Recent major trend spotting reports and articles are also examined and compared. The starting point is the contents of New Review of Academic Librarianship (formerly British Journal of Academic Librarianship) from 1986 which are examined thematically and used to conduct two focus groups with academic librarians from those in first posts to international library leaders. This article compares three sources of information about academic libraries to consider what the future could hold and the skills needed to deliver effective services within that future. It was recommended that the library put in place a 24 hour internet service so as to combat the challenge of having long queues at the media centre and cyber cafes. The study found out that the undergraduate students' information needs are mainly centred on academic and allied social issues, and they mostly preferred to use the Internet to address their information needs. The result of the findings was analysed using simple percentages and is represented in charts. Two hundred and fifty seven (257) copies of the uestionnaire were distributed, two hundred and twenty (220) were returned but two hundred and three (203) representing response rate of 80% were found usable for data analysis. The questionnaire was randomly distributed to the students in these departments thereby giving equal opportunity of being selected as part of the survey. An adopted questionnaire was used to gather data for this study. Students in their second and third years of study in the departments of Estate Management and Architecture both in the school of Environmental Technology in Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) were surveyed. As Librarians our traditional roles are currently embedded with the new and challenging tasksĪbstract This study was carried out to investigate the information needs and most preferred source of information of undergraduate students in a Nigerian university of technology. It postulated vigorous ethical scrutiny and research enquiry to ensure that research findings improve human conditions both present and future. The study ascertained the degree of awareness of these dilemmas among the librarians. Innovative applications, interactive and collaborative approaches, policy and compliance, sensitisation and education amongst others were recommended as remedies to manage and curtail the menace of violations of research ethics. The benefits of adhering to ethical standards promote integrity in research, impact on institution’s reputation, ranking, funding, transparency amongst others. It was discovered that integration of ICT has impacted on academic research and for that matter on ethics. Other delinquencies were data insecurity, social network abuse and issues on e-waste. The study revealed plagiarism, fabrication, poor record keeping, honorary authorship, conflict of interest, duplication particularly of dissertations as some of the dilemmas of scholarly communication. Although the librarians play crucial roles by instilling academic discipline, emerging roles and use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) applications were minimal. Twenty-six responses were analysed using SPSS to ascertain the results Findings revealed a number of roles deemed traditional and contemporary. A questionnaire was the instrument used for the data collection. Senior Polytechnic Librarians whose institutions had undergone the transition became the resultant respondents. This is an exploratory study that adopted the quantitative method. The researchers explored the librarians’ role in support of the Technical University new road map. As such, behavioural attitudes, the ‘‘duty-based theory which complements the need for compliance to academic research policies, rules and codes of conducts has been espoused. Academic writing is guided by laid down rules, standards and codes of conduct in order to uphold intellectual integrity and honesty. In view of this, academic research and, for that matter, compliance to research ethics has become imperative in these institutions notwithstanding concerns on ranking, funding, open scholarship, virtual research, and reputation building have also come into play. The polytechnics in Ghana are currently been upgraded to Technical University status.
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