Availability and accessibility of electronic information resources in academic libraries as predictors of academic performance of students

Abstract

This paper argues for the availability and accessibility of EIRs in academic libraries as predictors of academic performance of students of tertiary institutions. It raises the problem that the growing influx of EIRs has revolutionised academic libraries' operations and led to radical changes in libraries' services by making information available to students in new ways to support scholarly publications and identifies e-journals, e-books, e-theses and dissertations, databases, CDs/VCDs/DVDs, etc., as EIRs that can be made available and accessible to boost students' academic performance. It outlines space economy, ease of access through numerous metadata, search engines, online catalogues (OPAC), and protocols, cost-effectiveness, unhindered access and simultaneous use of EIRs as the benefits of EIRs; while it also discusses poor funding of academic libraries, coat of purchasing electronic gadgets, poor students' searching skills, infrastructure decadence and unreliable power supply as the factors Inhibiting academic libraries from making EIRs available and accessible to students. It recommends among others that academic libraries should be adequately funded by management so that they can be purchasing the necessary electronic gadgets needed for the availability and accessibility of EIRs to students.