Relevance of library resources to research and development in academic environment in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

The knowledge they say is power and the nature of man is the disposition to know his environment. The emergence of research products as one of the criteria for rating tertiary education has made result from research the key to any academic environment. Also, the technological advancement of nations is on the ability of the scholars to innovate, invent through research and development. The need for quality research is inevitable and the library as the major source of information resources that facilitate quality research output ought to be given utmost consideration. Although several studies have been carried out on the role of libraries in academic surroundings, there is still a dearth of research and development which is a catalyst to the economic development of a country. This research, ought to find the relevance of library materials to research and development in an academic environment. This study is a correlation study but adopted an expo-facto research design because the associations between the variables were studied as they occurred. This design was utilized to examine the variables and enable the researcher to gather data that is not subjected to manipulations. The population for the study comprises academics staff of selected higher institutions studied in the Yaba area of Lagos State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was adopted in the study. The first phase utilize cluster sampling technique of higher institutions of learning. A random sampling technique was also employed to select 118 academic staff from Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) University of Lagos (UNILAG) and the National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR). Questionnaire on the Relevance of Library Resources on Research and Development (QILRD) was administered to participants in this study. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was calculated using the Cronbach alpha method is r= 0.74. The study shows that there are constraints in accessing library resources with a weighted mean of 3.17 This study also shows that there is a moderate positive relationship with r = 0.46) and significant at (P< 0.05) between library resources and research and development. It can be concluded that library resources are key to research and development and influences research output in the academic environment. It is recommended that institutions should make e-library resources more utilize for research and development among other things.