A survey of cybercafés in Delta State, Nigeria
| Pages | 487-495 |
| Date | 01 October 2003 |
| Published date | 01 October 2003 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470310499876 |
| Author | Esharenana E. Adomi,Rose B. Okiy,Josiah O. Ruteyan |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
A survey of cybercafeÂs
in Delta State, Nigeria
Esharenana E. Adomi
Rose B. Okiy and
Josiah O. Ruteyan
Introduction
The Internet has made changes in almost all
aspects of our lives as it plays a role in most of
what we discuss today about access to,
dissemination and retrieval of information
(Chachage, 2001). Internet explorers/users
have high expectations of Internet services,
which range from a simple desire to find
something interesting (for no particular
reason) to searching for useful information on
a specific issue as a result of the tremendous
diversity and volume of information
contained in the Internet (Chen et al., 1998).
The Internet can enable the user to have
access to information on diverse and specific
areas that can meet his needs.
According to Paul (2002), the Internet,
which began in the 1960s as a project of a few
researchers, has grown to be a commercial
success with billions of dollars of annual
investment; it has developed within three
decades into a mass medium that influences
most or all domains of life: from education to
recreation; from business to medicine; and
from academia to politics. He notes further
that today's mega-trend and vision of the
global village and globalisation are based on
and influenced by this technology. The
influence of the Internet permeates all aspects
of life ± in developing as well as developed
countries.
Statistics show that the use of the Internet
has grown in the most urban areas in Africa
relatively rapidly in much the same way as the
adoption of the mobile phone, which followed
shortly after[1]. Jensen (1996) observed that
over half of African countries have, despite
their poor telecommunications infrastructure,
developed some form of low-cost dial-up
store and e-mail service with a gateway to the
Internet ± 33 of the 54 nations on the
continent as at 1996; that, of these, 20
countries have live Internet public access
services in the capital cities. He listed these as
Algeria, Angola, Central African Republic,
Benin, CoÃte d'Ivoire, Madagascar, Mauritius,
Morocco, Tanzania, Tunisia, Egypt, Senegal,
Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Swaziland, Zambia,
Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique ± and of
course South Africa, which is among the top
20 countries on the continent when ranked by
number of Internet nodes. He notes further
that an additional eight countries had well
advanced plans for establishing an Internet
The authors
Esharenana E. Adomi is Serials Librarian, Rose B. Okiy
is Reader Services Librarian and Josiah O. Ruteyan is
Cataloguer, all at Delta State University Library,
Abraka, Nigeria.
Keywords
Internet, Information science, Libraries,
Information networks, Nigeria
Abstract
This articlesurveys the cybercafe s in Delta State, Nigeria.By
means of questionnaires and observation techniques, data
were collected from the cybercafeÂs. Frequency counts and
percentages were used to analyze the data generated.
Findings revealed where the Internet cafeÂs are located, year
established, type of ownership, number of daily users,
categories of users, age of regular users, sex of users,
previous users of information technology, location of their
Internet service providers, number of systems connected to
the Internet, staff strength, provision of non-Internet
services, problems militating against Internet services
business in the cybercafeÂs, as well as suggestions for
improvementof services to clients. Some recommendations
that can facilitate the operations of the cafeÂs are also set
forth.
Electronic access
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http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
487
The Electronic Library
Volume 21 .Number 5 .2003 .pp. 487-495
#MCB UP Limited .ISSN 0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/02640470310499876
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