Perceptions of distance students on the efficacy of Online Public Access Catalogue as an information retrieval tool at the University of Zambia

The survey aims to investigate distance students’ perceptions of the efficacy of the online catalogue as a tool for information retrieval at the University of Zambia. A survey research design has been adopted in the study. Convenient sampling method was used to select 160 distance students. A structured questionnaire was developed and distributed to undergraduate distance students. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to analyse quantitative data into frequencies and percentages. The study established majority of distance students rarely used the online public access catalogue in exploiting the resources in the university library. Instead they employed shelf-to-shelf browsing in information searching and retrieval skills. Lack of proper orientation and user education were identified as major factors militating against their maximum utilization and exploitation of the resources in the university library. The findings of the study will inform stakeholders on how best to turn around the negative trends of OPAC.