An examination of students’ use of document section A case study of college library Federal College of Education Zaria, Nigeria

Abstract

The study set out to examine students’ use of document section in the college library of FCE Zaria, Nigeria. The library users who are students of the institution seem not making talent use of the projects, theses and government publications kept under supervision of the document section of the library. Therefore, the research main objectives were to find out what type of collection(s) available are the students aware of, to examine in detail how the available collection(s) are been used by the students and to find out what challenges encountered in the utilization of the collections(s) by the students. A case study design was adopted for the study using interview and observation as vital instruments for data collection. Thirty Five (35) sampled students were interviewed and observed and data collected were analyzed using frequency count and percentages of responses. Results revealed that total number of sampled respondents (100%) indicated their awareness of projects in the document section, 4 of 35 (11.4%) respondents responded been aware of theses, where as government publications were not known by the students scoring 0% response. In another result, 100% response of 35 respondents was gained for students using projects for their research work and selecting their research topics from a catalogue available in the section. None of the students was found using internet for selection of project topic (0% response). The students indicated their way of conducting selves’ projects by recopying others research works with 31 of 35 respondents representing 88.6%. The study also found that 35 (100%) respondents reported lack of enough seats in the document unit and a 2hour sharing formula per students daily imposed for access were among problems the students faced. Lack of electricity was not that a big challenge, 10 of 35 (29%) respondents indicated. The paper concluded on the note that the library users lack the talent in using projects kept in the document section of the college library. Hence, the researchers finally recommends for effective user education program by the college library, so that the students are guided in their use of the collections in the document section of the library