A Survey on the use of Reference Services and Sources by Undergraduate Students in Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun (FUPRE)

Abstract

The survey assessed the use of reference services and sources by undergraduate students in Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun (FUPRE). The total population of this study was 627 registered undergraduates’ students in the 2020/2021 academic session. The total enumeration sampling technique was used for the study, which implies studying the entire population. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire which was distributed to the respondents face to face with the aid of two research assistant. 627 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the respondents and the researchers were able to retrieve only 497 which were dully filled and received and found usable for the study. There was a 79% return rate. The data collected for this study was analyzed using simple percentage and frequency counts. The findings revealed that the respondents are majorly aware of the assistance they receive from the reference librarian than other forms of reference services. As per regards reference sources the respondents indicated they are strongly aware of dictionaries, encyclopedia, handbooks/ manuals, yearbooks, and atlases. The respondents indicated they were unaware of directories, online reference tools and Almanacs. On the frequency of the use of reference services, the respondents indicated they use instruction on the use of library, assistance in identifying library materials, orientation services, and user education weekly, while current awareness services was used bi-monthly, referral services was used monthly and selective dissemination of information was used occasionally. On the frequency of the use of reference sources, the respondents indicated they use dictionaries on a daily basis, handbooks and encyclopedias weekly. The findings revealed that the respondents were very satisfied with the instructions they receive on the use of library, assistance in identifying library materials needed to answer a question, user education, library orientation, among others. As regards satisfaction with reference sources, the findings revealed that the respondents are very satisfied with dictionaries, encyclopedias, yearbooks and handbooks/manuals. The respondents also indicated they were satisfied with Atlases while a little fraction of the respondents indicated they were dissatisfied with directories, online reference tools, Almanacs and Gazetteers. It was recommended from the study that librarians should do more in the marketing of the Ask A Librarian Service to increase usage of the service by users, librarians should do more marketing to promote the use of directories, online reference tools and Almanacs in their university library and reference services and sources should be rendered in a separate section to make it easy for users to know where to go whenever they have an information need.