Information Needs And Information Seeking Behaviour Of Nursing And Clinical Students In Medical Libraries: A Case Study Of Aga Khan University

Abstract

Information seeking behavior is pertinent to effective retrieval of information by a scholar. Without a better understanding of the strategies used by information seekers, a library may not effectively meet the needs of its users. This study sought to determine the information needs and information seeking behavior of nursing and clinical students at Aga Khan University (AKU). The specific objectives were: to establish the information sources used by nursing and clinical students at AKU library; to determine how nursing and clinical students obtainq andq accessq theq requiredq informationq forq theirq medical practice decision-making; toq analyseq whetherq theq existingq informationq sourcesq inq the library meet the needs of nursing and clinical students at AKU; and lastly to examine the challenges that nursing and clinical students experience in accessing and acquiring information at AKU library. The study was anchored on Wilson’s Information Behavior Model (1999). The study adopted a mixed methods research design. The target population comprised of 88 clinical and nursing students and 12 library staff at the University. The study used Krejcie and Morgan (1970) formula to determine the sample size. The sample size was 70 nursing and clinical students and 10 library staff who were selected using random sampling. The study collected primary data through use of a questionnaire and an interview guide. The questionnaire was administered to the clinical and nursing students in AKU through drop and pick method while the interview guide helped to get in-depth information from the library staff. The quantitative data was analyzed through descriptive statistics which included means, standard deviation, frequency and percentage distribution. The analysis was conducted through the SPSS software Version 20. The qualitative data was analyzed through content analysis and reported in narrative form along with quantitative data. The quantitative data was presented using pie charts, bar charts, percentages and frequency tables. The study found out that majority of the respondents (82.3%) indicated that the students searched for online resources in the library, 77.4% indicated that they searched for journals while 67.7% searched for text books. The study found out that the students used varied strategies such as keyword search, title search, author search, subject search to access information in the library. The students were seeking information in the library for the purpose of preparing materials to enable them write reports or research papers (77.4%), to help them in their class work (82.3%), and to improve their knowledge in their area of practice (67.7%). The study concludes that nursing and clinical students in AKU made use of all available resources. The students were satisfied with the information sources in the AKU library since it met their information needs. The students acknowledged that there were various challenges which include inadequate computers for students use, slow internet in the library and lack of knowledge on search engines and information materials by some library staff. The study recommends that the university needs to employ more trained and experienced library staff to be able to support the users. Thereq should also beq greaterq collaborationq betweenq students andq librariansq soq asq toq ensureq theq studentsq are able to effectively search for materials they need in the library. The study will be of significance to AKU library staff, the students using the library, to researchers and library adminstrators