Accessing Electronic Information Resources by Undergraduate Students inFederal Universities in North Central, Nigeria: Issues and Challenges

Abstract

The paper assessed the constraints undergraduate students faced in accessingelectronic information resources in Federal Universities in North Central Zone of Nigeria. The objectives were to find out the level of access to EIRs use by undergraduates in Federal Universities in  the North Central Nigeria, and to identifythe challenges to EIRs usage by undergraduate in Federal Universities in Northcentral, Nigeria.  Survey research design of the descriptive type was adopted for the study. Population for this study comprised undergraduates in the five  conventional Federal Universities in North Central, Nigeria, with 46,992. Purposive sampling technique was used to select two common  departments in all the Universities and 20% of the total population of undergraduates from each department using proportional sampling  technique. Sample size for the study is 1,258 undergraduates. The study found out low level of accessibility to EIRs by undergraduates  in the Federal Universities in North Central Nigeria. It also discovered unavailability to EIRs, inadequate EIRs, lack of relevance of available  EIRs to respondents needs and frequent downtime of the internet server were some of the inhibiting factors to access electronic  information resources. Based on the findings, the study recommendedthat federal universities management should advance strategies  to increase the provision of relevant electronic information resources, level of accessibility to EIRs and also adequate funding should be  provided by Federal Government through its agencies such as National Universities Commission (NUC) and put in place a campus   network which would enhance undergraduates access to internet and use of EIRs.