Awareness and use of electronic databases by public library users in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated awareness, access and use of electronic database by public library users in Ibadan Oyo State in Nigeria. The purpose of this study was to determine awareness of public library users’ electronic databases, find out what these users used electronic databases to do and to identify problems associated with electronic databases usage by the public library users. The study adopted questionnaire survey method to collect data from 300 public library users that were selected using simple random sampling technique. A response rate of 300 was received and used for data analysis. The results showed that majority of Ibadan Public Library users are the tertiary education institutions students; participants in the study were averagely aware that the library subscribed to electronic databases and did not have idea that the public library subscribe to some other databases. The study identified the most common problem encountered by participants as power failure. The study concludes that, participants of the study were averagely aware about the available electronic databases in the library. Therefore, the study recommends that public library in Ibadan, Oyo State should provide more power to assist users in accessing the electronic databases and to create more awareness of the electronic database to users.

Keywords: Awareness, Access, Electronic, Database, Public, Library.