INFLUENCE OF INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS ON INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOUR OF POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE FACULTY OF EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN

Abstract

Postgraduate students need information on every activity that are carried out during their research work and some of the institutional factors determining the rate of information they had accessed to. The study focused on influence of institutional factors on information seeking behaviour of postgraduate students of faculty of education, University of Ibadan. Descriptive research was used and questionnaire was the research instrument used for the study to collect data. The total population of the study comprised one thousand seven hundred and three (1,703) of postgraduate students from various departments within faculty of education in University of Ibadan. Simple random sampling techniques was used to select the postgraduate students (Masters) from faculty of education. The findings revealed that Lecture notes and handout, school library, Internet, consulting and photocopying colleagues’ notes, textbooks, thesis/dissertations, print journals, research articles, review articles, research reports and seminar are the major sources of information available to postgraduate students of University of Ibadan. It is also revealed that influence of institutional factors on information seeking behaviour of postgraduate students of faculty of education in University of Ibadan was of high extent. The recommendations were made accordingly.