ATTITUDE OF STAFF AND STUDENTS ON THE AWARENESS, AVAILABILITY AND UTILIZATION OF LIBRARY INFORMATION RESOURCES IN NASARAWA STATE UNIVERSITY, KEFFI

Abstract

This study was on the availability, awareness and utilisation of information resources by staff and students of the Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK). Three objectives guided the study. The instrument used for data collection was a researcher self-developed observation checklist. The instrument was used to identify the availability of information resources in the library while the other was used to solicit information on users' awareness and utilization of the library resource. The study uses the descriptive survey with a population of 2,181. The sample size of 436 was drawn using a simple 20% of the entire population. Data was analysed using simple percentage. From the finding it can be seen that the library have some information resources which can support teaching, learning and research as is obtainable in academic environments. The available resources include reference materials, textbooks, curriculum based text, journals, newspapers, online catalogue, online data bases among others. On the other hand, awareness of available information resources by users, result revealed that users are aware of some available information resources in the library. Result
also shows that the users utilize some of the available information resources. The study concluded that, the library have some useful information resources, that user are aware of some of the available resources and in the same vain utilizes them. Finding also shows that users are not fully aware of some resources available in the library. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that; library should acquire more information resources especially ICT based ones, information access policies should be adjusted for more openness and the NSUK library should make deliberate efforts to make users aware of available information resource to encourage utilization of available information resources.