1. MUTILATION OF INFORMATION RESOURCES IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN ABUJA, NIGERIA: THE WAY FORWARD.
- Author
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Josephine, Okafor Chinwe and Eze, Innocent O.
- Subjects
- *
LIBRARY circulation & loans , *INFORMATION resources , *ACADEMIC libraries , *LIBRARY resources , *LIBRARY users , *PANORAMIC cameras - Abstract
The study investigates the mutilation of information resources in University libraries in Abuja. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprises 244 library staff made up of professionals and non-professionals in Universities in Abuja. Because the population was small and manageable, all the 244 library staff were used for the study. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled "Mutilation of Information Resources Questionnaire" (MIQ). The questionnaire was validated by experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was established using Cronbach Alpha method and a reliability coefficient of 0.81 was obtained. Data were collected and analyzed using Frequency, Percentages, Means and Standard Deviations. Findings of the study revealed that, journals, textbooks, magazines, newspapers, projects/theses/dissertations, government publications, term papers, compact discs, CD-ROMs and audio-visual materials were the information resources affected by mutilation. It was also revealed that the forms of mutilation of library resources include, tearing of pages of books/journals, underlining of texts/journal, highlighting pages of textbooks/journals, bending spines of textbooks and journals, using of wet hands to turn pages of books/journals, cracking of CDs, marking of books/journals with biros, shading of books/journals with pencils, ear-dogging pages of books/journals and making comments on pages of books/journals. Further, it was revealed that the causes of mutilation of library resources in universities in Abuja include, poverty/financial constraints among users, high cost of photocopying library resources, insufficient library opening hours, ignorance of impact on the users, inadequate loan period, low quality of library services, frustration with library services on the part of users, lack of power supply, high cost of books, lack of security men at the reading section and inadequate close circuit cameras in the library. The study concludes that, plethora of information resources in university libraries in Abuja are prone to mutilation. Recommendation were made that, the cost of photocopying information materials in the libraries should be subsidized by Universities to enable easy access to information materials by library users as this can help in curbing the issue of mutilation; mutilators should be subjected to heavy and well defined penalties such as withdrawal of library card to serve as deterrent to other users and libraries should adopt the use of new technologies such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to solve some of the problems caused by mutilation of library resources among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022