Academic Staff Technological Readiness and Management Decisions as Predictor for Creation of Institutional Repositories in Federal Polytechnics in South-South, Nigeria

With the proliferation of information resources, digital information preservation is necessary for the storage and accessibility of materials emanating from higher institutions of learning of which IRs creation is fundamental. Thus, this study seeks the investigation of academic staff technological readiness and management decision as predictor for creation of IR in Federal polytechnics in South-South, Nigeria. This research adopted the descriptive survey design. The population for the study consisted of all academic staff and management staff (Polytechnic Librarians) in the federal polytechnics. The data was obtained via a validated questionnaire and oral interview. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, mean and standard deviation) to answer the research questions, while formulated hypotheses were tested using independent sample t-test, correlation and regression analysis at 0.05 level of significance. Major finding revealed a high level of academic staff technological readiness towards the creation of IR; and that a strong positive relationship exists between technological readiness of academic staff and management decisions towards the creation of IR. The study therefore concludes that there is urgent need for federal polytechnics management to implement the creation of IR since the technological readiness of academic staff and management decisions are high and favourable.