Abstract: The study was carried out to compare Availability And Utilization Of School Library And Academic Performance Of Secondary School Students. Three research questions were formulated to guide and give direction to the study. A survey research design was adopted for the study. Ten (10) secondary schools were picked from the study area. The population of the study consisted of about one thousand two hundred and twenty-two (1222) students in business studies classes. A sample of eight hundred and thirty-eight (838) students who offered business studies in Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area was selected for the study using the stratified random sampling technique. School library utilization and students academic performance in Business Studies Questionnaire (SLUSAPBS) was constructed and used as an instrument for data collection. The scores of the respondents were subjected to statistical analysis using the simple percentage.
Based on the findings, it has been observed that the school library text materials has enabled the students good academic performance in Business Studies examination in secondary schools; school library reference material has facilitated students high performance in business studies class assignment in secondary school; school library periodical has enabled the students high performance in business studies test in secondary schools. From the above findings, government should provided all the secondary schools with enough library text materials to improves students academic performance in schools, teacher should use library reference materials in teaching the students in order to facilitates students high academic performance in schools; students should use library periodicals while learning in schools so that his/her academic performance will be improved.
Availability And Utilization Of School Library And Academic Performance Of Secondary School Students
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Scholars across the globe have put in effort in getting an appropriate definition for the word “library” Ahiduzu (2002) defined library as a store house of information and the seat of knowledge in an academic environment while Ejimkonye (2001) further noted that library as an organized collection of books and other curries of information organized and exploited for current future use. Olanlokun (2001) see the library as a place entrusted with the acquisition, organization, preservation, storage retrieval and dissemination of information in whatever format it might appear. Although libraries predated the invention of books and collection, digitization and virtualization of access to knowledge (United Nations Economic and Social Council, 2003).
While other like Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defined the library as a large collection of books. Today the term library can be refer to any collection including digital sources and services. The collection can be of prints, audio and virtual materials in numerous formats including maps, prints documents, micro form (microfilm/microfiche), CDS, cassettes, videotapes, DVDS, video games, E-books, audio books and many other electronic resources.
A library is organized for use and maintained by schools, cooperation, public body or a private individual depending on status and ownership. As a result of the dynamism of our society and the emergency of information technology (IT) usages in library, the definition of library has change to reflect the services rendered in the modern library.
In recent time, the definition of library is changing both in nature and services. The term “Virtual Library” is been introduced into the library system worldwide because with virtual library, the quality of academic library collections will be bolstered up, staff and students will be able to access data bases for teaching and research (Febunmi, 2009 and Okebukola, 2002). They further noted that a library is an organized collection of items which may be in form of books, journals, videos CD-ROM etc. along with the services required to make them available to a given user group or groups. It can referred to as a “place to get information and to get help finding information”. It can be physical or virtual or a combination of both (Ricco, 2001 and Pelgium, 2011).
The virtual library therefore can be referred to as a child of necessity arising from the need to use technologies in accessing the world information. The term “virtual library” has been defined by various persons. According to (Bingimlas, 2009) citing (Akintude, 2008), it is a library in which the holdings are found in electronic stacks without any regard to a physical space or location. It is a technological way of bringing together the resources of various libraries and information services in one place so that users can find what they need quickly and easily. A virtual library consists of materials from a variety of separate libraries that are organized in a virtual space using computers and computer networks.
Virtual library collection is a collection of machine readable documents made available through an internet site, one of the example of virtual library is the networked computers science technical report Library (NCSTRL). The aggregate of all the definitions suggest that the library means a place where books and non-book materials are systematically arranged following definite codes and schemes which makes for easy retrieval and use. It is the nerve center of educational institutions. The clearing house of information.
Children and their teachers need library resources and the expertise of a library to succeed. School libraries help teachers to teach children more efficiently (Keith, 2004). A school library is an academic library that supports school programs as well as the teaching and learning process. School libraries serve students by providing materials to meet their various needs and encouraging reading and the use of libraries (Clark, 2004).
David (2005), library is referred to as a collection of literary documents or record kept for reference or borrowing. He further stated that a library is a depository house built to contain books and other materials for reading and studying. Omojuwa (2003) described the library as an enabling factor to obtain spiritual, in spiritual and recreational activities through reading and therefore the opportunity of interacting with the society’s wealth and accumulated knowledge.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Academic performance of students in secondary schools in Business Studies and other subjects in junior secondary school certificate examination has been on the decline over the years (Madu, 2005) and Fabunmi (2000) have investigation the factors responsible for the poor performance of students. Among the factors identified are teachers’ attitude towards duties, teachers’ low qualification/lack of experience, poor salaries and allowances poor supervision, lack of equipped school library, parental background of the learners, poor educational facilities in our schools, student unwillingness to learn, bad peer group influences among others. To ameliorate this problem of poor academic performance of students, government should try to build a good and well-equip library to each of the secondary school in the country so that the academic performance of students will be improved.
From the light of the above problem confronting the student’s academic performance, the researcher was convinced to conduct a research on “school library utilization and academic performance of students in Business Studies in Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of the study is to determine the influence of Availability And Utilization Of School Library And Academic Performance Of Secondary School Students.
Specifically, the study will investigate the following:
- To determine the extent to which the school library text materials has enabled students’ good academic performance in secondary schools.
- To determine the extent of which school library reference materials has facilitated students high academic performance in secondary schools.
- To determine the extent to which school library periodicals has enabled students’ high performance in secondary schools.
1.4 Research Questions
For the purpose of this study, the following research questions were formulated:
- To what extent does school library text materials enables student’s good academic performances in Business Studies examination in secondary schools?
- To what extent does school library reference materials facilitates students high academic performance in Business Studies class assignment in secondary schools?
- To what extent does school library periodicals enables students high performance in Business Studies in secondary schools?
1.5 Limitation of the Study
The researcher was faced with some difficulties at the course of conducting the study. The major limitations encountered by the researcher were inadequate finance, insufficient research materials for review of literature, academic workload of the researcher and other unforeseen.
1.6 Delimitation of the Study
This study was delimited to school library utilization and students’ academic performance in Business Studies in public secondary only. Due to the distance of the schools, only ten (10) secondary schools out of the twenty-five (25) secondary schools in the area were used for the study. In order to be confined to the available time only SS2 students were used for the study.
Availability And Utilization Of School Library And Academic Performance Of Secondary School Students
1.7 Significance of the Study
The study is significant in following ways:
- This study would educate Business Studies students on the need to use school library for teaching/learning in Business Studies.
- The study would help to improve government policy in education towards the building of school library in secondary schools.
- It would create awareness and educate teachers on the factors that contribute to the high performances of students in junior secondary school certificate examination in Business Studies.
- The study would serve as a source of future research in the area of the study.
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms
The following terms were operationally defined as they were used in the study:
Academic Performance: This refers to the performance of a student that reflects his/her true test of knowledge derived from continuous assessment and examination.
Business Studies: This is a subject that deals with money and how to manage a business. It is taught only in junior secondary schools.
Library: A building in which collections of books, tapes, newspapers etc. are kept for people to read, study or borrow.
Student: This is a person who is taught by a teacher in secondary schools.
Secondary School: This is a school in which student receives secondary education from the ages of about 11-19 coming before tertiary education and after primary education.
Utilization: The process of using something especially for a particular purpose.
Originally posted on September 16, 2021 @ 3:28 am
