LIBRARY INFORMATION RESOURCES UTILIZATION AND RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY OF ACADEMIC STAFF IN UNIVERSITIES IN BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of Library Information Resources Utilization and Research Productivity of Academic Staff in Universities in Benue State, Nigeria. Three objectives with corresponding research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a survey research design. The target population for this study was 1,476 of all academic staff in the three universities in Benue State - Joseph SarwuanTarka University, Benue State University and University of Mkar, Mkar. Sample size for this study was 315 academic staff. Sampling techniques used were purposive sampling, proportionate stratified random sampling and accidental sampling. The instrument for data collection was a self- developed structured questionnaire titled “Influence of Library Information Resources Utilization on Research Productivity of Academic Staff in Universities Questionnaire (ILIRURPASUQ)”. The reliability of the questionnaire was established using Cronbach Alpha method and a reliability coefficient of 0.85 was obtained. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics of Frequency Counts, Percentages, Mean, Standard Deviation to answer the research questions and Chi-Square Statistic to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that, the information resources utilized by academic staff for research productivity in universities in Benue State include: textbooks, journal articles, magazines, newspapers, conference proceedings, research reports, monographs, government documents, projects, theses, dissertations, dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes, abstracts and databases among others. The finding also revealed that, utilization of library information resources like textbooks and journal articles to a high extent has significantly influence positively the research productivity of academic staff in Universities in Benue State. Recommendations were made among others that, there should be continuous sensitization of academic staff on the availability of information resources that are found to be utilized for research productivity in the university libraries, and also enlighten academic staff through workshops on the relevance of electronic resources such as e-maps, videos, DVDs and CDs in enhancing research productivity. Also, university libraries should be well equipped with relevant text books, current and relevant journal articles and also ensure continuous sensitization of academic staff on their availability in the library since its utilization is found to enhance research productivity of academic staff.