Students’ use and assessment of Plateau State University Library, Bokkos

Abstract

This paper focuses on use and assessment of various resources and facilities of the Plateau State University Library, Bokkos. The research was guided by seventeen objectives. A survey research design was the research method adopted in the investigation. The target population for the research was all the 499 students in the Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences that were on ground in 2022/2023 academic session. Since the population was manageable, there was no sampling. Hence, all the subjects were adopted in the research. The instrument used in the data collection was questionnaire. Data collected were analyzed using simple statistics such as frequency counts and percentages, and tables were presented were necessary. The findings of the research revealed among others that the major issues associated with the poor patronage of the Plateau State University Library, Bokkos by the students of the institution were as follows: lack of enough textbooks and journals; collection contain so many outdated textbooks that were irrelevant to the student‟s needs; library‟s catalogue was in disarray; lack of stable source of electric power supply; and inconsistent internet connections with very low internet bandwidth. It was therefore, recommended among others that the library management should acquire more current text books and journals in both hard and soft copies and the university‟s lecturers (users) should be involved in the selection of the library‟s resources for acquisition in order to improve the quality / relevancy of the library‟s collection; there is an urgent need to reorganize the library‟s catalogue to reflect the library‟s collection; the university management should provide a constant source of electric power supply to the library; Internet connectivity should be made available all the time and internet bandwidth should be 4increased to reduce the time it takes to gain access into the internet databases in the library. The research then concluded that the Plateau State University library was bedeviled with so many factors that had inhibited the effective utilization of its resources and facilities by students. Hence, students avoided the patronage of the library‟s resources and facilities. However, it was believed that with proper funding, commitment of university and library managements and careful implementation of the recommendations noted in this research, the resources and facilities of the library will be greatly improved and the patronage of the library by students will subsequently improve.