Information Retrieval Skills, Perceived Ease Of Use And Demographic Variables As Determinants Of Undergraduates’ Electronic Resources Utilisation For Research In Nigerian University Libraries

ABSTRACT

There is an increase in provision of electronic resources in Nigerian university libraries, but there is low use of the resources by undergraduates. Some of the students lack information retrieval skills while some do not perceive the e-resources as easy to use. Demographic variables are also known to affect students‟ use of e-resources but the extent of the effect is yet to be determined. The study, therefore, investigated the extent to which information retrieval skills, perceived ease of use and demographic variables would determine students‟ utilisation of electronic resources in university libraries in Nigeria.

The descriptive research design of the correlational type was adopted. Multistage sampling technique was used to select ten universities while three faculties were purposively selected from the universities. Two departments each were randomly selected from the faculties. Also, 2,469 fourth year students were selected as sample. A questionnaire,

“Information Retrieval Skills and Utilisation of Electronic Resources (IRSUER)”: Demographic variables ( r=0.85) : Utilisation (r=0.87) : Perceived Ease of Use (r=0.91) : Retrieval skills (r=0.75) and an interview schedule were used. Four research questions were answered and seven hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance. Qualitative data were content analysed. Information retrieval skills (r= 0. 242; P