Use of digital reference services for research by post Graduate Students in Federal Universities in Anambra and Enugu States.

Abstract

This study investigated the use of digital reference services for Research by Postgraduate Students in Federal Universities in Anambra and Enugu State.Seven research questions and three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study.The descriptive survey research design was used for the study, with a sample size of 220 which constitutes the sample used for the study. The instrument for data collection was the questionnaire which was in two parts A and B contained six clusters (A - F) with fifty six items and observation checklist which has 14 items were duly validated by experts in library and information science as well as measurement and evaluation.759 postgraduate students from Nnamdi Azikiwe university library and 1,450 postgraduate students from university of Nigeria, Nsukka. In analyzing the data in research question 1; frequencies, percentages were used while mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions 2, 3, 4,5,6,7 and 8. Analysis of variances was used in analyzing hypothesis 1 and 3 while T-test was used to analyze hypothesis 2. Findings from the analyzed data revealed that the postgraduate students are aware of the digital reference services available to them. The postgraduate students less often make use of the available reference services, they perceive the digital reference services as being beneficial for their research purposes and the available digital reference services are less accessible. The study also revealed that there is a significant difference in the usage of digital reference service by postgraduate students of different ages, there is amean usage of digital reference services by male and female postgraduate students in favour of male students and it further revealed that there is a significant difference in the usage of digital reference services by postgraduate students based on educational qualification. The study therefore recommend that adequate awareness and orientation should be given to the post graduate students by the librarian to enable them to know what is available in the library that will help them in their research needs. The challenges encountered and the strategies to tackle these challenges should be put in place by the libraries to ensure that the researchers can carry out their research work effectively using the digital reference services available to them. Finally resource sharing among libraries will be of great assistance to the researcher and the librarian working with digital reference services should be competent and able to interpret queries to the post graduate on research.