ABSTRACT
This research work studied theattitude of lecturers towards institutional repositories in university libraries in South East, Nigeria. The main objective of the study is to determine the attitude of lecturers towards institutional repositories in the university libraries in Enugu, and Ebonyi States all in South East, Nigeria. These Six questions were formulated to guide the study which includes determining the nature of the institutional repositories in the three university libraries, finding out the extent of use of institutional repositories by lecturers in the university libraries. Determine the perception of lecturers towards institutional repositories in the university libraries; ascertain the reason for the perception of lecturers towards institutional repositories in the university libraries. Find out the extent to which the attitude of lecturers affected the institutional repositories in the three university libraries, determine strategies for improving the perception of lecturers towards institutional repositories in the three university libraries in south east Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study and proportionate stratified sampling technique and multi stage sampling technique were used to select academics in the universities. The population of the study in the three universities is 167, 32 and 106 respondents respectively. The sample size of the study is made up of 305 lecturers. Two instruments were used for data collection in the study: these are: structured questionnaire and documentary evidence. The instrument was validated by three experts in the department of library and information science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The data was collect with the use of structured questionnaire from the 305 lecturers in the universities. The data collected were analyzed using simple mean, percentages, tables and frequency counts. The following results were obtained: Dspace is generally the software used in developing and organizing the institutional repositories in the libraries and it enhances research and promote institutional ranking. The most use or access materials in the institutional repositories by lecturers are journal articles, theses and dissertations, books, faculty and departmental journals and book chapters. Lecturers view institutional repositories as a way of accessing current information and also a forum to collaborate with colleagues but some find it difficult to access them. No specified copyright and intellectual property rights (IPP) affects lecturers attitude towards IRS couple with poor internet access. The institutional repositories not have been user friendly and inadequate training to researchers on how to use the repository. Even lack of globally accessibility and power outage is also a problem and reasons for their attitude towards institutional repository. Lecturers perception has made them to collaborate with other colleagues in the field and creates an enabling environment for scholarly publication there by expose them to others researchers globally hence improves institutional ranking but some lecturers don’t consult the institutional repositories in the libraries. That all the strategies provided are appropriate to solve the problem and make lecturers attitude positive towards institutional repositories in the three university libraries.
