Provision and Utilization of Online Information Services in Federal Polytechnic Libraries in North-Eastern States of Nigeria

Abstract

The paper discusses the provision and utilization of online information services in federal Polytechnic libraries in North East of Nigeria. To realize this, three research objectives were formulated which are to determine: the online information services provided in Federal Polytechnic Libraries in North-East Nigeria, The extent of utilization of the online information services in Federal Polytechnic Libraries in North East of Nigeria, and the extent of satisfaction with online information services provided in Federal Polytechnic Libraries in North East of Nigeria. The descriptive survey research design was used in this study. Simple Random Sampling technique, 269 registered library users were used as a sample of the study. For this work questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. The data was collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages SPSS version 23.0. The study found that: online information services provided in federal polytechnic were: document search services, document delivery services, online reference services, instant messaging, social networking services, online current awareness services, and email services. The study reveals that online reference services, instant messaging and current awareness services are the most utilized services in Federal Polytechnic Mubi. While the most utilized online information services in Federal Polytechnic Bauchi are document search services, instant messaging, and social networking. The online information services in Federal Polytechnic Damaturu and Bali are underutilized. The study also reveals that the library users from all Polytechnics are not satisfied with the online information services provided to them.