Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Date of this Version
2019
Abstract
Abstract
The study focused on sources, format preference and challenges faced by the engineering students of the Federal Polytechnic Ede, Osun State in accessing Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) information resources. The study adopted a survey method. Questionnaire was administered on a sample size of 379 students selected from the School of Engineering of the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, from a population of 7400 students through a stratified sampling technique. 306 sets of questionnaire were returned and valid for analysis, representing 80.74% return rate. The study discovered that personal collections, Internet and colleagues were the three most used sources of accessing TVET information among the students. Also majority of the respondents preferred TVET information sources in electronic format to print resources and reasons attributed to this include ability to interact with the source and search within texts; and round-the-clock, easy, cheap and remote accessibility. Also, the respondents experienced several challenges in accessing TVET information which include high cost of accessing information, poor attitudes of library staff and lack of awareness of TVET information sources. The study recommends among others that the Institution Library should reposition itself to be the first point of call for information among the students, and also acquire more e-resources and improve accessibility to the resources. There is also the need to re-orientate the library staff, especially the front desk staff on staff-customer relations as well as teaching information literacy skills to the students to solve the problems associated with information retrieval.