Availability and Utilisation of Library Resources and Services by Students and Faculty of Tai Solarin University of Education

Abstract

This study investigated the availability and utilisation of the library resources and services by the students and faculty staff of Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun,Ogun State. A survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 10,724 undergraduates, 250 post-graduate students and 278 faculties. 986 undergraduates were selected as sampled using stratified random sampling technique while total enumeration method was used to capture the postgraduate students and faculty staff which implied that these two were all selected.  Questionnaire was the main instrument for data collection and was supplemented with Focus Group Discussion. The finding revealed that the inadequacy of library resources and services were inadequate while the level of utilisation of library resources and services by respondents, was low. Major hindrances to the utilisation of library resources and services included inadequate skills needed for rendering information services by librarians, lack of awareness of availability of library resources and services by users, and inadequate library opening hours. The results showed that there was significant difference in the utilisation of library resources by the students ( = 58.58) and  by the faculty  ( = 38.88) Moreover, there was a significant relationship between the  availability and utilisation of library resources by students (r value is -0.150) and  by faculty ( r value is -0.160) . The findings also revealed that there was significance difference in the utilisation library services by students ( = 57.74) and by faculty ( = 44.18). The study concluded that the library collection was inadequate and there is significant relationship between availability and utilisation of library resources among the respondents while several factors hindered the availability and utilisation of the resources and services of the university library. Recommendations like increased need for the library to acquire more relevant materials to boost the present collection which is inadequate, among others were proffered.