Social media use and information seeking behaviour of library and information science (LIS) undergraduates in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Information seeking behavior is considered very important as it entails how people interact with information, in particular, the ways in which they seek and utilize information. Studies have however shown that some people including students do not seek information appropriately. Several factors, one of which include social media use, have been suggested to be responsible for this. This study therefore examined social media use, and information seeking behaviour of library and information science (LIS) undergraduates in southwestern Nigeria. The descriptive survey research design of the correlational type was adopted for this study. The population consisted of 463 LIS undergraduates in three universities in Southwestern Nigeria. Stratified random sampling technique was used to arrive at the sample size of 277. Data was collected with the aid of questionnaire. Descriptive statistics such as percentages, mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics such as Pearson Product Moment Correlation and multiple regression analysis were used in presenting the data. The findings of the study revealed that the most used social media platforms by LIS undergraduates were WhatsApp ( ̅ ), Facebook ( ̅ , YouTube ( ̅ and Instagram ( ̅ .Most of the LIS undergraduates 218 (87.6%) and 122 (49.0%) revealed that they made use of WhatsApp and Facebook on a daily basis. Majority of the respondents used the social media for information dissemination ( ̅ , communication ( ̅ , and assignment completion ( ̅ . The most prominent information sources used by the respondents were online databases ( ̅ . Majority of the LIS undergraduates sought information to be outstanding academically ( ̅ . Most of the respondents accessed the needed information on the Internet through their smart phones ( ̅ . The major factor affecting information seeking by majority of the respondents was slow internet connectivity ( ̅ .the study also revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between social media use and information seeking behaviour (r = .342, p< 0.05). The study concluded that social media use is critical to information seeking behaviour in this digital era, and therefore recommended that lecturers in the library schools should create social media groups in which all the students will be encouraged to join and marks awarded for level of interaction and participation.