Availability of funds, time and information resources as predictors of quality research outputs among librarians in Nigerian university libraries

Abstract

The study examined availability of fund, time and information resources as determinants of quality of research outputs in Nigerian universities with reference to university librarians in south east, Nigeria. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study, with three research questions guiding the study. Enumeration sample was used in selecting sample size of 102 librarians across the university libraries in south east. A well structured and self-designed questionnaire was used in data collection, 102 copies of questionnaire were distributed to the respondents with 85 fully filled and returned, representing returned rate of 83.3%. The data generated was analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. The study revealed that availability of fund, time, information and infrastructural resources are critical factors that determine the quality of research outputs by librarians in university libraries. The study concludes that lack of funds among librarians will limit the extent to which they can source for material that will improve the quality of their research output. Librarians should be granted “Research Leave” and also granted research grants, as this would empower them towards carrying out quality research. This study has opened up the frontiers of variables that acts as predictors of quality research outputs among librarians in university libraries  in south east Nigeria. The study has provided empirical evidence on the availability of funds, time, and information resources as predictors of quality of research outputs among librarians.

Keywords: Funding, Time, Factor, Information, Resources, Librarians, University, Libraries