Information Search Knowledge and Agricultural Education Students’ Use of Public Library in Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study determined the influence of information search knowledge on agricultural education students’ use of public libraries in Cross River State, Nigeria. To achieve the purpose, two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated. This study adopted a survey research design. All the 96 final year agricultural education students of the two public universities in Cross River State were purposely selected for the study. A validated questionnaire titled “Information Search Knowledge and Agricultural Education Students’ Use of the Library Questionnaire (ISKAESULQ) was used for data collection. This instrument was face and content validated by three experts. A reliability index of 0.81 was obtained for the questionnaire using Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient after a pilot test. All hypotheses were tested at .05 significance level using simple linear regression and independent t-test statistics. Findings revealed that knowledge of information sourcing significantly influences the use of libraries by agricultural education students in public universities and that there is no significant difference in the influence of knowledge of information sourcing on male and female agricultural education students’ use of public libraries. Based on the findings, it was recommended amongst others that information search knowledge and literacy should be included in the course outline for use in library, and taught as a course in tertiary institutions, as this would ensure that students including those in Agricultural Education have the necessary knowledge needed to source and search for key information in the library