EXPLORATORY STUDY OF ONLINE REFRENCE SERVICES OF LIBRARIES IN NIGERIA

The study reports an experiment that examines the availability of online reference services in libraries in Nigeria. Five hundred questionnaires were randomly distributed among Nigerian Library Association conference attendees. A total of 311 questionnaires were usable, resulting in a 62% response r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLibrary philosophy and practice p. 0_1
Main Authors Ekwelem, Vincent O, Eke, Helen N
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Lincoln Library Philosophy and Practice 01.01.2014
Subjects
Academic libraries
Access to information
Bandwidths
Developing countries
Funding
Internet access
LDCs
Librarians
Library and information science
Online reference work
Reference services
Technological change
User services
Nigeria
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Summary:The study reports an experiment that examines the availability of online reference services in libraries in Nigeria. Five hundred questionnaires were randomly distributed among Nigerian Library Association conference attendees. A total of 311 questionnaires were usable, resulting in a 62% response rate. The majority of the participants in Nigeria indicated that they are not aware of the existence of Online Reference Services (ORS), yet the project has been in existence for years. The present study was conducted to address five research questions: 1. What is the level of awareness of ORS in your library? 2. How do librarians rate the usefulness of the ORS? 3. What are the infrastructures available in your library for the purpose of ORS? 4. What are the obstacles faced by libraries in establishing and utilizing ORS? 5. What are the strategies to enhance the establishment of ORS?. The result shed light on the availability, usefulness, infrastructural availability, obstacles faced, and strategies to enhance the establishments of ORS, and recommendations were given.
ISSN:1522-0222