Abstract

 This study investigated the utilization of open access institutional repositories by faculty members in public universities in North East, Nigeria. One objective and one research question guided the study. One null hypotheses wasformulated and tested at 0.05 level ofsignificance. » The descriptive survey design was adopted with a study population of3,612 faculty members drawn from six (6) public universities in the North-East geopolitical zone. A sample of316 respondents representing 10% of the entire population was used. A multi-stage purposive simple random sampling technique was adopted. Data for the study was collected using a 15- item structured questionnaire on a four point scale. Descriptive and inferentialstatistics ofmean scores, and standard deviation were usedfordata analysis and t-test statistics was applied to test the null hypotheses. The findings ofthe study show that there is high extent offaculty members'participation in OAllRs in public universities in North-East ofNigeria. Based on thefindings, the study concludes that thefaculty members studied utilize OAIRs to a high extent Specifically, they utilize OAIRs to; such as deposit and archiving ofintellectual works, literature search, citation and increased visibility, such as deposit ofintellectual works, literature search, citation and increased visibility. The study recommended that the authority and management of public universities in Nigeria should intensify efforts in organizing seminars, workshops and symposiums on the issue of OAIRs and ways in which faculty members can utilize the resources maximally. Key words; Faculty, OAIRs, Public Universities, Utilization