;

BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH REPORTS IN LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

By

Abstract

The research study is a Bibliometrics analysis of post graduate research report in Library and Information Science in Nigerian universities, from 1993 to 2006. The survey research technique was used and the design of the study is cross-sectional survey design. The population was made up of 747, postgraduate research reports. Seven research question were raised and four null hypotheses formulated to guide the study. Related literature were reviewed in order to explore all facets of Bibliometrics studies. The instrument for data collection is Document Analysis Guide (DAG). The instrument was validated through expert opinion. Documentary research methods, frequency tables, bar charts, Bradford-Zipf ‘bibliograph’ {R(n)=and b (1≤n≤c), N log n/s C1≤n≤N)} were used to provide answers to the research questions. The findings of the study were: there are variations in the productivity output of masters’ and doctoral research reports in library and information science in Nigeria universities, no research was carried out on the states - Gombe, Jigawa, Katsina, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara, museums and private libraries were the least researched, no research was carried out on these subjects – manuscript collection, thesaurus, patents etc, library management, information management, information recourses, library resources were the core subject studied, Oyo State, Enugu State, Lagos State, Akwa-Ibom State, Delta State and Edo State were the core geographical areas studied. The implications of the findings were discussed. The recommendations based on the findings were that: research centres for Library and Information Science or departmental libraries should be established to improve organization, management and documentation of these research reports, there should be a documentation librarian in the list of staff at postgraduate schools of various universities whose duty should be tracking down these research reports, ensure proper documentation and upward delivery to the university libraries, efforts should be made to carry out research on the states, subjects and libraries that have not been studied in order to shed light into their situations for better effective coverage on and management and to direct better future researches.The research study is a Bibliometrics analysis of post graduate research report in Library and Information Science in Nigerian universities, from 1993 to 2006. The survey research technique was used and the design of the study is cross-sectional survey design. The population was made up of 747, postgraduate research reports. Seven research question were raised and four null hypotheses formulated to guide the study. Related literature were reviewed in order to explore all facets of Bibliometrics studies. The instrument for data collection is Document Analysis Guide (DAG). The instrument was validated through expert opinion. Documentary research methods, frequency tables, bar charts, Bradford-Zipf ‘bibliograph’ {R(n)=and b (1≤n≤c), N log n/s C1≤n≤N)} were used to provide answers to the research questions. The findings of the study were: there are variations in the productivity output of masters’ and doctoral research reports in library and information science in Nigeria universities, no research was carried out on the states - Gombe, Jigawa, Katsina, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara, museums and private libraries were the least researched, no research was carried out on these subjects – manuscript collection, thesaurus, patents etc, library management, information management, information recourses, library resources were the core subject studied, Oyo State, Enugu State, Lagos State, Akwa-Ibom State, Delta State and Edo State were the core geographical areas studied. The implications of the findings were discussed. The recommendations based on the findings were that: research centres for Library and Information Science or departmental libraries should be established to improve organization, management and documentation of these research reports, there should be a documentation librarian in the list of staff at postgraduate schools of various universities whose duty should be tracking down these research reports, ensure proper documentation and upward delivery to the university libraries, efforts should be made to carry out research on the states, subjects and libraries that have not been studied in order to shed light into their situations for better effective coverage on and management and to direct better future researches.