PERCEIVED IMPACT OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) ON CURRENT AWARENESS SERVICES IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on current awareness service in university libraries in Benue State, Nigeria. In order to determine the perceived impact of ICT on current awareness service in university libraries in Benue state, two objectives were stated which were to find out the impact of ICT on CAS in university libraries in Benue State and to determine the challenges of accessing ICT based CAS in university libraries in Benue State, two research questions were also raised and one hypothesis was formulated to guide the study. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design and a structured questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. The population of the study was 11,263 and a sample size of 386 registered library users from the three university libraries in Benue State was used for the study. The data collected for the study was analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while chi-square inferential statistics was used to analyse the null hypothesis formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that ICT has significant impact on current awareness services in university libraries in Benue state but not without challenges. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were made to the effect that university libraries of the surveyed universities should be funded well, so that the challenges of ICT-based current awareness service delivery will be minimized.