Provision of information services to engineering students in Kenya's public universities a case study of Moi university

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the provision of information services to engineering students in Kenya's public universities from the students' own perspective, identify problems if any and suggest ways of solving them, with Moi University as a Case Study. The specific objectives of the study were to: identify information needs of engineering students; establish the kind of information they required to satisfy those needs; establish the sources from which they obtained their information; identify the purposes for which they sought information; determine the factors that influenced their information seeking behavior; establish the extent to which these needs were met; identify the problems, if any, and on the basis of the findings, recommend ways in which provision of information services could be improved or redesigned to better serve them. From a target population of 766, a study sample size of 100 (13%) students was proportionately drawn from the five departments that comprised the Faculty of Technology, namely: Chemical and Process Engineering, Civil and Structural Engineering, Electrical and Communications Engineering, Production Engineering, and Textile Engineering. After stratifying them into departments and then into years of study, systematic random sampling technique was used to select the sample. Two course-lecturers randomly selected from every department and four staff from the library's top management were also interviewed as informants. Face-to-face interviews were used as the main data collection instrument. Presentation, analysis and interpretation of data were based on the responses to the research questions. Qualitative techniques and descriptive statistics were used to analyze data and to make inferences. Data interpretation involved stating what the results showed, their meaning and significance to the problem that was being studied. Results with statistical significance were presented in tables, graphs and figures . • The study provided a thorough understanding of the information needs of engineering students, their preferred information sources, their information seeking behavior, among others, and thereby formed the basis for developing appropriate information delivery systems that would serve technology students more effectively and efficiently. The findings may also allow for dynamic restructuring of the information systems' content and structure and lead to well organized, highly informative and relevant information systems based on user requirements. The study findings can help information professionals improve, redesign and develop appropriate information systems for providing information services to engineering students.