Potentials of Modern Information Technology Tools in Improving User Access to Agricultural Library Services in Abia State, Nigeria

摘要

The typical agricultural library at National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) Umudike near Umuahia, Nigeria in addition to that of the Faculty of Agriculture, Abia State University, Umuahia campus was used to assess the potentials of modern information technology (IT) tools in improving the library user access to agricultural library services in Abia State, Nigeria. Primary data in the study were obtained by combined use of oral interviews and structured questionnaires on randomly selected local library users. Relevant computer software packages were used for the questionnaires’ data collation and analysis. Results showed that the questioned library users, who were made up of mainly research scientists (48.98%) and students (26.53%) felt that access to agricultural library services especially in the areas of collection development and management, online public access catalogue (OPAC), intranet and internet need to be improved upon through modern IT tools and digitalization. About a third of the library users could utilize e-library services, and a probit regression analysis showed that local access to internet contributed significantly (at 1% level) in enhancing the ability of the library users in using e-library resources. Finally, comments from both the library users showed that modern IT tools and involment of IT engineering personnel in the system will not only enhance the efficiency of the studied agricultural libraries but will also widen their patronage as most of these library users have access to the internet locally.