Acceptance and Adoption of Open Access Publication (OAP) in University Libraries in South East Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines the kinds of open access scholarly publication or information resources accepted and adopted by federal university libraries in South East Nigeria. The purpose was to determine the factors that affect open access scholarly publication or information resources acceptance and adoption in university libraries. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Findings revealed that university libraries accepts and adopts open access such as  institutional repository, open journals, subject repository, e-books, personal websites among others with the use of computers, internet facilities and services among others. Inadequate internet facilities and services were identified as a major factor that affects open access acceptance and adoption in university libraries. The study concluded that open access scholarly communication or information resources are vital tool of solving not only financial problems in libraries in general and university libraries in particular but also enable university libraries to keep pace with information explosion or changing trends in libraries. Based on this, it recommends that university libraries should ensure that users are provided with adequate and quality open access information resources for there is a need for access and use of information materials in all formats and acceptance and adoption of open access information resources could incite users to quickly access and utilize university library resources to a high extent.

Keywords: Acceptance, Adoption, Open Access Publications, University Libraries