The Library Use Habits of Senior Secondary School Students in Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the library use habits of Public Senior Secondary School Students in Ogun State, Nigeria. The descriptive survey design was used for the study. The population consisted of 54,907 third year senior secondary students (SS 3) in the 2014/2015 session in 295 public senior secondary schools in Ogun State, Nigeria. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 977 respondents. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire titled Library Use Habits Questionnaire (LUHQ). The instrument was tested for reliability using Cronbach alpha. The reliability coefficient of Library use habit scale was= 0.9. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics. Findings indicate that majority of the respondents reported that nobody encouraged them to use the library. While, respondents were also tried to benefit from all facilities of the library; borrow books from the library. In the face of using library facilities, majority of the respondents established that they visit the library not only when they have assignment. Based on the findings, the study concludes that organizing a series of lecture under user instruction or user education or library orientation program is required in public senior secondary schools. The study recommends that teacher should also mandate students to use the school library effectively; it can help attain high academic achievement. It was also recommended that professional librarians should be employed in public senior secondary schools to plan and execute result oriented information education.