Use of library and gender as determinants of students’ attitudes towards learning

Abstract

The study investigated the use of library and gender as determinants of students’ attitude towards learning in Delta State University, Abraka, Delta State, Nigeria. The aim was to determine the close relationship between use of library, gender and students’ attitude towards learning. Two hypotheses were formulated to serve as guide to the study. Three hundred (300) Delta State University students were randomly selected for the study. A questionnaire titled use of library scale and students’ attitude towards learning questionnaire was administered and used for data collection. The hypotheses were tested using multiple regression tested at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that the criterion variable (students’ attitude towards learning correlated positively and low towards use of library. Also, gender was not a determinant of both students’ attitude towards learning and their use of library ability. The results also showed that only students that use the library with the regressional coefficient (b) of .258, and a beta weight of .592 significantly contributed to students’ attitude towards learning, while the contributions of gender was not significant in predicting students’ attitude towards learning. Based on these findings the following recommendations were made: that students should be encouraged to use library facilities irrespective of gender, the university should make use of library more interesting, materials and resources available in the library should be relevant to available courses offered in the university, library services should be friendly, the university’s library should be made more conducive and be available at all times, digitalization of the university’s library should be priority and facilitated and so on. It is also important to note that use of library and gender have no influence on each other. All students irrespective of gender can use library facilities without restrictions or bias.