RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
4.6 Site Selection
110 contacted were pleased to participate. Moreover, the group discussions provided avenues for them to share their experiences. From the in-depth dialogue that took place, the researcher gathered more rich and detailed information from the participants due to their long years of experience in collaboration with the academic faculties.
In short, the researcher was in the field for one year. Her stay in the selected universities amounted to 170 days (see the full details in section 4.8.1). The researcher participated in work tasks that constituted the core of the ASLs. The procedure gave her both an identity as an insider (group member) just as an outside researcher, allowing her to relate closely with the participants. As a result, the researcher observed academics‟ use of the e-library databases deeply, both remotely and online. Comprehensive information was also uncovered. The researcher was involved in an obtrusive observation of how the academic staff engage with the e-library databases. Finally, the researcher took notes of all the information generated from the interviews, focus group discussions, and observations of the academics‟ interaction with the online databases in the university environment. Additionally, during the fieldwork, the researcher was engaged in data analysis to elucidate her thoughts from the concepts and themes that cropped up. As Creswell (2014) asserted, data collection and analysis are done simultaneously in ethnographic research.
111 researcher, academic staff in one of the selected universities in the zone. The site selection facilitated access to the participants.
The zone consists of six states, including the FCT- Abuja, Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger and Plateau. Although there are seven (7) federal universities in the North-Central zone of Nigeria, this study was limited to two universities based on convenience sampling.The adopted research site selection procedures involved a study population comprising academic staff from two selected universities in the North-Central zone of Nigeria: University of Jos (UniJos), Plateau State, and Federal University of Agriculture (FUAM), Makurdi, Benue State. The research site selection criterion involved a choice of the oldest universities in the North-Central zone of Nigeria. Also, the choice is in line with the adopted theoretical and methodological choices for this study. Besides, the choice of the two universities was premised upon the fact that both universities have the required e-library database infrastructure, basic facilities and installations needed, and the academic workforce to meet the demands of the study. Moreover, the selected research sites meet the purpose of the research. In other words, for the researcher to be meticulous, for convenience, as well as limited availability of resources, only these two universities were covered.
4.6.1 University of Jos (UniJos)
The city of Jos is situated on the northern edge of an upland known as the Jos Plateau. Jos is located 300km away from Abuja, the Federal Capital and centre of Nigeria, with the University of Jos drawing students from across the country. UniJos has twelve faculties and runs a three-campus system. The library operates at the three locations (Please refer to section 1.1.2 in chapter one of the thesis). The university has transformed governance, teaching,
112 learning and research through the integration of ICT in the delivery of all services (UniJos, 2013).
For some years, the library has embraced innovation, particularly in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), to improve and expand its services. Presently, the library provides effective access to the university community, using digital technologies. Specifically, it hosts a wide range of local and national activities including on-site training (UniJos, 2013). A major transformation of the library has been the digitisation of its collections. In 2009, the library adapted Open Source, DSpace software, to set up a repository. It was the first Institutional Repository in Nigeria (http://dspace.unijos.edu.ng). The Repository provides access for research publications, intellectual outputs and archival materials of the university (UniJos, 2013). The Institutional Repository is organised according to faculties for easy access by researchers.
Additionally, in the last ten years, the library has built the ICT capacity of staff at all levels by educating the staff to use ICT resources (UniJos, 2013). The process enables adequate access and use of resources, which is a requirement for excellence in teaching and research. Consequently, through series of trainings, all library staff have relevant ICT skills. More importantly, the skills enable the ASLs to harvest appropriate resources for their subject areas and can in turn teach their users/ researchers. Besides, a Webmaster was engaged in 2008. It populates and updates the library‟s website http://www.unijos.edu.ng/library/,with relevant resources. The Webmaster works with ASLs to harvest resources. She assists in subscriptions renewal of databases, troubleshoots and communicates with Internet service providers.
Also, the Webmaster occasionally alerts the ASLs of new online resources.
113 The library has as well established some computer laboratories to boost access to its resources. Finally, as a result of the library's adoption of ICT, it has tapped into important regional and international digital resources (Akintunde, 2016).The online resources support excellence in teaching and research. The available e-library databases in UniJos library are listed below:
i. Access to Global Online Research Agriculture (AGORA) ii. ACM Digital Library (DL)
iii. African Digital Library (ADL) iv. ARDI-Research for Innovation v. BioOne Online Journal
vi. EBSCO HOST vii. EconBiz
viii. Elsevier ScienceDirect ix. Emerald Insight
x. Global Online Access to Legal Information (GOALI)
xi. Health Internetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI) xii. IEEE Xplore Digital Library
xiii. IMF eLibrary xiv. Internet Archive
xv. Journal Storage Project (JSTOR)
xvi. Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE) xvii. Oxford Journals
xviii. Proquest E-Book Central xix. Proquest Research Library
xx. Questia-The Online Library of Books and Journals xxi. Semantic Scholar
xxii. Scopus
114 xxiii. The Database of African Theses and Dissertations (DATAD)
xxiv. TEEAL Database
xxv. The National Academies Press (NAP) xxvi. The Virtual Health Library (VHL)
xxvii. World Digital Library-Journal Collection
4.6.2 Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi (FUAM)
FUAM is located at Makurdi, Jos road, Benue State Nigeria. The library established 1988 and was later named after Francis Suleimanu Idachaba. The University has 10 Colleges. As a result, the library has 10 College Libraries, a Veterinary Teaching Hospital Library and two School Libraries for the maximum benefit of the entire university community.
Recently, the FUAM library embraced the emerging ICT. According to Ukih (2012), many of the library services have been digitised, with strategies put in place to ensure the available e-resources are well utilised (See Section 1.1.2 of chapter one of the Thesis). Finally, the library has subscribed to VSAT Internet services to allow users to search various catalogues worldwide through
Google, Yahoo, Mama, Mozilla Firefox, ask.com,
devilfinder.com, msn.com and other web search engines. The e-library databases subscribed by the FUAM library for teaching and research are listed below:
i. AGORA
ii. AJOL
iii. HINARI
iv. OARE
115
v. Research for life
vi. Research for Global Justice GOALI
vii. UAM Digital Library
viii. QUESTIA
ix. EBSCOHOST
x. TEEAL