Online First

The emergence of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT’s) particularly the Internet has brought about a remarkable shift from the use of print to electronic resources of recent, with this trend, information whether scholarly or otherwise is produced electronically or digitally. The Internet resources and services are very important in the conduct of academic activities by academic staff because of their awareness and access toward Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the library. Ogunjobi and Fagbami (2012) confirm that Internet resources and services enable lecturers to update their knowledge, prepare up-to-date lecture notes, communication and collaboration with colleagues.

However, observation by the researchers have shown that academic staff of tertiary institutions in Adamawa state are likely not aware and have access on the Internet resources and services for effective academic activities of teaching, research, communication, collaboration, and publication, rather they use the resources and services for other activities. It is in this vain the study was conducted to investigate the level of awareness and utilization of the Internet resources and services for academic activities by the academic staff of tertiary institutions in Adamawa State, Nigeria.

The specific research objectives are stated below:

• ⅰ. (1-a) Determine the level of awareness of the Internet resources by the academic staff of tertiary institutions in Adamawa State.
• ⅱ. (1-b) Determine the level of awareness of the Internet services by the academic staff of tertiary institutions in Adamawa State.
• ⅲ. (2-a) Determine the extent of utilization of the Internet resources for academic activities by academic staff of tertiary institutions in Adamawa State.
• ⅳ. (2-b) Determine the extent of utilization of the Internet services for academic activities by the academic staff of tertiary institutions in Adamawa State.

The study has the following research questions:

• ⅰ. (1-a) What is the level of awareness of the Internet resources by the academic staff of tertiary institutions in Adamawa State?
• ⅱ. (1-b) What is the level of awareness of the Internet services by the academic staff of tertiary institutions in Adamawa State?
• ⅲ. (2-a) What is the extent of utilization of the Internet resources by the academic staff of tertiary institutions in Adamawa State?
• ⅳ. (2-b) What is the extent of utilization of the Internet services by the academic staff of tertiary institutions in Adamawa State?

Research hypotheses:

HO₁ - There is no significant relationship between awareness and utilization of the Internet resources and services by the academic staff of tertiary institutions in Adamawa State.

Research studies were conducted on awareness of the Internet resources and services, for instance, Upadhyay and Chakraborty (2008) posited in their study of academic staff in the Institute of technology, Banaras Hindu University shows 84.3% of the respondents are aware of the Internet resources and services while 15.6% are not aware. The 84.3% who indicated being aware had a different level of awareness with some indicating high level of awareness and some low level of awareness as well. In addition, Chandran (2013) indicates that library users at Siva Institute of Frontier Technology, India had 95.1% awareness of the Internet resources and services while 14.8% were not, the study indicated that respondents had different levels of awareness. The study further shows users were informed about the existence of the Internet resources through the library professionals, institution website, official circular, and the library board. The high response rate of awareness can be attributed to the several sources of awareness provided by the institution. In addition to this, Chetan and Amrutbhai (2012) conducted a study on user awareness of the Internet resources in pharmaceutical company’s library in Ahmadabad the study indicated that there is a high level of awareness by users in the libraries. Closely related to this, Egberongbe (2011) investigated the use of Internet resources and services at the University of Lagos. It was established that 71.4% of the respondents are aware of the existence of Internet resources and services. This implies that the respondents are making use of the resources and services in their academic activities.

In a study conducted by Salaam, Ajiboye, and Bankole (2013) on the use of electronic information resources by academics in Federal University of Agriculture, Abekuta, Nigeria, revealed that 93.8% of academics have a high level of the Internet resources and services awareness. Moreover, Okiki and Asiru (2011) surveyed the awareness, attitude and use of electronic information resources among academics in the University, of Lagos, Nigeria. The study revealed that 55.6% of the respondents showed awareness of the Internet resources and services. In a similar study by Ani and Edem (2011) which indicated that the users of University of Calabar library are mostly aware of online databases such as Science Direct, EBSCOHOST, AGURA, and HINARI. In his study of e-library use at the University of Ilorin, Isah (2010) reported that the majority of the academic staff were aware of the existence of Internet resources and services. The awareness is connected to occasional e-mail posting by the University library to sensitize members of the University community on the Internet resources subscribed to the University. Owolabi et al. (2012) stated that the introduction of the Internet resources and services into academic environment particularly Universities almost predictably followed by rapid growth in awareness by students and academics, thereby improving the conduct of their academic activities.

In contrast to the above findings, Anushandhan and Maharana (2013) in a study of access, awareness and use of electronic information resources by research scholars of Berhampur University, India, revealed that 48.5% of the respondent are aware of the Internet resources and services while 52.3% are not, this signifies under-utilization of the resources. In another related study by Ndinoshiho (2010) of nursing students in the University of Namibia revealed that 86.4% of the respondent did not use the Internet resources and services available to them because they were not aware of them. This finding has provoked researchers to place much emphasis on the use of Internet resources and services in an academic environment. Literature revealed that many Universities libraries are subscribing for the Internet resources spending millions of naira, yet many of them are underutilized due to lack of awareness and training (Joshua, 2014; Shuaibu, Umar, & Joshua, 2015) and many more are unknown to the academic staff, in support of these statements, Angello (2010) revealed that the rate of Internet resources awareness among livestock researchers in Tanzania was very low, only 24.4% are aware and 75.6% are not.

The issue of the Internet resources and services awareness is fundamental to academics overall academic development, Opeke and Odunlade (2011) in a report on the relationship between awareness and utilization of the Internet resources and services among lecturers in Nigeria Polytechnics established a weak positive correlation of (r=0.37, p=0.012<0.05) existed. This shows that low or lack of awareness constitute a problem to the use of Internet resources and services, a consequence of this will lead to an inefficient performance in the lecturers’ academic activities.

From the literature consulted it shows that some of the respondents from the empirical studies under review are aware of the Internet resources and services and its benefit in the conduct of their academic activities while some are not aware of the resources and services. The literature further shows the respondents who are aware of the Internet resources and services to have a different level of awareness with some having high level of awareness and some having low level of awareness.

It is obvious to note from the above available literature review that little or no study was written on the awareness of the Internet resources and services for academic activities by the academic staff of tertiary institutions in Adamawa State, it is in this vein that the researchers want to investigate the level of awareness of the Internet resources and services for academic activities by academic staff of tertiary institutions in Adamawa State.

Basically, the role of academic staff in the tertiary institutions in Nigeria is to teach, engage in community services and conduct research in their various fields of specialization. Consequently, with time they are involved in other academic activities which include publication, communication and collaboration with colleagues in order to expand the frontiers of scholarship and knowledge. With the emergence of the Internet resources such as e-books, e-journals, and online databases, and the Internet services such as, e-mail, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Usenet, Telnet, Bulletin board, News group, among many, academic activities engaged by the academic staff can now be effectively carried out to enhance their performance.

Babu, Sarada, and Ramaiah (2010) studied the use of the Internet resources in South Virginia (SV) University digital library; they posited that, because of the current, relevant and reliable information obtained from the Internet resources and the ability to communicate effectively with colleagues using the Internet services had impacted on the academics and researchers who are making maximum use of the resources and services. Similarly, Mahmood (2010) in a survey of the Internet resources and services utilization by library and information science professionals in Pakistan submit that, the most Internet resources used are the e-books, e-journal and online databases, because of the current and relevant information obtained from them, while the most Internet services used for their communication and collaboration purposes are the e-mail, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Usenet.

Nasir (2009) investigated Internet use by 218 faculty members from the University of Rasheshi, Bangladesh and found that (88%) used e-books and e-journals Internet resources and the following Internet services e-mail, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) (55.9%), and Mailing list (8.2%), faculty members mainly used the Internet services for making contact with overseas education and research organizations. In a related study conducted by BuMa’rafi (2009) Internet services utilization by the faculty of the University of Sharjah (UAE) and the result of the study shows that (88.5%) used e-mail for communication purposes. Similarly, Tyagi (2011) conducted a study on awareness and utilization of electronic information resources (the Internet resources and services) at IIT Roorke India, the report showed that faculty and research scholars make use of the Internet resources such as e-journal, e-books and online databases as compare to undergraduate and postgraduate students, this may be associated to the awareness level of the faculty members on the benefit and importance of the Internet resources especially getting current and reliable information. In another study conducted by Sharma (2011) on the utilization of e-books, the result showed that students are aware and used online reference materials such as Encyclopedia Britannica, Wiley Encyclopedia of life sciences and CRS Handbook of chemistry and physics. Similarly, Negahban and Talawar (2009) undertake a study aimed at assessing the Internet resources dependency by Iranian social science faculty members, the findings indicated that majority of the respondents depend on online databases for academic activities such as research and preparation of lecture notes, this dependency on online databases may be associated with having subject data bases which are specifically restricted to a particular subject area.

The Study by Tenopir (2003) of over 200 libraries, reveals how the utilization of e-books, and e-journals (the Internet resources) and e-mail, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and Usenet (the Internet services) have been rapid in academic communities, but with variations from one discipline to another, the study further indicated that, provision of up to date and reliable information and the ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with colleagues irrespective of geographical location are the main reason for the use of the Internet resources and services respectively.

Brafi and Arthur (2013) revealed in their study of the Internet utilization among students in tertiary institutions in Ghana, how students used the Internet services relatively high to effect communication with their lecturers because of the way information is produced, accessed, retrieve, and disseminated without restriction or boundaries. Most of the Internet resources and services used by respondents are e-journals, online databases, e-mail, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and Usenet respectively. Still in another study conducted by Ajala, Adegun, and Oyewumi (2010) on the impact of the Internet resources and services utilization on teaching and research by academic staff of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology revealed the use of e-journals, online databases, and e-mail as the highest Internet resources and services used for academic activities. Similarly, Ukpebor (2011) also asserted that, because of the ability to effectively collaborate with colleagues’ e-mail, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) was the most preferred Internet services used among engineering lecturers and students of University of Edo, Nigeria.

In a different instance, Ukpebor (2011) surveyed the Internet resources and services utilization by lecturers and students in engineering faculties in Edo state Nigeria. The study established the encouraging utilization of the Internet resources and services despite inadequate infrastructural facilities. This means that both academics and students are making effective use of the available Internet resources and services to carry out their academic activities. Similarly, Aqil and Ahmed (2011) provided the following as the Internet resources use for academic activities e-books, e-journals and online databases while Internet services include, e-mail, Mailing list, News group, and Telnet. Provision of current, and relevant and reliable information from these resources and around the clock power of communication with the Internet services is the major reason indicated for their utilization.

From the review of literature on utilization of the Internet resources and services little or no literature is available on the study area. The Internet resources such as e-books, e-journals and online databases, and the Internet services such as e-mail, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Mailing list, Usenet, News group, and Discussion group, are identified by different scholars as the most commonly used for the conduct of academic activities, it is in this regard that the researchers wants to investigate what type of Internet resources and services are academic staff of tertiary institutions in Adamawa State are utilizing for their academic activities.

The study adopts the use of a quantitative research method using a cross-sectional survey design that evaluates a program. The population was 2,086, which comprises all the academic staff in the twelve (12) tertiary institutions in Adamawa State, which include three (3) universities made up of one federal University, Modibbo Adama University of Technology (MAUTECH), Yola, a state-owned University, Adamawa State University (ADSU), Mubi, and a private University, American University of Nigeria (AUN) located in Yola. Other tertiary institutions in the state include two (2) polytechnics, Federal Polytechnic, Mubi and Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola. There are five (5) colleges in the state namely, Federal College of Education (FCE), Yola, Adamawa State College of Education (COE), Hong, Adamawa State College of Legal Studies, Yola, Adamawa State College of Agriculture, Ganye, and Adamawa State College of Nursing and Midwifery, Yola. The remaining tertiary institutions in the state are Adamawa State School of Health Technology and Nigerian Law School, located at Mubi and Yola respectively.

In determining the sample size of this study, the researchers used the tabulation and formula provided in determining sample size by Research Advisors (2006) at 95% confidence and 5.0% margin of error. The table did not provide the exact population to this study 2 086, as a rule, the researchers take the next population which is 2 500 and arrived at a sampled of 333. The formula used to arrive at this number 333 was:

n = _
Where:
N = sample size
X² = Chi-square for the specified confidence level at 1 degree of freedom
N = Population Size
P = Population proportion (.50 in this table)
ME = Desired Margin of Error (express as proportion)

Therefore, out of the twelve (12) tertiary institutions in the state, eight (8) have been sampled to participate in the study.

It is not possible for the researchers to go with the entire population of the study because of its size and locations. Therefore, this study used multiple sampling techniques in determining the sample size. Stratified sampling technique (through the use of lucky dip) was used to sample the institutions that were involved in the study (secondary population), while simple random sampling technique was used in selecting the respondents from each institution (primary population).

The research instrument used for data collection in this study is the questionnaire. The questionnaire adapted from Abdullahi (2016) has three (3) sections containing twenty-one (21) items as follows: Section A: Contain questions on the bio-data of the respondents; it has four (4) items. Section B: with ten (10) items asked questions on awareness to the Internet resources and services. Section C: with seven (7) items asked questions on the accessibility of the Internet resources and services.

Twenty copies of the questionnaires (20) were sent to lecturers from the department of library and information science Bayero University, Kano, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, and University Librarian of Federal University Kashere for content validity of the research instrument. They validated the contents of the instrument and all the corrections e.g substitution and/or elimination of confusing, misleading, or irrelevant items were done based on the expert’s recommendations.

To establish the reliability of the instrument, the instrument was administered to fifty-five (55) respondents from Kano State University of Science and Technology, Wudil, Bayero University, Kano, Northwest University, Kano, and Federal College of Education, Kano. However, a total of forty-nine (49) questionnaires were returned and used to conduct the reliability test using SPSS (version 20.0). Cronchbach Alpha (α) was calculated for all the two (2) variables of the study.

The researchers personally administered the research instrument to the academic staff of the sampled institutions with the help of research assistant from each institution. The researcher has also been involved in the collection of completed questionnaire so as to allow for confidentialities, reliability, and clarification. However, the data collected were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics using the frequency distribution table, percentages and correlation coefficient (r) for easy understanding.

Table 3 shows the demographic information of respondents of this study, less than half of the respondents 91 (32.2%) are from Modibbo Adama University of Technology, (MAUTECH), Yola. Followed by Federal Polytechnic Mubi, 61 (20.9%), Adamawa State University Mubi, 39 (13.4%), Adamawa State College of Agriculture Ganye, 35 (12%), Adamawa State College of Education Hong, 29 (9.9%), Adamawa State Polytechnic Yola, 28 (9.6%), College of Nursing and Midwifery Yola, 8 (2.7%), and Nigerian Law School Yola campus, 1 (.3%). The questionnaires were administered only to the number of the respondents from each institution.

Table 4 also shows rank of the respondents to this study, which indicates less than half of the respondents 78(26.7%) are either Graduate Assistant or Assistant Lecturers as they are called in the polytechnics and colleges of education, followed by Lecturer II or Lecturer I as they are called in the polytechnics and colleges of education, 69(23.6%), Lecturer I or Senior Lecturer as they are called in the polytechnics and colleges of education, 49(16.8%), Assistant Lecturer or Lecturer II as they are called in the polytechnics and colleges of education, 39(13.4%), Senior Lecturer or Principal Lecturer as they are called in the polytechnics and colleges of education, 38(13%), Professor or Chief Lecturer as they are called in the polytechnics and colleges of education, 11(3.8%), and Principal Lecturer or Assistant Chief Lecturer as they are called in the polytechnics and colleges of education, 8(2.7%). The table indicates that majority of academic staff in tertiary institutions in Adamawa State are, either Graduate Assistant or Assistant Lecturers this may be because of the state having more number of colleges of education and polytechnics than Universities.

Hypothesis testing is a fundamental activity in inferential statistics. This section was designed to test the hypotheses developed in this study. The correlation coefficient (r) was used to test the hypothesis of this study using SPSS version 20.0. In conducting the test 0.05 was used as the level of significance in testing the hypothesis. Hence, for the interpretation to test whether the hypothesis should be rejected or retained, the decision rule is that, when the computed correlation (r) is greater than the critical p-value (p 0.05), then the null hypothesis should be retained. On the other hand, if the computed correlation (r) is less than the p-value (p 0.05) the null hypothesis should be rejected, and the alternative hypothesis will be retained.

HO₁: There is no significant relationship between awareness and utilization of Internet resources and services for academic activities. The result of the test is presented in table 13.

Table 13 indicates the relationship between Awareness and utilization of the Internet Resources and Services. Therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected since the correlation (r) is 0.01 which is less than the p-value (0.05) and the alternative hypothesis is retained. Meaning that there are inverse and a weak relationship between awareness and utilization of the Internet resources and services by the academic staff of tertiary institutions in Adamawa State.