Reading habit and use of library among public secondary schools students in ibadan North Local Government, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was undertaken to assess reading habits and use of library among public secondary schools students in Ibadan North Local  Governemt Oyo state Nigeria..Four(4) research questions were raised and answered through the use of self structured questionnaire. The descriptive survey research design of the correlational type was adopted for the study. The population of study comprised 2,178 students from six selected public secondary schools in Ibadan North-West LGA. A random sampling technique was used to select 654 students for the study. In all, 654 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the respondents while 618 copies were retrieved. The findings of the study revealed that most of the respondents used the library occasionally to get reading materials/library books while and of the respondents stayed in the library for 1 – 2 hours and 3 – 4 hours respectively. Textbooks, fiction (Story) books posters and Chart and Dictionaries were the most readily available for the students' use in the school libraries. The findings on reading habit of the students showed that most of the respondents indicated that they were usually motivated to read because of recommendation from their mates and for self-development. It was revealed that for every level of increase in reading habits, there was also increase in library use among selected public secondary school students by 2.5%.The study recommended among others that Government agencies such as Universal Basic Education Commission, State Universal Basic Education Boards, Education Resource Centres, State Library Boards and other stake holders should ensure that relevant print and electronic resources are readily available in the public school libraries so as to facilitate access and regular use of full range of information resources by students. Reading developmental programmes should be implemented in the school system such as reading clubs, book review, story hour and others.

Keywords: Reading Habit, Library Use, Secondary Schools