Awareness and utilization of social media as a tool for satisfying library uses information needs in Colleges of Education in Kano State, Nigeria

Abstract

The paper investigated the awareness and utilization of social media as a tool for satisfying information needs of library users in Colleges of Education in Kano State, Nigeria. Quantitative methodology and cross-sectional survey design were used for the study. The population of the study comprised of 27,743 registered library users, out of which 379 users were sampled for the study. Data was collected using structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was used for data analysis. The study found that the library users in Colleges of Education in Kano State were highly aware of social media through their personal experiences of using internet, not through their College Libraries. The users mostly used social media for academic purposes as well as for social interactions. They encountered challenges of unavailability and inaccessibility of internet due to high cost of internet subscription. The study opposed previous studies that indicated that unguided use of social media among students led to using it for non-educational purposes. The study concluded that College Libraries in Kano state were not operating based on global best practice of using social media for providing information service; they were left behind in making their users aware of utilizing social media for satisfying information needs. The study recommended that their information literacy programme should encompass awareness about using social media for satisfying information needs.

Keywords: Awareness, Utilization, Social, media, Information, needs, satisfaction, Library, users, Colleges, education