Abstract:
This study assessed internet literacy skills of academic staff in two faculties, in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. It sought to find out the available e-resources, level of internet literacy skills, methods of internet literacy skills acquisition, frequency of internet usage, perceived benefits of internet literacy skills, problems and strategies for enhancing acquisition of internet literacy skills of the academic staff. A descriptive survey design was used for the study with a population of 354 academic staff. Sample size of 212 (60%) of the population was used for the study. The instrument for data collection was structured questionnaires with 57 question items which were appropriately validated by three persons. These include the supervisor and two other lecturers in the department of library and information science. Percentages, mean scores and frequency tables were used in analyzing the data to answer the seven research questions mapped out for the study. The findings revealed that CD-ROM databases, On-line catalogue, E-journal, Internet/web, E-mail, E-books, On-line databases, E-thesis, and Digital archives are available e-resources for teaching and research. It also discovered that the academic staff of the faculties under study have internet literacy skills on booting of the computer, logging in and logging out of the internet, using www to find out information for academic purposes, saving files from a web page, use of various search engines in sourcing for academic materials, connecting to the internet, sending and receiving e-mail messages, downloading files from the internet and sending attachments with e-mail messages but are found to be illiterate in such areas like use of e-resources in teaching and research, uploading file on the internet, use of web 2.0 tools in teaching and research and taking part on on-line discussion and chat with colleagues. It also revealed that guidance by friends and colleagues and institutional training are the major methods they acquired these skills and majority make use of the internet in weekly and monthly bases. The study also discovered that provision of current information, ability to access global information, collaboration amongst colleagues, avenue for researchers’ exposure among others are some of the perceived benefits of internet literacy skills. It was found that lack of governmental and institutional support for training, unstable power supply, unstable internet connectivity, and system breakdown are some of the problems affecting the acquisition of internet literacy skills. The study recommends that adequate governmental and institutional funding for training and ICT facilities, stable internet connectivity, provision of stable power supply, use of train-the-trainers techniques and training and re-training of academic staff on internet usage for easy and effective utilization of the internet services are some of the strategies for enhancing the acquisition of internet literacy skills.
