Availability of Current and Up-to-Date Information Resources as a Determinant for Effective Utilization of Academic Library by Undergraduates of University of Benin

The study investigated availability of current and up-to-date information resources as a determinant for effective utilization of academic library by undergraduates. The study aims to evaluate the level of availability of current and up-to-date information resources, evaluate the level of utilization and determine the effectiveness of current and up-to-date information resources on the utilization of John Harris Library by undergraduates, examine the importance and evaluate the benefits of the use of current and up-to-date information resources for undergraduate students. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The population of the study consisted of two hundred and ninety-eight (298) undergraduate students from the department of library and information science. However, a sample size of eighty-nine (89) respondents was used for the study. The instrument used for data collection in the study was the questionnaire designed by the researcher and administered to the target respondents. The data generated with the questionnaire were carefully collated and analysed with the statistics method of data analysis such as frequency table, percentage, mean and standard deviation. The findings from the study indicated that current and up-to-date information resources are important to undergraduate students of University of Benin, the study unveiled that current and up-to-date information resources help students with their assignments and course work, useful for their academic pursuit, useful to them for critical thinking, quick and easy learning, and reduced their costs on book purchase. Through these information resources, students gain easy access to quick, broader, and quality collection of information and improve their academic performance. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others: University management needs to intensify efforts to make the GST - Use of Library course and library orientation for students to be more effective in enhancing the utilization of the library information resources. University management should make sure that adequate fund is made available to the university libraries to enable them to acquire all the necessary information resources to satisfy the information needs of undergraduates and other library users.