PROVISION AND UTILIZATION OF INFORMATION RESOURCES AND SERVICES FOR JUDGES IN HIGH COURT LIBRARIES IN NORTH EAST NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

This research investigated provision and utilization of information resources and services for judges in High Court Libraries. A descriptive research design was used for the study. The area of the study was North-East Nigeria. The total population for this study was 131 respondents (78 judges and 53 library staff) in six high court libraries of three states in North-East. Seven research questions guided the study. Three instruments were used for data collection, namely: a structured questionnaire, an interview, and an observation checklist. A total number of 131 copies of each of the questionnaire and observation checklist were correctly filled and 125 returned. This number represented 95.4% of the number given out to the respondents used for this study. The instruments were validated by research experts in the field of library and information science. In analyzing the data gathered frequency table and mean score were used for the questionnaire and observation checklist, while the data from the interview were presented in prose narrative form. The findings revealed that “adequate information resources were provided for Judges”, “indexing and abstracting” lead in all the methods used for the provision of information resources in the types of services provided, “circulation services” ranked the highest in mean. While internet services was the lowest. It was also found out that the mode of access tools for utilization of information resources are: Dictionaries, catalogues, indexes and Bibliographies based on their hierarchical ranking. The study also found out that judges areas of information use are thus: “constitutional law”, “civil law”, “property law”, “labour law”, “criminal law” etc. The study found problems associated with provision and utilization of information resources as “lack of fund”, “outdated information resources”, “law journals and period”, “digest of government publication”, “lack of ICT knowledge” etc. The study recommended among others that there should be adequate fund provided for High Court Libraries. It also recommended adequate reference collection being provided by reference librarian to high court judges and that, up to date or current information resources should be provided for high court judges.