Library Use and Information - Seeking Behavior of Medical Students

The medical students of Obafemi Awolowo University were assessed for general use of library and for their information seeking behavior. The objectives of the study were to evaluate students’ perception of the demands for locating clinical information; to determine if they sought current information and sources most often used for their current information. Five hundred medical students comprising of 313 males and 187 females who were in parts ii – vi were used for the study. The result shows that the library was most frequently used for studying and for making photocopies of materials. The respondents relied on textbooks and handouts for current information instead of using indexes or abstracts for recent literature. Light use of library information resources raise the concern that students are not developing adequate retrieval skills for finding information. Advance library instruction programme should be introduced to the medical curriculum of the medical schools.