Availability and accessibility of e-resources in academic libraries in Nigeria: the impact of the interventionist programmes

Abstract

The impact of e-resources and the accompanying infrastructural development has not been fully realized in most developing countries necessitating some interventionist programmes. This study was undertaken to assess the impact of donor agencies in interventionist programmes with regards to the availability and accessibility of e-resources in Nigerian Federal University of Ibadan (UI) and Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). A structured questionnaire was adopted for data collection. A total of 480 lecturers were involved in the study with 240 per institution, 80 from each of the three Faculties per institution and 20 lecturers from each of the four departments per faculty. Frequency counts on availability of e-resources were subjected to Analysis of Variance and Duncan’s Multiple Range Test while frequency counts on accessibility of e-resources were subjected to percentages. Results indicated that AGORA, HINARI and JSTOR were popular and also that the percentage of accessibility of these e-resources was 98.2, 98.2 and 96.4 for the Faculties of Agriculture, Science and Social Sciences, respectively in UI and 100% in each of the three Faculties in OAU. AGORA, HINARI, and JSTOR are members of the interventionist group and being significantly more available than the other resources is a strong indication that the interventionist programmes have had a positive impact on the e-resources users in Nigeria.