| dc.description.abstract | In an era in which universities are more in competition each other globally, availability of
academic libraries' resources are no longer considered a good measure of an institution's
excellence and quality. Recent studies on academic libraries argue that libraries need to be able
to demonstrate that their resources and services are making a significant contribution to the
educational and research activities of their clientele. (Whitemire, 2002). To meet these
challenges, numerous innovations have been proposed such as integration of e-resources in the
library and information services. The University of Nairobi Library and Information System
have adopted integrated library information service that provides access to both physical and
electronic information resources using networked information consortium. This study aimed at
investigating a set of individuals' knowledge and skills on one hand and organizational
characteristics (user support programmes) on the other hand, with the intention of exploring
ways of optimizing utilization of the integrated library resources. The objective of the study was
to describe the students' information seeking behavior and their use of the library to support their
process of learning and knowledge acquisition activities. Employing a purposeful sample and a
mixed research method, this study strived to identify factors that may be addressed to facilitate
optimizing utilization of library and information resources provided through University of
Nairobi Mombasa Library. The study identified awareness and familiarity of library and
information resources, including their organization and retrieval tools, library skills and
information literacy as the main factors that influence utilization of libraries' resources. The
findings indicated that lack of library and information skills, which are the basis for empowering
students with information literacy competencies of identifying, locating, and using of
information resources, is the source of underutilization of integrated information resources
accessible through Mombasa Library. The study found that the level of information literacy
among students can be raised through integrated library skills programme designed with the
cooperation of all the stake holders. The study also noted the high correlation between the
Mombasa Library and ICT Lab where students use the ICT Lab to identify and locate physical
materials available in the library and for accessing library's e-resources. The study recommends
need for instituting integrated programme for library skills in the Campus that will take into
consideration individual students' characteristics to ensure development of self-directed, lifelong
learners. | en_US |
