THE IMPACT OF AUGMENTED REALITY (AR) AND VIRTUAL REALITY (VR) ON USER ENGAGEMENT IN DIGITAL LIBRARIES IN SOUTH SOUTH, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated the impact of augmented reality and virtual reality on user engagement in digital libraries in Universities in South- South Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The study population consistent of all the 568 library staff in the university in the south – south, Nigeria. A random sample procedure was used to select two universities namely: University of Port Harcourt and University of Calabar respectively while a sample of 158 study participants were selected randomly from the two universities (i.e Uniport =82 Unical 76). The instrument used for data collection was a self constructed questionnaire tilled: Impact Of Augmented Reality And Virtual Reality on User Engagement in Digital Libraries (IARVRUE). The instrument was validated by experts drawn from the department, while a reliability coefficient index of 0.81 was obtained using test-retest method. The research questions were answered with mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested using t.Test at 0.05 level of significance. Major findings of the study revealed that augmented  reality and virtual reality impacted on the level of user engagement in digital libraries by enhancing information literacy and making learning and research more attractive. The study recommends among others that library staff should be encouraged to attend workshops to keep them abreast with new innovations in the industry.