PERCEPTION OF USE OF LEGAL INFORMATION RESOURCES AND RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY OF LAW LECTURERS IN SOUTH-WESTERN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating perception and research productivity of law lecturers in South-western Nigerian Universities. The study was guided by five research questions,and one research hypothesis. However, the research design used for the study was Correlational research design because it measures the degree of relationship between variables used in the study without the researcher manipulating either of them. The population of the study was 456 law lecturers as respondents cutting across 21 universities made up of public and private duly accredited to offer law degree programmes in South-western Nigeria. The study adopted Total Enumeration Technique. The research instrument for the study was questionnaire in which some were adapted and some were self-developed. The data obtained from the 21 universities under study were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics which included Frequencies, Means, Standard Deviation while Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation was used to test the hypothesis. The results obtained from this study showed that the level of law lecturers’ perception about research productivity in South-western Nigerian universities was high. However,the study revealed that the level of research productivity of law lecturers in the zone under study was low. In conclusion, the study recommended, among others, that for law lecturers to improve their research productivity, efforts must be in place by university management to ensure that adequate, relevant and up-to-date legal information resources are available for the law lecturers in the respective university libraries in order to improve their academic growth and research development.This is to make the library more responsive to the needs of users.