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This paper is an empirical investigation of authors? awareness of international publishing standards and their legal deposit obligations which are critical variables for both Universal Bibliographic Control and Universal Availability of Publications. The descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The area of study was Enugu State in South East Nigeria. Specifically, the institution of the authors was the University of Nigeria Nsukka which historically and population-wise is the oldest and largest institution in the South East. The population was made up of 70 librarians in the Nnamdi Azikiwe Library and the Department of Library and Information Science of the University. The sampling approach was purposive. The data collected was analyzed using frequency counts, standard deviation and mean scores. The basis for decision was 2.50 for both the upper and lower scores. The highest level of awareness of authors of international publishing standard was that „web resources now have DOI?, followed by ISBN for books, CIP for publications, the importance of CIP, ISMN for music publications, the agency with statutory responsibility to prepare CIP, the agency that assigns ISBN, the requirement for ISSN for journals. They were however not aware of the agency that assigns ISBN. The study revealed that authors play critical roles in the maintenance of international publishing standards. The authors studied agreed they ensured that their publishers use ISSN and process CIP for books. They agreed that they are key players in national bibliographic control practices. They also checked whether online journals containing their works had DOI. Majority of the authors agreed that their awareness levels were very high and high respectively, with respect to their awareness of legal deposit obligations. The study also revealed that the greatest source of awareness came through sensitization/enlightenment programmes, followed by publishers, librarians, conference participation in that order. While the authors were aware of their publishers? obligations, they were not aware of the provisions of the legal deposit provision. A digital nervous system of shared responsibilities for the maintenance of international publishing standards and the implementation of legal deposit provisions in Nigeria, and indeed any other country is proposed. This is the mainstay of the paper?s originality. It is argued that a functional identification and integration of the burgeoning stakeholders into a digital nervous system define the future from the foreground for improved international publishers? standard and compliance with the extant depository law, for Nigeria and indeed, for most developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online journals are considered beneficial to researchers across the globe, however, research into awareness and use of online journals has been largely overshadowed by the whole gamut of electronic resources such as e-books, e-theses, and other electronic materials. Previous research in Nigeria has dwelt largely on the entirety of electronic resources, this study, specifically looked at online journals as a single component amongst other electronic resources. The objective of this study is to determine the awareness and use of online journals among postgraduate students in Nigeria. The survey revealed a mixed picture in terms of awareness and use of Open Access (OA) online journals and subscription based online journals. Among other findings, the study found that use is still a major challenge, which is rooted in a lack of awareness. This article contributes to the growing body of literature on the potentials of online journals (OA and subscription based), for the developing world in two ways: it provides information about online journals adoption in Nigeria, where little research has been done thus far, and it provides information about the practices of postgraduate students in public universities, a population area where little research has been done. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines undergraduates' awareness, accessibility and use of Electronic Information Resources (EIRs) in federal universities in South West, Nigeria. The total population of this study was twelve thousand, eight hundred and fifty six (12,856) undergraduates of the federal universities understudy. A sample of 420 respondents was drawn from the total population using simple random sampling technique. Questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. The data collected for this study was analyzed using simple percentage/frequency counts and weighted mean. Findings from this study revealed that undergraduates' in federal universities, to a very great extent, are aware of the types of electronic information resources that are accessible for use in their university libraries in South West, Nigeria, also the study found that the extent of undergraduates' accessibility of electronic information resources in federal university libraries in South West, Nigeria is very high, that undergraduates' in federal universities in South West, Nigeria use electronic information resources for: Accessing useful and relevant databases not subscribed to by the library; Access online/electronic news; Gaining access to information material not available in hard copies among others. The following challenges were faced by undergraduates' in their effort to use the library: Poor maintenance of electronic information resources; Lack of training for students on the use of electronic information resources and erratic power supply among others. The following were suggested to improve on accessibility and use of electronic information resources by undergraduates' in Nigerian universities: the library management should try as much as possible to acquire and make recent electronic books and journals available or students since their level of accessibility and use are very high in federal universities in South West among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]