LAW UNDRGRADUATES’ INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOUR AND ELECTRONIC RESOURCES USE: EVIDENCE FROM PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH-WEST, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined information seeking behaviour of law undergraduates and their use of electronic resources. The study specifically ascertains the types of e-resources use by this group of students, and their information seeking behaviour.  Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population comprised 2,823 law undergraduates at 300, 400 and 500 level in the ten private universities offering law programme in South-west, Nigeria. Purposive sampling technique was used to cover law undergraduates at these three levels. A sampling fraction of 50% was further employed using simple random sampling technique and this gives a sample size of one thousand, four hundred and twenty five (1467). The data were analyzed with the aid of frequency counts, percentage and correlational methods. The results showed that the Google online and scholar were the most tools use by law undergraduates in their search approach to obtain information needed. The findings indicated that significant number of respondents made use of social media as point of access for obtaining the needed information. The need to provide means of coordinating the search approach and improve on the point of access as a way of addressing learning skills of law undergraduates in the use of this information source was recommended.