Information Seeking and Use among Visually Impaired Students in Secondary Schools in North- West, Nigeria

Abstract

Seeking and use have been the major preoccupation of people experiencing the need for information to achieve various purposes. Accordingly, this study investigates the information seeking and use of visually- impaired students in special education secondary schools in North- west zone of Nigeria. The study covered four special education secondary schools that are available in the zone at the time of conducting the study. Quantitative research methodology, using a survey research design was adopted for the study. Three hundred and forty visually- impaired students constituted the respondents for the study. Data was collected using the questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, using frequency counts and percentages was used to analyze the data. The study found that the information needs of the visually- impaired students comprised of information on the curricular and extracurricular offerings of their schools, for their professional and personal developments. Their information seeking pattern involves the informal source and searching strategy. The study conclude that the information needs, seeking and use of the visually- impaired students have not been given the consideration they deserved in special education secondary schools in North- west zone of Nigeria. Therefore, the study recommends that functional library should be established in every school as primary source of information, the provision of a minimum guideline or standard and the allocation of substantial amount of money for the provision of information resource and services.