STAFF AWARENESS AND USE OF THE ESSENTIAL ELECTRONIC AGRICULTURAL LIBRARY (TEEAL) DATABASE IN NASARAWA STATE UNIVERSITY SHABU-LAFIA CAMPUS

Abstract

The study centered on staff awareness and use of the essential electronic agricultural library (TEEAL) Database by staff in Nasarawa State University Keffi (NSUK) Shabu-Lafia Campus. A survey design was adopted for the study. The instrument used for data collection was questionnaire. The population of the study consists 46 academic staff in (NSUK) Shabu-Lafia Campus. 46 copies of the questionnaire were distributed and returned duly filled. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics expressed in frequency scores and percentage. The findings of the study revealed that, the respondents are aware of the existence of TEEAL database from the library. The reasons for the using TEEAL database by the respondents include, better research outputs, personal development and updating of knowledge. The respondents were satisfied with the use of TEEAL database. The problems encountered on the use of TEEAL by staff includes level of awareness was greater than usage because of lack of search skills, lack of training, difficulty in finding relevant information in the database, recurrent power outage and lack of support from library staff. The study recommends that the library and librarians should organize user orientation and training on effective use of e-databases and searching skills, awareness on the use of e-resources should be done periodically and faculty and university management should find alternative source of power supply such as a standby generator, inverter or solar energy system.