Library User Education in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria: a Case Study of the Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
- To find out how user education is conducted in federal college of education (technical) Umunze library.
- To identify the causes of poor use of the library tools by users.
- To assertain the effectiveness of user education in the library.
- To create a positive attitude to information searching which will stimulate the user to make use of the resource available in different libraries which is determine with the help of staff.
- To verify the level of user and staff interaction in the library.
- To find out the students satisfaction about the programme.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE:
Over the years, there have been various terms referring to teaching effective use of the library and its resources. These terms include “user education in academic libraries” “Reader instruction,” and “User instruction” “Library orientation”.
This chapter will bring to light different views from different scholars and professional libraries on library users education. Thus, their views will be reviewed under the following sub-headings:
- Origin of user education in academic library.
- Categories of user education programmes in academic libraries.
- Information goals of the academic library.
- Library use
- Library orientation/user education
- Staffing and services
- Overview of library use education programme in FCE (T) Umunze library.
Origin of user education in academic libraries:
The instruction in the users education in academic libraries has roots as far back as library profession itself. The origin of users education in academic libraries can be traced back more than 170 years ago. The earliest evidence of instruction was seen in a librarian lecturing to undergraduates was found at Harvard college in the 1820s. It was reported that most academic librarians were professors with part-time library appointment who taught the use of library for academic purposes. It was in the early 1900s that William Warner Bishop and William Fredrick pole espoused the concept of library instruction that are still valid today, with the aim of making students independent learners and to clarify the role of the library in the university. In 1905, William Harper observed that “The equipment of the library will never be finished until it has upon its staff men and women whose sole work shall be, not the care of books, not the cataloguing of the books but giving instruction in their use”.
Adio (2006) stated that: “The history development of user education is not recent and that it has been traced to 1960s, particularly the use of academic libraries”. This was in line with the view of Young (1974) that: “Library instruction movement as we know it today and the controversies which surround it came to maturity in 1960s.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design:
In this research, the researcher used the survey method which is commonly used in social science to major opinion and result. It was chosen because of the nature of the investigation and to enable the researcher describe systematically the facts and qualities or characteristics of the population under the study as accurately as possible and to answer the questions they may arise in the course of the investigation.
Area of the Study:
The research aims at investigating problems and various activities involves in user education in tertiary institutions in Nigeria, specifically in Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze Anambra State.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION AND DATA FINDINGS
In this chapter, data used for this study was collected by the use of questionnaire and interview. The result of the research findings are presented under the following question;
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
This study was designed to examine the user education for effective use of the library, in Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze Library as a case study.
Related literatures were reviewed to know what other researchers have written about the topic. The literature review also focuses on the users education under the following sub-headings, origin of library user education, categories of library user education programme, information goals of the academic library, library use, library orientation/user education, staffing and services and overview of library use education programme in FCE (T) Umunze Library.
The significance of this study cannot be over emphasized as one takes into cognizance the importance of users education in the use of library materials in tertiary institutions libraries. Thus, the result of the findings revealed the useful facts that will be of great benefit to users and librarians in making user education their priority in library services.
Conclusion
The researcher interpretation revealed that user education should be regularly conducted so as to ensure positive impact on users in accessing information.
Furthermore, staff should make out their possible best in educating users on the use of library materials which arised as a problem gotten in table II as staff reluctant user education is great importance to the library institution of learning because it expose the users on self development in informational materials as well as on how to search for information on their own.
In researcher interpretation as regard question five in the table, it is obvious that user and staff interaction emphasis much on the aspect of asking and answering questions among themselves, therefore, enthusiasm should be given to them for effective interaction.
Finally, more effort should be adopt in the area of lecturing, since it is the best method of gaining effective orientation by users.
Recommendations
In order to ensure continued effective exploitation of library materials in tertiary institutions, exploitation of libraries especially Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze Library, the following recommendation are proffered.
- That regular user education should be adequately maintained for effective exploitation by users.
- Staff reluctant should be avoided in other not to cause misappropriate use of library materials, which will later result to many problems ahead.
- User and staff interaction should be appropriately be determined so as to ensure smooth understanding and movement of the library.
- Lecturing should be set in an appropriate and suitable hour for better comprehendable by users during orientation.
- Rooms for asking and answering questions should be made available to both staff and users in other to promote effective interactions.
SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER STUDIES
Having studied the user education in Tertiary Institutions in Federal College of Education (Technical) Umunze Library, the researcher suggested that similar study be carried out in other tertiary institutions of other states by other people. This is because it will be of great help to libraries in knowing the problems and lapses occurs in user education programme and the ways to solve it.
This study, if done regularly can help librarians to have standard and qualified users in the area of exploiting materials and information searching which resulted to positive impact on users self development.
Also, the researcher suggest that further study should be carried out to the impact of using ICT (Information and Communication Technology) equipment in orienting the users.
REFERENCES
- ADIO, G (2006).User Education in Academic libraries. An article in the use of library for students in tertiary institutions. Ogbomoso: University library, LAUTECH.
- AINA, L.O (2004). Library and information science text for Africa. Ibadan: Third world information services limited.
- AKANDE, S.O (2002). Library use skills of new undergraduates and library Orientation Programme at University of Ibadan. Nigerian library and Information Science Review 20 (1 and 2): 53-61.
- AMKPA, S.A (2000). Students use of University of Maiduguril library: An evaluation study. Gateway Library Journal (2 and 3): 70-80.
- ANAFULU, J.C (1996) the University Library and the University Administration. Library Bulletin 1 (1) 1-17.
- BELLO, A.S (2003). Library User Education Evaluation at the Ibadan polytechnic. Nigerian Library and Information Science Review 21 (1): 1-6.
- EZEMBA, N.C (2004). The Essentials of Library and Information Scence. Ekwulobia: Theo Onwuka and sons press.
