Information Seeking Behaviour of Lecturers in Private Universities in Oyo State.

Abstract

Abstract When planning and providing information services for their patrons, librarians and information service providers must take into account users' information-seeking behaviours. This role is also felt in the productivity level of librarians. In other words, when librarians are productive, it goes a long way in bringing about much positivity to the sustenance of that organization. When this is not the case, there is every tendency that, that organization might collapse. It is in this regard that this study therefore deems it fit to investigate the Information Seeking Behaviour (ISB) of Lecturers in Private Universities in Oyo State. Descriptive research design was adopted. Population consists of 520 lecturers in private universities in Oyo state, Nigeria. 217 lecturers served as the sample size after Krejcie and Morgan was applied to determine the sample size. Multi stage sampling technique was used as well as a validated questionnaire was also used to collect data. The reliability coefficient for the variable was 0.72. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that (ISB) had significant influence on teaching, citation, students’ project supervision, grant proposal writing and research activities of lecturers. The study concluded that ISB influenced lecturers. The study recommended that academic libraries to organise various seminars for lecturers to boost the use of available sources of information resources and equip them with necessary information retrieval skills to effectively use the databases from where they can obtain quality resources.