Information needs and study behaviour of non- traditional students with particular reference to university libraries in Kenya
Date
2012-09Author
Macharia, S M
Wasike, J M
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The purpose of the study was to investigate the inf
ormation needs and study behaviour of non-
traditional university students, university librari
es’ role in information provision, how it impacts o
n the
academic development of the students, challenges th
ey face and make recommendations on how the
university libraries can improve the situation. The
non-traditional students face many challenges that
include lack of adequate time to study, communicati
on breakdowns, inadequate information resources,
lack of support from their employers or sponsors, f
amily commitments and shortage of trained library
personnel. Meeting the needs of non-traditional stu
dents by the university libraries is essential to t
he
social role of the library. These can only be achie
ved if university libraries adequately revamp and
organize library and information services in recogni
tion of their growing user needs, which include
access of information in the comfort of their locat
ions; whenever and wherever they are. Data was
collected from the existing sources which included
both print and electronic media as well as utilizin
g
the author’s professional experience. The study rec
ommended that proper planning for non-traditional
students need to be done with the urgency it deserv
es in line with their growing demand for library an
d
information services across universities. The plann
ing should be done in a way that the traditional
students should not have undue advantage over the n
on-traditional ones.
Citation
International Journal of Library and Information Science Vol. 3(6), pp. 94-103, November 2012Publisher
International Journal of Library and Information Science