EXTENT OF ADOPTION AND USE OF LIBRARY CATALOGUES BY STUDENT USERS IN POLYTECHNIC, KOGI STATE

Abstract

The library as a service oriented organization is expected to provide the bibliographic resources and services channeled towards the fulfillment of its parent institution’s goals and objectives. The library ensures that the resources so provided are well organized to allow easy access by the library users. The library users are expected to access the library resources with ease and use same maximally while at polytechnic This paper examines extent of Adoption and use of library catalogues by student users in polytechnic in Kogi. 288 students who used the library during the period of the study formed the sample for the study. A questionnaire was used as a data collection instrument for the study. The study revealed that a majority of the students do not use the library catalogue even though they are aware of the existence of the library catalogue. The researcher recommended therefore that a periodic user education programme be organized for the students to enable them to acquire the necessary skills of using the catalogue

Chapter one

Introduction

1.1Background of the study

The school library goals and objectives are to provide adequate and relevant information resources both in print and online for polytechnic community to support teaching, learning and research (these for undergraduates students may refer to class work, assignments, research/project work, term papers, seminar presentation by providing relevant information and services provision for effective and efficient achievement of academic pursuit). Polytechnic library provides well stocked information resources and trained personnel to organize available information materials and assist faculty members and student users in the retrieval and use of these resources (Aguolu, I. E. (2002)

The polytechnic library exists in component. That is, it is made up of several divisions, departments and units that function inter-related to achieve its primary objectives. There is no universal system of grouping the departments and units in the library, as every library is based on the realities of its environment, management style and library system may decide to organize her library in such a way and manner that enable it render efficient service to its users. Thus, various tasks and operations in the ‘library, the grouping of similar activities form the basis for departmentalization of the library. The technical service department is the most important department in the library. It is the heart of the entire library system and it is regarded as the fundamental process in the library management. Effective library services depend on the outcome of the activities in this department.(Ishola,2014). Ifidon, (2004) opined that technical services form the backbone of all library processes, and ensures a systematic organization of all library materials for effective use.

A building filled with books is not necessarily a library unless the books have been organized for access and made available for use. The cataloguing unit’s functions are to organize the total library resources with suitable bibliographic controls to facilitate access to the resources by clientele. The traditional means for accomplishing this goal are descriptive cataloguing, subject cataloguing and classification. This assignment requires effective records prepared with a reasonable economy, (Nwalor 2003).

Cataloguing can be defined as the process of writing down all the bibliographic information of all library materials. While descriptive cataloguing is the process whereby the physical description of a document is done on a given form such as card, book, shelf and even on computer. The Subject cataloguing on the other hand is the determination of the actual subject of a document, since document titles do not actually present the subjects of the document. Someone once referred to this as the “subject aboutness” of a document. While classification is a major accompaniment of subject cataloguing. Whereas in subject cataloguing the determination of the subject/subjects of a document is done, classification helps to put these subjects into a systematic order or sequence which aids the arrangement of documents through-the use of a notation on the shelves. Thus, through the help of classification all documents on for Chemistry for example can be placed together, followed by other branches of Chemistry and so on. The mark to assign to a particular document is lettered on the spine of the book. (Ifidon, 2004). Based on this background the researcher wants to investigate extent of adoption and use of library catalogues by student users in polytechnic

Statement of the problem

For any academic library to serve the purpose to which it is created as agent of information provider in educational environment. It must contain different types of materials, very rich in nature, comprehensive in coverage with adequate bibliographical tools describing the location of each item, which is significant to the whole concept of library and librarianship. However, it is observed sometimes that the bibliographic tools that supposed to lead or guides user to the location of a particular item in the library are either found in adequate, misleading, totally not provided or somehow incomplete. The consequences of this, a user may end off scanning from one shelve to another in search of a document, which is often a waste of time or failure to locate and retrieve the needed material. Therefore, the study investigates extent of adoption and use of library catalogues by student users in polytechnic

Objective of the study

The objectives of the study are;

1. To find out the students awareness about library catalogue as access point to library collection.
2. To find out methods employ by students to consult library catalogue to search for information resources.
3. To ascertain the extent of use of the library catalogue by students to access information resources.
4. To identify the constraints associated with the use of library catalogue.

Research question

The following research questions were formulated;

1. What is the student’s awareness about library catalogue as access point to library collection?
2. What are the methods employ by students to consult library catalogue to search for information resources in polytechnic?
3. What are the constraints associated with use of library catalogue in polytechnic?

Significance of the study

It is of no doubt that every research work must have something new to contribute to the knowledge and people that will benefit from the outcome of the research findings. Therefore, this research work will be of great benefit to students, researchers, lecturers and non-teaching staff that do make use of the library’s information resources and it will also serve as an instrument for updating the library users on the use of library catalogue.

Scope of the study

The scope of the study covers extent of adoption and use of library catalogues by student users in polytechnic. The study will be limited to selected polytechnic in Kogi state

Limitation of the study

This project research would have been easier if not for these limitating factors:

1. Time factor:time was not on the researchers to consult various sectors of the economy to review employees or given out questionnaire to various institutions on the effect of government revenue policies.
   As we all know, time is never our friend. The time scheduled for the completion of this research thesis was too short. As a result, generating information/data was strenuous as it coincides with final year examination period, which needed attention.
2. Finance:this is another barrier that limited the researcher’s work.

3.     Available resources: was unavailable for the research work.

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