INFORMATION DISSEMINATION, CURRENT AWARENESS SERVICES AND ONLINE DATABASES IN LIBRARIES AS FACILITATORS OF UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEERING STUDENTS’ SKILLS ACQUISITION IN NORTH CENTRAL, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined Information Dissemination, Current Awareness Services (CAS) and online Database as Facilitators of Undergraduate Engineering Students' Skills Acquisition in Federal Universities in North Central, Nigeria. The study was guided by 10 objectives and 10 corresponding research questions. The objectives of the study were to: find out the available online databases in the libraries in federal universities in North Central, Nigeria, find out the level of skills acquisition gathered by undergraduate Engineering students from Current Awareness Services, online databases and information dissemination in federal universities in North Central, Nigeria, ascertain the methods used for information dissemination, current awareness services and online databases in libraries for skills acquisition, determine the relationship between information dissemination and skills acquisition in libraries of Federal Universities in North Central, Nigeria, find out the relationship between Current Awareness Services and undergraduate Engineering students' skills acquisition in libraries of federal universities in North Central, Nigeria, determine the relationship between online databases and undergraduate Engineering students skill acquisition in libraries of federal universities in North Central, Nigeria, find out the factors militating against skill acquisition of undergraduate Engineering students in libraries of federal universities in North Central, Nigeria, find out if there is no significant relationship between the available current awareness services and skill acquisition of undergraduate Engineering students in federal universities in North Central, Nigeria, to find out if there is no significant relationship between information dissemination and skill acquisition of undergraduate Engineering students in federal universities in North Central. Nigeria and find out if there is no significant relationship between online databases and skill acquisition of undergraduate Engineering students in federal universities in North Central. Nigeria. The total population of undergraduate Engineering students studied was nine thousand, eight hundred (9,800). From this population, a sample size of three hundred and seventy (370) was derived using Krejcie and Morgan tables for determining sample size. Questionnaire and observation checklist were used as instruments of data collection Out of the 370 copies of questionnaires distributed. 311 were filled, returned and used for the analysis. The study revealed that the libraries studied subscribe to Ebsco-host, Dinary, Science Direct and AJOL. The study revealed a mean value of 2.91, 2.87, 2.71, 2.69, 3.06 and 2.63 as mean values, indicating that information dissemination has a high impact on skills acquisition. The study equally revealed mean values of 2.88, 2.67, 2.92, 2.57 and 2.92 indicating that online databases have great impact on skills acquisition. The study recommended among others that the library management should boost their methods of CAS. information dissemination and online databases services. The study also recommended that the library management should acquire more relevant databases and keep their subscriptions up to date to boost the skills acquisition of undergraduate Engineering students.