Managing Emerging Technological Resources and Information Needs of Academic Staff in Public Universities in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study explored the influence of managing emerging technological resources and information needs of academic staff in public Universities in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. The ex-post facto research design was adopted. Census approach was employed to draw all the 98 administrators from the population because they were manageable. An online 20-item validated instrument with a Cronbach Alpha reliability index of .87, titled: Managing Emerging Technological Resources and Information Needs of Academic Staff Survey (METRINASS) was utilized for data collection. The descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, and the inferential statistics of independent t-test were used for data analysis. Findings revealed that items 1 to 5 occurred within the range of 0.1-2.0 (unaware), items 6 to 10 occurred within the range of 1.1-2.0 (rarely), items 11 to 15 occurred within the range of 3.1-4.0 (always) and items 16 to 20 occurred within the range of 2.1-4.0 (acceptable). These results indicated that the level of awareness and adoption of emerging technologies among academic staff in the sampled institutions were very low, hence, could not significantly influence information management practices. It was concluded that the academic staff were enthusiastic about using emerging technologies to access information, but they faced challenges such as inadequate infrastructure and lack of training. It is recommended amongst others that the institutional administrators should increase the level of awareness and adoption of emerging technological resources by providing training and capacity building programmes for lecturers and students. These programmes should cover topics such as digital literacy, data analysis, programming languages, and emerging technologies. Additionally, workshops and seminars should be organized to provide hands-on experience and exposure to emerging technologies in public Universities in Ebonyi State.