Influence of awareness, accessibility and use of ICT facilities on academic activities among engineering lecturers in university libraries in North-Central, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of awareness, accessibility and use of ICT facilities on academic activities among engineering lecturers in university libraries in North Central Nigeria. The study was guided by four objectives with four corresponding research questions. The objectives of the study were to: identify the types of academic activities of Engineering lecturers, identify types of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilities that are available for teaching and research to engineering lecturers, challenges to awareness, accessibility and use of ICT facilities on academic activities of engineering lecturers in university libraries in North Central Nigeria. Survey research design method was adopted for the study. The target population was 502 engineering lecturers in five public universities in North Central Nigeria. The sample size of the population was 171 engineering lecturers drawn from population using Polonia 2013. Questionnaire and observation checklist were the instruments used for data collection. All the 171 copies of questionnaire were filled, returned and used for the analysis representing 100%. Descriptive statistical tool involving mean and standard deviation was used to analyze the data. The findings of the study revealed that teaching and learning were the popular academic activities and there was availability of ICT facilities such as computers, CD-ROM, photocopier, printers, digital cameras, OPAC, tablet device, scanner, projector, pen drive, social media output and WI-FI access were available in the universities under study. The study also discovered that the retrieval and dissemination of information was to support research activities of engineering lecturers. There was low level of accessibility to ICT facilities. The conclusion was that ICT facilities are instrumental to meeting the academic and research needs of Engineering Lecturers and they should be well trained. on the use of ICT facilities so as to facilitate their research activities. The study recommended among others the provision for training of library personnel and engineering lecturers to keep them abreast on the use of ICT facilities to support their academic activities as well as alternative sources of power.