Cathrine Mokadi & Abigail Shoroma Library and Information Services Determining the Information Seeking behaviour of School of Law Academics at the University of Limpopo in South Africa By Cathrine Mokadi & Abigail Shoroma Library and Information Services University of Limpopo

Outline Introduction and background Objectives Research questions Methodology Findings Recommendations Conclusion References

Vision: To be an excellent University Library responding to the information needs of its communities. Mission: To provide efficient and effective client driven, innovative information services in support of teaching and learning, research and community engagement in collaboration with its stakeholders

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Information seeking involves the need for the information, purpose for seeking information, type of information being sought for, the sources consulted and the ways or methods employed in getting the information (Akinola 2009:23). Information seeking is informed by information needs. Legal professionals have need for current information given the nature of work. Teaching, learning and research Court and legal activities Taylor and Procter (2005) defines information seeking behaviour as the ability to effectively scan literature using manual or computerised methods, in order to identify a set of useful articles and books.

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND CONT. The University has 4 Faculties. School of Law is one of the 3 schools within Faculty of Management and Law. The School of Law consists of 5 departments: Private Law Legal Pluralism, Criminal Law and Procedure Public and Environmental Law Mercantile and Labour Law Legal Aid School of Law has 30 academic staff Faculties comprise Health Sciences, Humanities, Management and Law; and Sciences and Agriculture.

TWO LAW LIBRARIES LAW LIBRARY LAW SCHOOL LIBRARY

INFORMATION RESOURCES Books (Textbooks) Law Reports (Case Law) Statutes Databases (SABINET and LexisNexis) Audio-Visual (CDs) Freely accessible websites (SAFLII and Legalinfo) W

PROBLEM STATEMENT Through observation and databases usage statistics we realised that the information seeking strategies and behaviour of the law academics is not satisfactory. Law academics hardly engage library activities such as trainings, book selections etc.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES Determine the extend to which Law academics use the library and for what purposes Determine if Law academics are aware of different types of information sources available in the libraries Investigate the searching strategies used and challenges faced while searching for information Examine the relationship they have with their subject Librarians (liaison) and their preferred communication channels. Determine the cause of academics poor response to library activities. p.3 Whether they use truncation, Boolean operators

RESEARCH QUESTIONS How do law academic seek, access and use the information available What challenges do Law academics experience whilst seeking information How best can Librarians provide client driven, innovative information services, and encourage engagement amongst the Law academics

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Qualitative research method was employed for the study Purposive sampling was used as we were looking at Law academics who possess legal traits and are the main users of Law collection Questionnaires were used to collect data Data was analysed and the findings are as follows: P2. Based on availability of the staff. P3. Koerber and McMichael 2008:463. P4. Descriptive stats is a collective name for a number of statistical methods that are used to organise and summarise data in a meaningful way. It can be divided in two ways graphical and numeral ways. (Pietersen and Maree 2007:183)

1. USAGE AND PURPOSE 86% of respondents indicated that they used the library. The main purpose being to borrowing books. Some respondents indicated that they do not use the library due to insufficient resources

2. ICT SKILLS Lack of ICT skills impede some academic staff in seeking information (Olorumfemi , Mostert and Ocholla, 2012). 57% of respondents accessed the library webpage. Given ICT skills, a large number of respondents prefer the information in print. Format preference Respondents were asked to assess themselves in terms of computer skills; majority of respondents rated themselves “very good”, while few of the respondents rated themselves “poor”

3. SEEKING INFORMATION Main reason for seeking information is for teaching and research purposes. Most consulted sources are books, statutes and law reports.

4. COMMUNICATION CHANNELS Communication channel preferred is face to face, which responds to the 5th objective. 71 % of respondents rated the school library “effective” as they are able to interact with the school librarian.

5. LIBRARIES EFFECTIVENESS 64% rated the main library “effective” while 71 % rated the school library.

Findings cont. School of law academics do not fully utilise library resources Most lecturers have acquired their degrees long time ago and they are not exposed to Information Communication Technologies.

CHALLENGES Computer skills are not good thus impeding searching skills Sources not available in the desired format Information sources are outdated Books are limited in number, unable to borrow them out

RECOMMENDATIONS Embed Library services into academic programs Encourage recommendations from academics on required information resources. Increase user awareness and create more alerts Use preferred communication channels.

CONCLUSION We encourage full utilization of library resources Embedding library services into academic programmes Subject librarians to be embedded within the School of Law programmes

REFERENCES Akinola, SF. 2009. Information seeking behavior of lecturers in faculties of education in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife and University of Ibadan. Samaru Journal of Information Studies, 9 (2) : 23-32. Koerber, A & McMichael, L. 2008. Approaches and practices qualitative sampling methods: a primer for technical communication. Journal of business and technical communications, 22(4):454-473. Olorunfemi D, Mostert B, Ocholla D. 2012. Information seeking behaviour of law students in a developing country: a literature review retrieved from http://www.scecsal.viel.co.ke/images/7/75/Information_Seeking_Behaviour_of_Law_Students_in_a_Developing_Country-_A_Literature_Review.pdf