Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln

 

Abstract

Adequate knowledge about the information needs and seeking behaviour of users is vital for developing library resources, services and facilities to meet their information needs effectively. The purpose of this study is to find out the various legal resources available to Postgraduate law students; their information needs and seeking behaviour; the sources/services utilized by them and their level of satisfaction with the information obtained from the sources in the library. The population of study consists of 323 Postgraduate law students registered at NIALS library since year 2013. Total enumeration sampling technique was used to select all the registered students. A self-developed questionnaire titled Information Needs and Seeking Behaviour of Postgraduate Law Students (INSBPLS) scale was used to collect data. In all, 323 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to Postgraduate law students, out of which 204 copies were returned and were usable for analysis. The study revealed that law books were mostly available in NIALS library with a frequency score of (F= 204), followed by law reports (F= 200). The research also found out that the major information need of the Postgraduate law students is to obtain academic information in the library. This was confirmed by 80 students representing 39.2%. The study revealed that the sources of obtaining academic information by students includes browsing on the shelves (204 respondents representing 100%) and subject/author/title catalogue (187 respondents representing 91.6%). Based on the findings, It is recommended that frequent enquiry into the legal information needs of users should be adopted.

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