Use of Reference Tools among Postgraduate Students of Tai Solarin Federal University of Education, Ijagun

Effective use of reference tools has become imperative for postgraduate students in engaging in academic activities, conducting quality research and producing scholarly publications. Hence, the study investigated the assessment of the use of reference tools among postgraduate students of Tai Solarin Federal University of Education (TASFUED), Ijagun. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study, with the total population comprising six hundred and thirty-seven (637) postgraduate students across the five colleges of TASFUED. A sample size of two hundred and forty-six (246) respondents was drawn using a proportionate stratified sampling technique. Two hundred and forty-six (246) copies of the questionnaire were administered to the respondents, and 173 were returned and found usable for analysis. Data were analysed using frequency counts, percentages, mean and standard deviation. The findings revealed that the major reference tools available to postgraduate students were Google Scholar 165(95.4%) and ResearchGate 153(88.4%) The extent to which postgraduate students of TASFUED use reference tools was high (x̅ = 2.81). The challenges impeding the use of reference tools among postgraduate students are irregular power supply (x̅ = 3.35), unreliable internet connectivity (x̅ = 3.33) and time constraints due to academic workload (x̅ = 3.29). The study concluded that while postgraduate students of Tai Solarin Federal University of Education, Ijagun demonstrated a great extent of use of basic and common reference management tools and academic databases, gaps still exist in the effective use of advanced reference tools like Mendeley, EndNote, and Scopus. It was therefore recommended that the university library and postgraduate college should organise regular workshops, seminars and hands-on training programmes on the use of advanced reference management tools.