Relationship Of Resources Availability To Students’ Use Of University Libraries In Nigeria

Abstract

Resources availability as well as its accessibility in any university library is essential for any meaningful academic work to be achieved by the undergraduate students. This paper, therefore, assessed how adequately library resources in Nigerian university libraries affect undergraduate students’ use of the university libraries. The study population was 1,453 undergraduates from across Arts, Education, Engineering, Law, Science and Social Science faculties in the selected universities and the survey research method was used for the study.
The main instrument used for the data collection was a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage tabulation were used in analyzing the data. Results revealed that in university libraries in Nigeria subject coverage of the library materials in the students’ areas of specialization is generally low. The study also revealed that the library materials the students have consulted in Nigerian university libraries are not current but the materials are usually accessible to users. To improve the inadequacy of library resources in
Nigerian university libraries, majority of the respondents indicated the need for university administration in Nigerian universities to provide current and sufficient library materials in all the disciplines offered in the universities as well as provide adequate ICT facilities for users in the university libraries.