Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abstract
User education programme refers to a well-planned programme of training and educating patrons on the skills and techniques of locating and retrieving library materials. User education is one of the important services of the library organized each year for undergraduates of higher institutions. User education is an academic programme designed by academic libraries to educate her user’s especially undergraduates on how to effectively utilize library resources and services. The researchers explained that user education quickens the efforts of the clientele in retrieving and aids utilization of library materials through user education. More importantly, whether information comes from the internet, or the World Wide Web, Online databases, books or document, and other possible sources, users need user education for effective usage of information resources. And this prompted the various methods used for user education in Nigerian University Libraries such as library tour, library orientation, orientation lectures, library instruction, individual instruction, and class instruction to teach library literacy instructions. Users should expect timely access to quality information. This information must be accurate, relevant, comprehensive, and engaging. This can be done successfully by incorporating user education and training components into the academic library programmes and developing continuing professional education and training for the library and information professionals, as well as the end-users who will have to develop learning attitude and network related competence by the use information and communication technologies. This informed university authorities’ decision to make frantic efforts to teach university students library literacy skills through formal library instruction programmes.