ABSTRACT
The study investigated academic use of social networks among library and information science postgraduate students in universities in south east Nigeria. Specifically, six specific objectives and research questions guided the study. They covered: various social networks used by postgraduate students; frequency of use of social networks by the PG students; academic purpose for use of SNs by PG students; influence of SNs on PG students academic work; challenges associated with the academic use of SNs among PG students and strategies for enhancing the academic use of SNs by PG students. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was 10000 postgraduate students, comprising of 2740 PGD students, 4100 Masters Students and 3160 PhD students respectively. The study used proportionate stratified random sampling technique for determining the sample of 300 PG students, consisting of 72 PGD, 127 masters and 101 PhD students from University of Nigeria Nsukka, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, and Imo state University Owerri. The instrument employed for data collection was questionnaire. Three hundred (300) questionnaires were distributed to the respondents and two hundred and fifty (250) of them were returned. This represents a return rate of eighty three percent (83%). The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics(Mean and standard deviation). The findings of the study revealed that the major SNs utilized by LIS PG students in their academic activities include: Face book; Watsapp; Goggle; Blog; My opera and twitter. It was discovered that SNs serve the academic needs of PG students, thus they utilized them in their learning, research, communication, assignment, and other academic activities. Similarly, the result revealed that poor access to facilities like smart phones and laptops, high cost of data, slow internet access speed and lack of awareness programmes, constitute the major challenges affecting their academic use of SNs. Based on the above findings, the following recommendations were made; the provision of more computers with latest specification and multimedia kits by school authorities, the timing of the internet service should be increased and made available round the clock, the use of V-SAT connectivity and increasing of the bandwidth to aid internet access, some orientation programmes should be organized by school authorities, school management should also design courses that focuses on the use of SNs in academic activities.
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