Awareness and Utilization of Library Resources in Bauchi State College of Agriculture Library

Abstract:

Academic institutions of learning are attached to academic libraries to serve the teaching and research needs of staff and students. These libraries serve two complementary purposes: to support the college curriculum and to support the research of the colleges and students. In the process, the library plays a key role in the nation-building process. Therefore, this study examined the awareness and utilization of library resources in the Bauchi State College of Agriculture library. The objective of the study was to identify the types of resources in Bauchi State College of Agriculture Library, to determine the frequency of awareness of the resources in Bauchi State College of Agriculture Library. It is also to identify the problems being faced by the users in utilization of the resources in Bauchi State College of Agriculture Library and make recommendations for improvement. A descriptive survey was used for the study. In all, 142 users were selected for the study. The analysis of data was based on frequency counts, percentages, mean score and confidence interval. The major finding of the study is that there are many library resources such as textbooks, journals, research monographs, research reports, newspapers, indexes/abstracts, internet services and dictionaries/encyclopedias amongst others and that lecturers use the library mainly for consultation of reference materials. They also use it for research purposes and borrowing of books. A major finding was also that lecturers utilized books more than any other source of information. A number of recommendations were put forward for the improvement of library use but the most prominent suggestion was that more up to date and relevant materials should be acquired by the library, and lecturers should be informed of newly acquired materials.