AWARENESS AND UTILIZATION OF ACADEMIC DATABASES AMONG LECTURERS OF KWARA STATE POLYTECHNIC, ILORIN, NIGERIA

Abstract

Academic databases are indispensable information resources for teaching, learning and research development among academics. This study investigates the awareness and utilization of academic databases among lecturers of Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was adopted. Its population is 47 lecturers in the Institute of Information and Communication Technology (IICT), Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, Nigeria. Census enumeration sampling was used to select the respondents. Self-developed questionnaire designed with Google Form was used to gather data from the respondents. 34 lecturers filled the questionnaire, representing a response rate of 72.42%. Findings revealed that the respondents are aware and utilized ResearchGate, Google Scholar, DOAJ and AJOL. Journals, e-books, datasets and reference materials are information resources the lecturers utilized on academic databases. Academic databases save the time of the lecturers, provides up-to-date information to them and important for their seminar/conference papers. But the lecturers find it challenging to utilize academic databases because of the cost of subscribing for information resources on fee-based databases, library in their institution do not provide user education on the use of academic databases and don’t have adequate awareness of academic databases. This study concludes that awareness and utilization of academic databases are inevitable for lecturers who prioritized being in tune with trends and value quality research outputs and recommends that management of Kwara State Polytechnic Library should endeavor to be organizing awareness and training programmes on academic databases for the lecturers.