Selection Practices of Electronic Resources in Federal University Libraries in Southeast Nigeria

This paper examined the selection practices of electronic resources in federal university libraries in South East Nigeria. The objectives of the study include to find out; who is responsible for selecting electronic resources in the libraries under study; the tools that guide the librarians in selecting electronic resources; the criteria considered by the libraries in evaluating electronic resources for acquisition. The research adopted a descriptive survey design. The survey used questionnaire and interview as instruments of data collection. The population of the study consists of all the 53 Librarians in the three departments; E-library, Serials, and Collection development departments of the libraries under study. Data collected were tabulated and analyzed using simple statistics (mean). The findings revealed the tools used by the libraries to make sound e-resources selection which include the use of trial offer by mounting a link to their resources and the use of reviews provided through electronic resources with a grand mean of 2.75 to 3.20, which are all above the cut-off point of 2.50 on a 4 point rating scale; the librarians in e-library, serials, and collection development recommend electronic resources but the final decision on selection of electronic resources for acquisition rest with the university librarian; that the libraries under study had no selection team/committee and the criteria considered by the libraries in selecting electronic resources for their library were revealed. The study recommended that the libraries should adopt an extensive inclusion of all the stakeholders of the library in selecting electronic resources. Also, the libraries should set up a selection team/committee responsible for e-resources selection