Utilization of e-resources by academic scientists: a study of federal universities in North Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

E-resources are available in all university communities. But their proper and maximum use is a matter for discussion. This study examines the use of e-resources by academic scientists in federal universities in north eastern Nigeria. It determined the type of electronic resources being used, the frequency of use of various data bases, the reasons for using e-resources, the frequency of using e-resources, the access to required information and the preference between e-resources and traditional resources among academic scientists in federal universities in North Eastern Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted for the study. 195 academic scientists in three federal universities in the North Eastern part of Nigeria constituted the respondents of the study. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data collected. It was found that academic scientists frequently make heavy use of most electronic resources available to them; major purposes for which they use electronic resources are because they are more informative, more useful and easy to use. Most of them access information through e-books, e-journals, Online-databases and search engines and they prefer electronic resources than traditional resources.