Survey of information seeking behavior of new entrants to the university

Abstract

University education is expected to be more learner-centric with higher emphasis on gathering knowledge through learning rather than teaching. As such, the library is expected to play a large role in the educational process of the university. However, the post-secondary school education is mostly directed towards achieving higher results at the GCE (A/L) examination to secure placement in public universities. This situation makes students more teacher-dependent in their studies. In view of this, in order to provide a user-focussed library information service to incoming students, it is very important to identify the nature and extent of their library use and to have a general profile of them. A structured questionnaire was administered to all newcomers at the time of their registration at the university, and almost 100% responded. A proportionate sample of 1,000 responses according to the distribution among broader disciplines of arts, commerce and science was analyzed using SPSS statistical software package and other statistical means. Questions were basically framed to investigate the aspects: how they got direction to library use; the organization of the library; whether there was a library orientation programme; use of basic reference sources; students‟ access methods used to obtain requisite information; their language and ICT use, etc. The survey is expected to identify the profile of an average student and also to identify variations between different broader disciplines. As the library possesses the data sets for a number of years, it is also envisaged to identify whether there are any observable trends. The findings of the survey will be primarily used to formulate the library acquisitions policy and to plan library information services and user education and information literacy development programmes. Further, such findings will be made available to university authorities as and when required.