Study habits and library usage among undergraduates in federal universities in south-west Nigeria

Abstract

University students are required to undergo a lot of studying in order to meet the requirements of their curriculum. To help them acquire this, Universities ensure the provision of information materials and conducive studying environment through the University library. However, literature suggests that study habits developed by some students may not encourage their use of library which could negatively affect their academic achievement. It is against this background that this study investigated the study habits and library usage among undergraduates in federal universities in South-West, Nigeria. The study adopted the survey research design. Questionnaire was used for data collection. Out of 2,086 undergraduate students from three federal universities which are University of Lagos, University of Ibadan and ObafemiAwolowo University, 643 were selected using multistage sampling technique. Datacollected were analysed using percentage count, t-test and Pearson product Moment Correlation. T-test analysis showed that significant difference existed between science and humanity students’ study habits. Science students had a mean of 49.06 and standard deviation of 8.95 while humanity students had a mean of 4.38 with standard deviation of 2.37. This revealed that study habits of science students maybe better than that of students in the humanities. Results of correlation showed that study plan (r=0.367), personal habit exhibited by the students (r=0.560) and environmental factors (r=0.552) had positive significant relationship. The findings showed a positive significant relationship existed between the overall students study habits (r=0.013; p≤0.05) and their library usage.

Keywords: Study habits, Library Usage, Undergraduate, Library