Information Literacy Skills and Availability of Information Resources as Factors Influencing Research Productivity of Academic Staff’s in Nigerian Federal Universities
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Date
2013
Authors
Okiki, O.C
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Publisher
University of Ibadan Postgraduate School
Abstract
Research productivity requiring information resources is a measure of academic success. The volume of information resources potentially available to academic staff is massive hence there is a need for information literacy skills to access these, evaluate, and effectively utilize available information for research productivity. Several studies have examined academics’ research productivity using variables, such as institutional factors, demographic characteristics and information utilization skills. However, these studies have not adequately addressed the influence of information literacy skills and availability of information resources on research productivity of academics. This study, therefore, examined the influence of information literacy skills and availability of information resources on research productivity of academic staff in federal universities in Nigeria.
Descriptive survey research design was adopted. The Multistage sampling technique was used to select 1,057 academic staff members from twelve federal universities in the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. The categories of academic staff covered in the study were from professorial cadre to graduate assistant. The instruments used for data collection were: Information Literacy Skills (r=0.92), Literacy Skills Acquisition (r= 0.83), Availability of Information Resources (r= 0.69) and Research Productivity of Academics (r=0.91). Eight hundred and seventy-three copies of the questionnaire were used for analysis. Seven research questions were answered and three hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and multiple regression.
Information literacy skills correlated significantly with academics’ research productivity (r=0.47; df=87: p<0.05). Information literacy skills and availability of information resources jointly contributed significantly to research productivity of academics (F=139.78; df= (2,872); p<0.05; R2= 0.24). There was no significant relationship between availability of information resources and academics research productivity. The mean score of overall research productivity of academics was ( =3.51; SD = 2.64). The mean scores of information literacy skills was ( = 2.06; SD = 0.38), an indication that information literacy skills of academics in Nigerian federal universities was high. Information literary skills of academic was high in the South South ( = 151.89; SD = 17.3) and North East ( =136.21; SD = 19.8). Similarly, research productivity was high in the North East ( = 20.69; SD = 31.2) and South West ( = 21.74; SD = 87.2). Also, the mean score of information resources availability was adequate in Nigerian federal universities libraries ( =2.41; SD = 0.90) which means that information resources were readily available to academics for research productivity. The following constituted barriers to research productivity of academics in the universities: low Internet bandwidth ( = 3.793; SD=1.162) and financial constraint ( =3.543; SD=1.257). These could hinder access to information resources for research capabilities of academic staff in Nigeria universities.
Information literacy skills and availability of information resources positively influenced academic staff’s research productivity in Nigerian federal universities. To further sustain academic staff research productivity, there should be continuous training and retraining of academics on information literacy skills acquisition and adequate provision of information resources in their university libraries. Awareness programme on availability of information resources should be given by librarians regularly to increase research productivity of academics.
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Keywords
Research Subject Categories::SOCIAL SCIENCES::Other social sciences::Library and information science , Research productivity , Academic staff , Information literacy skills , Information resources , Nigeria universities
Citation
Okiki,O.C (2013) Information Literacy Skills and Availability of Information Resources as Factors Influencing Research Productivity of Academic Staff’s in Nigerian Federal Universities. A Thesis Submitted to University of Ibadan, School of Postgraduate Studies Phd Thesis and Dissertation, 164pp.