Digital Literacy Competencies of Postgraduate Students for Access and Use of Digital Information Resources and Services in University Libraries in Kaduna State

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine the digital literacy competencies of postgraduate students for access and use of digital  information resources and services in university libraries in Kaduna State. In order to achieve this, two research questions and one null  hypothesis were formulated and tested in the study. Survey research method was adopted for the study. The population of the study  consisted of 18,130 postgraduate students from the 3 universities namely; Kashim Ibrahim Library (KIL) of Ahmadu University, Zaria,  Kaduna State University (KASU) Library and Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) Library and 377 of them were drawn as the sample size of  the study. A structured open-ended questionnaire was developed by the researcher. For data analysis, tables, frequency counts and percentages were used. One-way ANOVA was used to test the hypothesis. It was discovered that postgraduate students studied have  possessed digital literacy competencies such as ability to define specific information needs prior to the search; can use a number of  search engines when sourcing; can select online materials for my use etc. Also, it was found that there is significant difference among the postgraduate students in the digital literacy competencies they possessed to access and use digital information resources and services in  the University Libraries of Kaduna State. The need for the regular training in order to equip postgraduate students with relevant soft  skills on digital literacy organized by the university library management is highly recommended.