Information searching habit of LIS undergraduate students in selected universities in Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined information searching habit of LIS undergraduate students in selected universities in Kwara State. The study adopts descriptive research design; the population of the study include LIS students in Kwara state universities. This study adopted simple random sampling technique. Descriptive statistics of simple percentage, frequency count and mean was used as method of data analysis. The findings revealed print library materials, databases, interpersonal sources, online institution repositories, and social media are sources of information. The study also found out that nature of assignments, prior knowledge and experience, personal preferences and biases, searching under time pressure, academic status, visiting the library to change habits are the factors influencing information searching habits by undergraduates. The findings revealed that proper keywords, utilizing the right search operators, searching using indexes and directories, using enclosing sentences in quote marks, Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT) are the used searching technique. The study recommends that there is need for the development of digital literacy programs that can help bridge the gap in information searching.