Information Needs and Seeking Behaviour of Senior Non - Academic Staff In Nigerian Universities

This study investigated the information needs and seeking behaviour of senior non-academic staff in selected universities in Nigeria. Whereas a lot has been written about teaching staff in universities, little is known through literature about the information needs and seeking behaviour of senior non-academic of Nigerian universities. The study adopted the survey research design. The population was made up of 1,804 senior non-academic staff from 27 universities in Nigeria. 1,270 senior non-academic staff was selected for the sample. Descriptive statistics was use to analyze the data collected. The study established among others, that senior non-academic staff had varied information needs based on their work roles; they sought information mainly for decision making; and availability of information source largely influenced their information source selection. The study also found that senior non-academic staff in Nigerian universities contacted first subordinates in the office when seeking information on a crucial issue, while task complexity motivated them to seek information. Hence inadequate information retrieval techniques/skills, inadequate time to seek information and lack of awareness about where to obtain information were the major challenges senior non-academic faced in the course of seeking information to perform their works. The study therefore recommends that librarians/information managers should ensure that regular information literacy program, current awareness servicesand selective dissemination of information are provided to senior non-academic staff to enable them have easy and regular access to timely information for more productivity output.