CHALLENGES OF UTILIZATION OF INFORMATION RESOURCES AND SERVICES IN SELECTED COLLEGES OF EDUCATION LIBRARIES IN SOUTHEAST NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examined the challenges of utilization of information resources and services in selected College of Education Libraries in South East, Nigeria. The study answered two  research questions that were derived from the objectives of the study. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was 2817 respondents consisting of 2810 library users and 7 College Librarians A 10% proportionate sampling technique was used to select a sample of 281 user respondents while all the 7 College librarians of the selected libraries under study were used. The instruments for data collection were questionnaires and checklists. The instruments were administered directly to the students users at the selected libraries  However, 7 checklists for the College librarians were returned in usable form while 281 questionnaires for the student users were returned in usable form. The data from the questionnaire were analyzed using simple statistics (means.) The real limit of numbers (means range) of the nominal value assigned to the scale point was used and decision was taken by comparing results with the real limit of numbers. Major findings of the study include that; the College Libraries under study were utilized to a great extent. All the libraries under study revealed lack of online help, non-availability of library resources, unfamiliarity with the search methods, services not satisfactory, staff are not helpful/ librarian not user friendly, time constraint, space constraint, epileptic power supply, lack of knowledge of the existence of the service, browsing cost is high, lack of time required to search for information, and speed of access is low among other challenges facing the utilization of information resources and services in selected College of Education libraries in South East Nigeria.