Availability and Utilization of Digital Reference Resources by Postgraduate Students in University Libraries in Benue State, Nigeria.

ABSTRACT The study investigated availability and utilization of digital reference resources by postgraduate students in university libraries in Benue State, Nigeria. Four (4) specific objectives with corresponding research questions guided the study and hypothesis was formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a survey research design. The population of the study comprises nine (9) digital reference librarians and eight hundred and twenty six (826) postgraduate students in universities in Benue State. The sample size of 269 postgraduate students and all the 9 digital reference librarians were used for the study. The instrument for data collection was a self-developed structured questionnaire titled “Availability and Utilization of Digital Reference Resources Questionnaire” (AUDRRQ). Data collected was analyzed using Frequency Counts, Percentages, Means and Standard Deviation to answer the research questions and Chi-Square statistic to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that, the digital reference resources available in university libraries in Benue State include, Compact Disk Read only memory (CD-ROM), Electronic Journals (e-journal), Electronic Books (e-books), Electronic Thesis (e-thesis), Internet, Databases, printers, scanners, television, telephones, storage device like Flash Drive and human ware (Digital Reference Librarian) among others. The finding also revealed that postgraduate students significantly utilize the available digital reference resources to a high extent in university libraries in Benue State. Further, the finding revealed the challenges that hinder the utilization of digital reference resources in university libraries in Benue State include, lack of fund for purchasing electronic resources, inadequate/irregular power supply, lack of technical know-how, lack of preservation policy and high cost of maintenance of resources among others. The study concluded that, postgraduate students in universities in Benue State highly utilize the available digital reference resources. Finally, recommendations were made based on the findings of the study