AWARENESS, ACCESS AND UTILIZATION OF SERIAL PUBLICATIONS AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE IN NASARAWA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, KEFFI

Abstract

The study investigated the level of awareness, access, and utilization of serial publications among undergraduate students in the Faculty of Social Sciences, Nasarawa State University, Keffi. The population of the study comprised of 7,017 undergraduate students from the Faculty. A cluster sampling technique was employed to select respondents for the study. The research adopted a survey research design, and data were collected through a structured questionnaire administered to the students. The collected data were analyzed using mean scores and simple percentages. The findings revealed that students exhibited a moderate to high level of utilization of serial publications available in the university library. The highest mean score (3.08; 80%) was recorded for the statement that serial collections are major media through which research findings are published, indicating that students recognize the importance of serials particularly academic journals as key sources of current and reliable research information. In addition, serial publications were found to supply scientific discoveries and recent research findings (mean = 2.98; 76%) and to help satisfy users' information needs (mean = 2.94; 76%).However, the statement that serials provide more up-to-date information on any issue than textbooks recorded the lowest mean score (2.84; 68%), suggesting that some students still rely more heavily on textbooks, possibly due to familiarity or ease of access. The study concluded that although serial publications are considerably utilized by undergraduate students, their effective use can be further improved. Consequently, the study recommends that the university library increase subscriptions to current serial titles, expand access to electronic journals and databases, and organize regular user education and orientation programmes to promote more effective and sustained utilization of serial resources in academic work.