Awareness and Usage of Open Access among University Lecturers in Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the level of awareness and usage of Open Access among lecturers in the Faculties of Arts and Education, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria. A questionnaire designed by the researchers was employed to collect data for the study. The study revealed that lecturers had high level of awareness of Open Access and used them for conducting and publishing their scholarly works; however their level of awareness of Open Access content were higher than their actual use of the contents. The study further revealed that some lecturers used some open access contents, such as, e-journals, e-dictionaries and e-encyclopedias daily, weekly, monthly and whenever the need arises while some others like e-handbooks, e-guides and e-technical reports were not used at all. It further revealed that Open Access journals were the most utilised of all the Open Access contents surveyed amongst ot her findings. Many recommendations were proffered amongst which were sensitisation of faculty about benefits, challenges and policies guiding Open Access use through information literacy training provided by academic librarians and that academic staff should made themselves available for information literacy training programmes so as to make wise and effective use of Open Access to enhance their academic status.

Keywords: Awareness and Usage of Electronic Resources; Open Access Scholarly Communication, Nigerian Universities, Nigerian Lecturers’ Use of Electronic Resources; Scholarly Publishing.