line with the research objectives. The sampled population for the study was 640 students who were in three and four hundred levels of the Faculties of Education, Social Sciences, and Medical Sciences, Art/Humanities as well as Faculties of law and Basic medical Science and 20 librarians/library officers through purposive sampling technique. While the student-respondents provided answers in respect of objective 1, the librarians provided answers for objectives 2 and 3. A four point Likert type structured questionnaire was the only instrument used for data collection. The instrument was validated using Cronbach’s alpha. Result showed coefficient of α=.80. Data collected were analyzed using frequencies, simple percentile and statistical mean and presented in tables. The outcome of the study did reveal that the library of Alex Ekwueme Federal University does provide some online and digital information services such as online information literacy instruction, online reference services and online public access catalogue (OPAC) and at the same time, falls short in the provision of some other notable online and digital services as in the areas of online courses and Remote access to online catalogue and that poor internet connectivity, inadequate funding of the library among others are major factors militating against the library from providing effective online and digital information services to the students. It further found that to enhance the library website for effective online information service delivery to her users, the library should among other things provide a single point of access to library resources and library online services should be operational 24 hours every day and every week (24/7). Based on the findings, the study suggested that inter-alia that the university management with the support of the federal government, should provide adequate fund to enable the library acquire all needed ICT facilities and equipment that will heighten the provision of online and digital information services to the library users while the librarians on their part, should be more committed to delivering online information services to the users through acquiring the desirable skills and knowledge.