Analysis of citation in undergraduate law projects in faculties of law libraries in Anambra and Enugu States of Nigeria

Abstract

This study sought to find out the types of information sources law students cite in the their undergraduate research projects and the availability of these sources in faculty of law libraries in South East Nigeria: The population of the study was five hundred and seventy research projects from Anambra State University, Enugu State University of Technology, Nnamdi Azikiwe University and university of Nigeria Nsukka. Five research questions concerned with type of informations sources Frequently cited sources, availability of cited sources in law libraries as well as challenges law librarians encounter and strategies to enhance availability of cited sources in law libraries guided the study. Descriptive surrey design was used for the study. Data was collected by using researchers analysis guide where manual counts of citations in these project were done. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentage and then presented in tables and charts. A total of thirty three thousand, four hundred and forty thousand citations were generated from the five hundred seventy research projects giving an average of 58.6 citations per project. The findings showed that law students rely heavily on law reports, statutes and textbooks which generated 95.77% of the citations as against journals and other minority sources which produced only 4.33%. Cited sources with 20 citations and above were identified as most frequently cited. None of the research projects cited the internet sources. The study also identified information sources that are most frequently cited by these researchers. Unfortunately most of these cited sources are not available in the law libraries studied mainly as a result of poor funding and lack of autonomy of faculty of law libraries in Nigeria. The findings have implications for the government of Nigeria, law librarians, members of the Bar and the Bench and law students in developing policies that would address these inadequacies concerned with the study and availability of research material is legal education. Based on these implications, some recommendations were made among which are acquisition of current research material in law, by faculty of law libraries adherence to both National Universities Commission and Council of legal Education Benchmark on collection development of robust ICT infrastructure in law libraries in Nigeria; acquisition of frequently cited research materials; improved funding; granting of a degree of viable autonomy to faculty of law libraries and regular training of law librarians in Nigeria.