Web Information Seeking Behavior of Undergraduate Students in Kwara State Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined Web Information Seeking Behavior of undergraduate students in Kwara State Nigeria. The study evaluated the web information seeking behavior of undergraduate students by considering search engines, scholarly databases and educational blogs. Private, State and Federal Universities were fully represented in the study. 100 questionnaires’ each were distributed to three universities in Kwara State which represented each category of university. Descriptive analysis, One-Way ANOVA and Cross-tabulation were carried out in the analysis of data using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. Results showed that the major evaluating criteria of information sources by undergraduate students were the relevance of the information source with only few students giving consideration to the author and currency of information source. The study further evaluated search engines, scholarly databases and educational blogs, results showed that search engines remains the proffered information source for undergraduate students with more than 50% of undergraduate students rating search engines authoritative, accurate, accessible and relevant. The study further showed that accessibility, authority and relevance significantly influence students’ preference for search engines. This study evaluates the web information seeking behavior of undergraduate students by focusing on the role of information literacy. This study has implications in improving the information literacy skills of undergraduate students in Nigeria.