Information Seeking Behavior and Use of Library Services by Disabled Students in Federal Universities in South-West, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the influence of information-seeking behavior on library services used by the disabled in Federal universities in South-west, Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The population comprises 302 disabled students in Federal universities in South-west, Nigeria. Total enumeration technique was used. A questionnaire was used for data collection. The instrument was tested for reliability, yielding Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging from 0.74 to 0.75. Descriptive and Inferential Statistics were used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that advisory, carrel and consultancy services were the most available services. The most used services were user education services and consultancy services. The respondents’ information-seeking behavior mostly involves seeking information on health and retrieving information from the e-library. The study concluded that information-seeking behavior influenced the use of library services of disabled students. The study recommended that library management must provide more resources on health-related subjects, especially in electronic form. Finally, the management should improve their current awareness services tailored to the needs of disabled students and library staff should be trained on how to serve every library user irrespective of their challenges.

KEYWORDS:

• Library services
• information-seeking behavior
• disabled