Utilization of Digital Reference Resources and Services by Postgraduate Students in University Libraries in Benue State, Nigeria

The study investigated utilization of digital reference resources and services by postgraduate students in university libraries in Benue State, Nigeria. Four specific objectives with corresponding research questions guided the study. The study adopted a survey research design. The population of the study comprises nine (9) digital reference librarians and eight hundred and twenty six (826) postgraduate students in universities in Benue State. The sample size of 269 postgraduate students and all the 9 digital reference librarians were used for the study. The instrument for data collection was a self-developed structured questionnaire titled “Utilization of Digital Reference Resources and Services Questionnaire†(UDRRSQ). The reliability of the questionnaire was established using Cronbach Alpha method and a reliability coefficient of 0.85 was obtained. Data collected was analyzed using Frequency Counts, Percentages, Means and Standard Deviation to answer the research questions. Findings of the study revealed that postgraduate students to a high extent utilize digital reference resources but the extent of utilization of the digital reference services in university libraries in Benue State is low. Further, the finding revealed the challenges that hinder the utilization of digital reference resources and services in university libraries in Benue State to include, lack of fund for purchasing electronic resources, inadequate/irregular power supply, lack of technical know-how, lack of preservation policy and high cost of maintenance of resources among others. The study concluded that, postgraduate students in universities in Benue State to a high extent utilize digital reference resources while the digital reference services are utilized to a low extent. Recommendations were made that, university management should ensure adequate funding of university libraries to enhance the availability of digital reference services, university libraries should provide programmes that could train their students in up-to-date 21st century skills of Information Communication technologies (ICTs) and university and library management should provide in-service training for reference librarians to enable them update their skills in the digital library, among others.