Library User Education and Training Needs. A Case of Nyeri National Polytechnic – Kenya

Abstract

The library holds a central place in learning institution and its main goal is provide resource for teaching, research, publishing, and innovation. This study sought to find out the effect of library user education on access and use of library services and resources. The study used a descriptive research design. The total target population was 640, comprising of 600 students, 30 lecturers and 10 librarians. Stratified sampling technique was used to categorize sample into student’s, lecturers and librarians. The Krejci and Morgan formula was used to calculate a sample size of 240 respondents. Data were collected using questionnaires, observation checklists, and field notes. Qualitative data were thematically analyzed and the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) was used to analyze quantitative data. The study observed that Nyeri National Polytechnic promotes fairness in the use of library, the extent in use of library resources, depends largely on users’ skill and knowledge of information search and retrieval and that at Nyeri National Polytechnic, there is increased access of information needed by library users after holding of promotion campaigns. The study concludes that library user education, library policies and library promotion all had a positive impact and on utilization of library services and sources in Nyeri National Polytechnic. Based on the study findings this study recommends that the management of technical training institutes should come up with policies that touch all areas of library operations and educate the users about the policies.