Information Needs and Seeking Behaviour of Islamic Studies Teachers in Secondary Schools in Borno State, Nigeria

Abstract

The paper identifies information needs and seeking behaviour of Islamic studies teachers in Borno State. It is a survey research, utilizing questionnaire and interviews. The population of the study comprises 161 Islamic studies teachers in 60 secondary schools in Borno State. It adopts purposive sampling technique in that only schools that have at least one Islamic studies teacher are considered for the study. Findings reveal that Islamic studies teacher need information in their areas of spe cialities, followed by inform ation on their profession. The teachers use their personal collection first when seeking information, followed by consultation with colleagues in the same discipline and libraries. The libraries could not, in their entirety, meet the information needs of the teachers and the librarians attributed this to understaffing and underfunding of t he libraries. As a way forward, the paper recommends that the libraries should be adequately funded to employ qualified staff to meet the enormous demands made on them by users.