Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln

 

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the distribution of librarians by university, gender, years of experience and qualification and to determine the influence of user education marketing strategy on students’ use of libraries in four Nigerian Universities. Ex-post-facto design was used for the study and the instruments for data collection were two researcher-developed questionnaires, one for the librarians and the other for the students. Data obtained were analyzed using independent t-test statistics. Results indicated that all the universities investigated are gender sensitive in their employment; both sexes are almost equally represented. The librarians are well experienced staff since 92% of them have working experience of 11 or more years; only 8% of the librarians are within the 1-10 years of experience bracket. Also the librarians are highly qualified professionals with at least a Bachelor of Library Science degree. The positive response of the librarians to the provision of user education marketing strategy and the response of students to the utilization of the strategy showed a similar trend. In both responses, library orientation component of the user education marketing strategy had the highest positive response followed by compulsory library instruction course and then training on information search and retrieval skills while individualized instruction on library usage at the information desk had the least response. The similarity in the responses indicated a true reflection of the level of provision and utilization of these components of user education programmes in the institutions studied. Independent t-test indicated that the provision of user education programme significantly enhanced students’ use of library services and resources.

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