INFLUENCE OF INFORMATION LITERACY ON USE OF ELECTRONIC INFORMATION RESOURCES BY UNDERGRADUATES IN BENUE STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of information literacy on the use of electronic information resources by undergraduate students in University Libraries 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 descriptive survey research design. The target population for this study comprises 6,476 three hundred level undergraduate in the three University Libraries under study. The sample for the study was 377 undergraduate students who were selected using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection is a self-developed structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was validated by three experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was established using Cronbach Alpha method and a reliability coefficient of 0.77 was obtained. Data collected was analyzed using Mean scores, Standard Deviation and Chi-Square Statistic. Findings revealed that tool and research literacy does not significantly influence the use of Electronic Information Resources and that the challenges affecting electronic information resources use by undergraduate students are erratic power supply, poor network, low bandwidth, lack of subscriptions in specific fields of interest, access password issues, lack of assistance from the librarians, inadequate computers in the library, negative attitudes of staff towards users, and lack of awareness about statutory provision for accessing. The study concluded that the information literacy taught to students has not benefited the students in usage of electronic information resources. It was recommended that University librarians need to re-evaluate their roles and be more active in the task of inculcating the contents of information literacy to students to be able to effectively retrieve and use electronic information resources.