Application of online information search skills for retrieval of online information resources among selected academics of federal college of education

Abstract

This study investigated application of online information search skills for retrieval of online information resources among selected academics of federal college of education, Zaria. The objectives of the study was to find out types of online information search skills are possessed by selected academics for retrieval of online information resources, types of online information search strategies used for retrieval of online information resources among selected academics and examine the means by which the selected academics have access to online information for retrieval of online information resources in Federal College of Education Zaria. A quantitative research method was adopted, and a case study research design was employed in the conduct of this study. The population of this study consists of twenty-nine (29) academics in the Department of Arabic at the Federal College of Education, Zaria. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire. A total of twenty-nine (29) copies of the questionnaire were administered to Selected academics at the Federal College of Education, Zaria, with a total return rate of 28 (96.6%). The data collected for the study were presented and analyzed using descriptive statistics in the form of frequency count, simple percentage, and mean. The findings arising from the studies indicated that the types of online information search skills possessed by academics in Federal College of Education Zaria were the ability to think before searching, the ability to search a specific site, the ability to search by author, the ability to search by keyword, and the ability to keep it simple. The types of online information search strategies used for retrieval of online information resources by academics were the use of a search engine, the use of a file search, and the use of phrase searching. Based on the findings of this study, it could be concluded that the majority of academics in FCE Zaria were not accessing and utilizing available online information resources due to a lack of online information search skills and search strategies. This could be necessitated due to the lack of information literacy skills and problems associated with the current trend in ICT. Therefore, the study recommended that there is a need for training on how to access and make use of the available online information resources with different search skills and search strategies. The Federal College of Education Zaria College library should take a leading role in creating more training programs among academics on online information search skills such as ability to narrow search, ability to use punctuation, ability to apply filters, ability to search by subject, ability to search by standard number, and ability to search by title. And the college library should organize workshops for academics on how to effectively search online information resources with different types of online information search strategies such as the use of Boolean operators, truncation, proximity search, parenthesis, and wildcards.