Information Needs and Seeking Behaviour of Teachers in Two Secondary Schools in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State:- Amaoge Dorathy A

Abstract This study examined Information Needs and Information Seeking Behaviour of Secondary School Teachers in Ikwuano L.G.A using Awom-na-Ebo and Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike Demonstration Secondary School as a case study. The study was guided by four research objectives. The research design was descriptive survey with a population of 127 teachers comprising of 60 from Awom-na-Ebo Senior Technical School, Amawom and 67 from Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Demonstration School, Umudike. An enumeration of 127 population was used. The instrument for data collection was the questionnaire designed in line with four point likert rating scale. A return rate of the responded questionnaire was 116 which was correctly filled representing 91.3%. Datawas analyzed usingmean and standard deviation. The findings of the study revealed the different types of information needs of the teachers to include; academic and research information, current affairs information, personal health information, sports information, and business information. The study elucidates the information seeking behaviour of the teachers to include: browsing directly from the shelves, discussing and seeking for help from library staff, asking a fellow teacher for help, consulting the catalogue and browsing through the internet. The challenges were; poor service of the library staff, lack of needed materials, negative attitude of the librarian, poor power supply, poor conducive environment and lack of knowledge on how to use the catalogue by teachers. Recommendations are that; teachers should be trained in the use of the library catalogue, professionallibrarians should show more professional attitude towards the teachers, the library environment should be made conducive for the library users, adequate power supply should be provided to the library, the library should be stocked with relevant materials and library staff should change their approach to work, as strategies to enhance theirinformation sourcing capabilities ofthe teachers.