Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Date of this Version
12-22-2017
Abstract
ABSTRACT
This study investigated perceived effect of personality traits on information seeking behaviour of postgraduate students in Universities in Benue state. The study focused on information seeking behaviour and personality traits in the area of extroversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness to experience and neuroticism. Six (6) research questions were raised and five hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted survey research design. The entire population of 373 registered postgraduate students’ library users was used as sample.Research instruments was an adopted questionnaire titled “Questionnaire on the Perceived Effect of Personality Traits on Information Seeking Behaviour of Postgraduate Students in Universities in Benue State” (QPEPTISBPSUBS). The research instrument had six sections labeled A-F with a total of forty seven (47) items and a reliability coefficient of 0.82 was obtained. A response rate of 373 (100%) was recorded. Data collected were analyzed using mean () and standard deviation (SD) to answer research questions while the null hypotheses were tested using Chi-square at 0.05 level of significance. The Results revealed that there are different types of information seeking behaviour of postgraduate students in universities in Benue state. There are five dimensions of personality traits which can be used to predict individual’s behaviour and are: extroversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness to experience and neuroticism. The research hypotheses revealed that five dimensions of personality traits significantly affect information seeking behaviour of postgraduate students in universities in Benue state. It was concluded that librarians and information scientist need to know these information seeking behaviour and how they are affected by the different dimensions of personality traits as it will enable them in successful information service delivery to postgraduate students in universities in Benue state. It was recommended that academic libraries in Benue state should develop a data-based information on individuals and there personality traits to facilitate a favourable information seeking climate and librarians should be given effective training on identifying individual trait differences when they interact with users and how to provide needed information to library users based on user’s traits.