Availability and Accessibility of Geographic Information Systems in Nigerian Federal Universities of Technology Libraries

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the Availability and Accessibility of Geographic Information Systems in Nigerian Federal Universities of Technology Libraries. Three research questions were formulated. Survey research design was used for this study. The overall total number of 1422 respondent including students, faculty staff (GIS users) and librarians were drawn as population and as sample size of the study, from Federal University of Technology, Akure, Minna, Owerri and Abubakar Tafawa Belewa University, Bauchi. Two set of questionnaire were used to collect data for this study one for the GIS users and another for the Librarians. The data collected were presented and analyzed using frequency distribution table and percentages. The study found among others that there are computer hardware units for GIS operation, though some peripherals like plotters, scanner were less available among the selected Nigeria FUTs, ArcView was the type of GIS software that were available for GIS operations. This study concluded that GIS services will be better utilized if they are brought into the library which is the information hub of the university. Lastly, it was recommended that the university library should collaborate with organizations that deal with spatial information or GIS related departments in the university to facilitate GIS services integration into the array of library services.