ABSTRACT

This study examined the Accessibility and Utilisation of Open-Access e-resources by Postgraduate students of Federal Universities in South South, Nigeria. Eight (8) research questions were developed and eight (8) hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.5 level of significance for the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The study was centered on four of the south-south states, namely; Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, and Edo state. The population for the study was 1401 Doctoral (PhD) and Masters of Education (M.Ed) postgraduate students from four federal Universities of the south-south geo-political zone of Nigeria, namely: University of Calabar, University of Uyo, University of Port-Harcourt and University of Benin.  The sample for the study was 349 postgraduate students in the faculty of education of Federal Universities in South South, Nigeria. The study employed the multi-stage sampling techniques precisely; purposive and disproportionate stratified-simple random sampling techniques. A structured questionnaire titled “Accessibility and Utilisation of Open-Access Electronic Resources Questionnaire (AUOAERQ)” was used for the study. Face validity of the instrument was established by three (3) lecturers: two from department of Library and Information Science and one from Measurement and Evaluation unit of Science Education department, all from College of Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. The reliability of the instrument for the study was determined with a trial test on 20 postgraduate students of College of Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike Abia state, which was outside the study area, but has similar characteristics with the target respondents using Cronbach Alpha statistics to determine the internal consistency of the questionnaire items which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.84. The data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation to answer the research questions while t-test statistic was used to test the hypotheses at .05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed, among others that Open-Access e-resources were used for academic purpose by Postgraduate students. Also M.Ed Postgraduate students of Federal Universities in South-South, Nigeria accessed and utilised Open-Access e-resources to a high extent while the PhD Postgraduate students accessed and utilised them to low extent. However, the level of satisfaction derived by both the M.Ed and PhD Postgraduate students of on the use of Open-Access e-resources were all to high extent. Challenges associated with the accessibility of Open-Access e-resources by Postgraduate students were lack of co-operation with Librarians/Library staff; lack of e-resources search and retrieval mandated course in postgraduate curriculum; and poor advocacy of Open-Access e-resources respectively. Recommendations such as provision of adequate library ICT infrastructures in the universities for postgraduate use and stable power supply; encouragement of ownership of personal computer for postgraduate students among others were made.