Ifeanyi Ezema - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Ifeanyi Ezema

Information Development

This study assessed an information literacy skills course that has been running over two decades ... more This study assessed an information literacy skills course that has been running over two decades at the University of Cape Coast. The study established the usefulness of the course using data from questionnaires administered to 278 final year students mandated to conduct research projects at the end of their four-year programme. The results showed that irrespective of students’ competence in IL, they are sometimes confronted with information behaviour challenges in accessing relevant information for academic work. Based on this revelation, it is recommended that advanced hands-on training be introduced to enhance students’ skills in using search strategies to ensure low recall and high relevancy in the information retrieval process.

Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication

Purpose This study aims to examine the use of social media by academic librarians at universities... more Purpose This study aims to examine the use of social media by academic librarians at universities in Zimbabwe with particular focus on the application of the four key constructs of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model. This study assesses the degree to which academic librarians in Zimbabwe believe that using social media enhances service delivery, the extent to which academic librarians perceive social media as easy to use, the influence of peers on social media use among academic librarians and the extent to which facilitating conditions influence social media use. Design/methodology/approach A pragmatist worldview in which both quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted, this multiple case study used face-to-face interviews, self-administered questionnaires and content analysis for collecting data. Findings Academic librarians in Zimbabwe perceive social media tools to be useful and easy to use in the provision of services. Social influence had a mod...

IFLA Journal

First-time university students lack the practical and complex skills to harness, evaluate, use an... more First-time university students lack the practical and complex skills to harness, evaluate, use and create information to achieve their educational, occupational, social and personal information goals. The purpose of this study was to explore students’ perceptions of user education programmes at the North-West University, South Africa. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 320 students across two faculties. The study’s findings reveal that the majority of first-year students had participated in different user education programmes, with 80.7% of the students indicating that they were satisfied with the content and quality of the programmes. Over 90% of the students who participated in the programmes affirmed that they had enhanced their capacity to make effective searches for information and improved their skills in correctly citating and referencing information sources for their assignments. The majority of the students searched for information and resources indepe...

International Information & Library Review, May 19, 2022

University of Nigeria, 2011

Advances in higher education and professional development book series, Jun 9, 2023

International Journal of Library and Information Science, Dec 31, 2010

The purpose of this paper is to develop core books in Nigerian languages using citation analysis.... more The purpose of this paper is to develop core books in Nigerian languages using citation analysis. A total of 449 theses and dissertations submitted to the Department of Linguistics and Nigerian

African Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science, Oct 1, 2018

This study investigated electronic support services and resources for law students in Nigerian un... more This study investigated electronic support services and resources for law students in Nigerian university libraries. Descriptive research design was adopted. Questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. The overall population of law students in the five selected universities was three thousand five hundred and sixty-four (3564). One hundred (100) students were randomly sampled from each of the five universities. In all, 475 (95%) responses were retrieved as sample size for the study. The findings revealed that law students were aware of and could access e-resources such as CD ROM, Law Pavilion, Open access iournals, e-magazines, DOAJ, JSTOR, LexisNexis and electronic journals. Though results showed a remarkable accessibility of electronic information resources in the law libraries, the core legal e-resources appear to be inaccessible to users. However, among the core legal e-resources, Law Pavilion and LexisNexis recorded highest accessibility and Law Pavilion was frequently used by law students. Majority of the respondents acquired information literacy skills through assistance from the library staff. The study identified some challenges experienced in access to electronic legal resources. The study recommends that there should be regular subscription to important law databases that will be highly beneficial to law students in order to enhance legal education and research. Keywords: Electronic Library, Law Library, Electronic Resources, Nigeria Universities, South East Nigeri

Webology, 2021

This study was conducted to determine the relationship between open access presence and ranking o... more This study was conducted to determine the relationship between open access presence and ranking of African universities. It adopted descriptive informetric to examine open access presence of African countries using Directory of Open Access Repositories (DOAR) and Research Gate scores (RGs) of the universities. Data was also extracted from the Journal Consortium (an African university ranking organisation) for metrics on African university ranking. Data on African open access presence was correlated with university rankings. Findings reveal that only twenty-four countries in Africa have records in DOAR and Research gate. Four of the countries (South Africa, Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria) contribute more over 85% of open access records in Africa and the same produced 68% of the top 100 universities in Africa. The study found a highly significant positive but moderate correlation between open access presence and ranking of African universities. It concludes that African universities need to...

Background. Many youths have adopted social networking media for communication with friends, fami... more Background. Many youths have adopted social networking media for communication with friends, family members and the general public. Objective. This study examined the participation of youths in government programmes and policies in Nigeria using social networking media. Method. A total of 200 Nigerian youths were sampled from four Nigerian universities. A structured questionnaire was administered to the respondents and 190 (95%) were properly completed. Results. The major social networking media used by Nigerian youths are Facebook, Google+, 2go, Skype and Twitter. They are mainly used for "social

The library profession has gone through several stages in its development in Nigeria. Librarians ... more The library profession has gone through several stages in its development in Nigeria. Librarians have always agitated for improvement in library development in the country and government has often paid lip services towards genuine desire for library development. Though librarians have been given a professional status through an enabling law, not much has been done for the implementation of this status accorded them. This paper identifies several factors that have affected the rapid growth of the profession. It challenges the librarians, Nigerian Library Association and the National Library of Nigeria to combat these factors through sustainable public relations.

The influence of globalization and information revolution on higher education in Nigeria was inve... more The influence of globalization and information revolution on higher education in Nigeria was investigated through the authors' structured questionnaire. The design of the study was descriptive survey. Fifty-three professional librarians from Nnamdi Azikiwe Library University of Nigeria Nsukka, lecturers from Department of Library and Information Science University of Nigeria, Nsukka and librarians in Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) library were surveyed. The instruments for data collection were questionnaires and observation. Findings from the investigation reveal that globalization and information revolution have positively impacted on higher education in Nigeria in terms of access to information, collaboration and contact among faculty members, better and faster scholarly communication among researchers as well as students throughout the world. The implication of these revelation is that professional librarians in this environment should try to embrace...

Silicon, 2016

The reduction in weight, increase in stiffness and increase in strength of a metal matrix composi... more The reduction in weight, increase in stiffness and increase in strength of a metal matrix composite (MMC) connecting rod when compared to the conventional steel connecting rod have motivated researchers in this area in recent times, but the current cost to produce a metal matrix connecting rod still makes this technology unfeasible for mass production. Because of this most research in this area is producing MMCs using low cast agro-waste as reinforcement. This opens a new window for the present work which is the actual performance analysis of the developed connecting rod using Al-Cu-Mg/4 wt.% bean pod ash (BPA) nanoparticles using a Toyota Carina one(1) model engine. The fuel consumption, induced stress, brake load and power were evaluated. The results were compared with a standard connecting rod. The fuel consumption of the developed MMC connecting rod (0.350 to 0.650 kW/h) was lower when compared to the standard connecting rod (0.430 to 0.761 kW/h) which results in to 0.36 % savings. The stress induced in the developed connecting rod was lower than that of the standard connecting rod. This work has established that using a connecting rod with Al-Cu-Mg/bean pod ash nanoparticles results in to good strength, reduced weight and induced stress with fuel saving of 0.36 %.

Information, Society and Justice, 3 (1), 2010

Globalisation has brought a lot of changes which are impacting dramatically on the entire world. ... more Globalisation has brought a lot of changes which are impacting dramatically on the entire world. Political, cultural and socioeconomic integrations are becoming much easier and faster than before. This paper argues that the digital divide existing between developing and developed countries places Africa in disadvantaged position in the globalisation process leading to cultural imperialism. It challenges library and information professionals to try and bridge this digital divide through sustained professional development, national and institutional framework, curriculum redesign and regional and international cooperation.

Library Philosophy and Practice, 2014

IntroductionSince the past decades, the efforts to achieve health for all coupled with improvemen... more IntroductionSince the past decades, the efforts to achieve health for all coupled with improvement in living standards have raised life expectancy in many parts of the world. The causes of this increase in life expectancy are very obvious. Inclusive efforts and the attention given to health issues by the United Nations Organizations and her agencies, several research in pure and social sciences, genetic engineering, etc have enormously helped to push up the global healthy ageing and old age thereby, increasing life expectancy in different places.Healthy ageing and old age have to do with a gradual but a steady movement toward ageing devoid of acute health challenges. This means paying requisite attention to the health of all the individuals at different stages of life. It is not really waiting for people to get old before giving health care. Rather, it involves getting old and yet being active and striving to attain some goals so as to counterbalance the physical losses that are ass...

This study was conducted to examine skills requirements of librarians for the emerging digital li... more This study was conducted to examine skills requirements of librarians for the emerging digital library system in University of Nigeria Nsukka.A case study research design was adopted for this study. A total of 50 librarians from Nnamdi Azikiwe Library University of Nigeria were used for the study. The paper identified interpersonal, leadership & management and information technology skills required by librarians for the emerging digital library environment. Findings also show that the librarians’ skills in interpersonal, leadership and management are higher than in information technology. The study found out that none of the personal attributes are major inhibitors to up-dating of the librarians’ skills. Findings also identified funding as the greatest challenge in up-dating librarians’ skills. Similarly, internally organized training programmes and sponsorship to workshops and conferences are identified as most critical in the strategies for up-dating the skills of the librarians. ...

Library Philosophy and Practice, 2011

Introduction Libraries all over the world have always placed emphasis on the preservation of reco... more Introduction Libraries all over the world have always placed emphasis on the preservation of recorded information and this has posed serious challenges to librarians and other information managers. Preservation no doubt, has increasingly continued to take a centre stage in information management and handling particularly with the proliferation of publications and other recorded information in different formats. The present global information environment propelled by information and communication technologies has made preservation of information resources, particularly institutional repositories more critical to information professionals than ever before. Research outputs of any institution are considered to play critical roles in the assessment of intellectual and cultural growth of any society particularly in developing countries where knowledge production and dissemination have been considered very low. The preservation and dissemination of these research outputs to a very large e...

Globally, democratic principles revolve around transparency, accountability and greater involveme... more Globally, democratic principles revolve around transparency, accountability and greater involvement of the citizens in government programmes and activities for sustainable development. This can only be achieved if the people have access to government information and this is why agitations for freedom of information continue to heighten. Open government data (OGD) play major roles in democratization of information and a propeller of transparency and open governance. This paper explores management of open government data in Nigeria by examination of selected government websites in Nigeria in order to determine the status of OGD in Nigeria. Indications reveal a country with interest in implementing OGD, but there are several challenges that must be resolved. The paper provides strategies that will assist in mitigating these challenges and concludes that the global rating of the country will improve with full implementation of OGD in the country.