Information behaviour of Nigerian undergraduates in the world of Web 2.0

Abstract

This study investigated the information behaviour of Nigerian undergraduates in the world of Web 2.0 at the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Nigeria. The study is drawn from a doctoral thesis that used a mixed methods approach. The population and sample of the study was a total of 803 undergraduate students. Three research questions which focused on the information needs, information resources and infrastructure, and barriers to information seeking were answered using a questionnaire. The study revealed that students need information both for academic purposes and in their everyday life experiences. The data provide support for the convenience school of thought. It seems that time constraints and the inconvenience of traditional sources might be critical factors in the choices that students make in their information seeking. The barriers which students experience are both physical and intellectual. The physical barriers relate to technical issues such as the system freezing, server down time, access speed, and erratic power supply. The intellectual barriers concern their inability to choose appropriate subject headings, keywords, formulating search strategies, and choosing appropriate databases.