Ability to identify extent of information need and access information as correlates of utilization of digital library resources by lecturers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between lecturers’ ability to identify the extent of information need, access information and utilization of digital library resources in Federal Universities, Southern Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach Correlational research design was adopted. The population of the study comprised 6,653 lecturers’ with a sample size of 665 selected through proportionate stratified random sampling technique. Instruments for data collection were cognitive test and questionnaire used for utilization of digital library resources. Kuder–Richardson method was used to establish the internal reliability coefficient, yielding the score 0.77, 0.78, respectively, and Cronbach alpha for questionnaire yielding 0.81. Data collected were analyzed using the Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. In testing the hypotheses, p-value was used to determine the level of significance at the 0.05 alpha level. Findings The results show low positive relationship between abilities to identify the extent of information, access information in the utilization of digital library resources. The hypotheses were rejected, indicating a positive relationship between abilities to identify extent of information need, access information and utilization of digital library resources. Originality/value The findings of this study provide novel facts that help to clarify existing uncertainties and ambiguity in the link between some elements of information literacy and the use of digital library resources in developing economies such as Nigeria.