Information needs of post-primary school teachers in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study is aimed at identifying the Information Needs of Post-Primary School Teachers in Jos Metropolitan. The extent to which the Teacher's Information Needs as identified were being met by the Library available to them in their schools and obstacles faced in making sure that enough information resources are provided for the teachers were elucidated. The study covered 286 teachers in Jos Metropolitan. The survey method was used for the study. The Instruments used for data collection were questionnaire, interviews and examination of documents. Descriptive statistics such as Frequency Counts and Percentages were used to analyze the data. The Findings revealed that post-primary school teachers in Jos often preferred to have information resources in their specific fields, that text books are mostly used by the teachers, and there is a serious gross inadequate Library resources and physical facilities in school libraries in Jos. It was therefore, recommended among others that the school libraries should be supplied with current textbooks. Nevertheless, different subjects should be taken into consideration when acquiring information resources as to cover the needs of all teachers. In addition, Plateau State Government should install computers in the school libraries with full Internet services for the teachers. This will help the teachers to keep abreast with the latest trends in their fields of specializations. It was also recommended that the Government should properly fund its post-primary schools Libraries and also passes a Law, which will compel private proprietors of schools in the State to reserve a specific amount of money annually for development of their Libraries. The libraries should be inspected periodically to ensure that the library development fund is not diverted.

Key words: Information Needs, School Teachers, Jos, Nigeria.