Utilization of Legal Information Resources by Postgraduate Law Students in ICT era: the case study of Federal Universities of Northern Nigeria

Abstract

The paper investigated the utilization of legal information  resources by postgraduate law students in federal universities of northern  Nigeria. The study was based on the perceived problem of scanty literature on the utilization of legal information resources in faculty of  law libraries by postgraduate law students. The study employed quantitative research method using cross-sectional survey research  design. The population of the study comprised of one thousand three hundred eight (1,348) registered postgraduate law students (those  who have registered for 2016/17 academic session)in the seven faculties of law of the universities studied. Simple random sampling  equation (SRS-Equation) was used to calculate the sample size as recommended by Research Advisers (2006) which consists of (308)  postgraduate law students. A total number of 308 copies of questionnaire were administered, and 271 were returned and found useful.  Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics using frequencies and percentages. The findings of the study revealed that:the postgraduate law students purposes of utilizing legal information resources in the libraries studied arewriting assignments and  presentations, writing projects dissertations or theses, for teaching and for legal and non legal researches; the postgraduate law  students frequently utilize all the printed legal information resources in their libraries. But electronic resources and online legal databases are found not frequently utilized. The study conclude that postgraduate law students in federal universities of northern  Nigeria are yet to fully enjoy the vast electronic legal information resources, and this could significantly affect the quality of legal  researches and academic excellence in legal profession. Among the recommendations of the study include the University Librarians and  Deans of the institutions under study should solicit other means of funding law library activities so as to improve on the utilization of  types information resources especially those in electronic formats.