Information Needs and School Library Media Centre Services Patronage among Federal Government College Students in South Western Nigeria

Abstract

Information is a vehicle for development in all areas of human endeavour, particularly, in the area of education. The school library media centre is therefore considered to be a custodian of information for educational development of students, teachers and other stakeholders. It is in the light of this, that this research investigated information needs of secondary school students in the Federal Government Colleges in the South West of Nigeria. 1,662 questionnaires were distributed to the students out of which only 1,649 were returned and found useful. Descriptive research methods were employed to analyze the data collected. The result indicated that most of the information needed by the students was not available in the school library media centre and that their patronage of the school library media centre services was low. It was therefore recommended that the information needs of the students be considered in acquisition of information resources. However, it was concluded that meeting the information needs of FGC students will positively affect SLMC service patronage.