Undergraduates’ awareness, use and satisfaction with online public access catalogue (OPAC) of Benue State University Library, Makurdi, Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to determine the extent towhich undergraduates atBenue State University are aware of the OPAC, the extent of usage, the level of satisfaction derived from the usage and challengesencountered in the use of OPAC in the universitylibrary. The study was guided by four specific objectives and four research questions. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The populationconsisted of 9,864 undergraduate who registered with the library during 2017/2018 academic session. The sample sizewas 384 undergraduate students.Data was collected through a self-structured questionnaire.The data collected were analysed using frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation. Thefindings revealedthat most of therespondents-232 (60.4%)-were not aware of OPAC services,only 152 (39.6%) respondents indicated theirawarenessof OPAC in retrievingneededlibrary materials. The study also showedthat the extent of OPAC use by undergraduateswas to a low extent and the students were dissatisfied with OPAC services; thattheundergraduates encountered several challenges which led to the low usage and dissatisfaction with the OPAC ofthe Benue State University Library. The study concludedthatthe creation of the OPACwas to facilitate retrieving information resources that had been acquired and organisedby the university library. However, poor awareness, improper orientation/training of studentsamong others have posedgreat challenge for its effective usage.The study therefore recommended that all the identified challenges be tackled by the university library management in order to enhance OPAC usage by thestudents.