Use of Mobile Phones for Research Among Undergraduates in Two Polytechnic Libraries in Imo State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The study is titled ‘Use of Mobile Phones for Research among Undergraduates in two Polytechnic Libraries in Nigeria. The study seeks to establish if students who make use of the polytechnic libraries studied do use their mobile phones for research purposes, their reasons for preferring to use their mobile phones to traditional/conventional information resources as well as the constraints they encountered when accessing information. The survey method was adopted in data collection. The validated questionnaire were administered to the respondents within a period of week. Findings show that undergraduate students who use the polytechnic libraries studied make use of their mobile phones for research occasionally. It was revealed that lack of current/ relevant resources in libraries, saving of time and cost of travelling to other libraries for research, low level of satisfaction derived from available resources as well as lack of internet facilities in libraries are reasons why they make use of mobile phones for research. Also, high cost of downloading online resources, incompatibility of software/format of online resources as well as insecurity of sites which causes damages to the phones were identified as constraints students encountered when using mobile phones. The following were recommended in line with the findings of the study: use of anti-virus software, installation of internet facility in libraries, use of compatible phones/ software, saving of downloaded resources as well as use of mobile phones that are user friendly. The bottom-line of the paper is that the use of mobile phones has helped to improve students’ access to current and reliable information resources in tertiary institutions.