ABSTRACT
The study is on the information needs and information seeking behaviour of artisans in Nsukka metropolis of Enugu state. The specific objectives of the study are to determine the information needs of artisans in Nsukka metropolis, to find out the extent to which their information seeking behaviour helps in meeting their information needs, to
identified the sources used by the artisans in meeting their information needs, to asses the obstacles facing artisans in their search for information, to determine strategies of enhancing their information seeking behaviour for the satisfaction of their information needs and to assess the influence of selected demographic characteristic (gender, age and educational background ) on satisfaction of their information needs. The survey research design was used while six research questions and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The population of the study consists of all registered male and female artisans in Nsukka metropolis and ten percent of the population was sampled. The instrument used for study was a questionnaire titled Information Needs and Information Seeking Behaviour of Artisan’s Questionnaire (INISBAQ). Percentages which was presented in a bar chart was used to analyze the demographic characteristic of the respondents, weighted mean was used to analyzed the data collected from research questions 1-5 while mean and standard deviation was used to analyzed research question
6. A one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for the computation of responses
with regards to the hypothesis 1 while mean was used for the computation of hypothesis
2. The findings of this study were: that, artisans in Nsukka metropolis of Enugu state
have many information needs and have various ways of seeking information and there are many barriers to meeting their information needs. The implications of the study for government, libraries and artisans were discussed. The recommendations based on the findings were that government should provide continuing education programmes for artisans in their various vocations to enable them to perform their duties effectively and artisans should be encouraged by the government to take advantages of distance
education programmes and evening classes. There is also need to provide quality and properly trained information agents to assist in identifying information needs of special groups like artisans and providing the required information. Community outreach programmes could be organized by government and other information agencies and public libraries should be proactively involved in the provision of information to artisans.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study.
Information needs of people may vary according to their social group, age, gender, economic status, interest groups and profession but however, every individual, including artisans, needs information for growth and survival. The importance of artisans has been increasingly recognized all over the world. Cambridge International Dictionary of English (1995) defined an artisan as a person who does skilled work with his or her hands”. Also Mooko and Aina 2007, defined artisans as those who perform skilled work with their hands. For the purpose of this study, an artisan, also called a craftsman, is a skilled manual worker who works on items that may be functional or decorative. Artisans refers to persons who are engaged in the such occupations, as hairdressing / hair barbing, mechanics, refrigerator / air conditioner repairing, masonry, printing, carpentry / furniture making, shoe making, building / construction, electrical work, spraying / painting, fashion designing / tailoring, vulcanizing, book binding, plumbing, panel beating and welding . Some of the characteristic features of artisans are high labour intensity, low capital requirements, a degree of skill, and small scale of production, simple technologies, self- employment and the use of local raw materials (Pye, 1998). They have different demographic characteristics such as gender, different marital status, different ages with different social and economic responsibilities and different educational levels. They are equipped mainly with vocational education which may be acquired formally or informally. In most cases, they serve as apprentices before they become perfect in their vocation. Some are in urban areas while others are in rural areas. But all artisans are those who perform skilled work with their hands. Artisans have been an integral part of
national development strategies in many societies because of their impact on productivity and economic development. They provide essential goods and services for the society and economy, they engage in income-generating activities to earn a living, there by reducing unemployment and eliminating poverty in order to improve their standard of living and bring about growth in economic development of the nation.
Information is imperative to artisans; they need information for survival, effective discharge of their duties and to develop their businesses. They require specific ideas or needs concerning the type of job they do. They require technical, vocational and business education.
Information has been defined by Chen and Hernon, (1987) as all knowledge, ideas, facts, and imaginative works of mind which are communicated formally and/or informally in any format. Similarly, Nzotta (1991) sees information as the facts in form of written or unwritten intelligent, communication and knowledge gather from various sources. These scholars consider information to embrace all form of communicated words no matter the form or format. In the context of this study, information is defined as any stimulus that can be communicated to change people’s behaviour, attitude, operation, and perception or that reduces uncertainty either negatively or positively.
Information needs means an imbalance existing between what a person knows and what the person is supposed to know. In other words, there is a gap existing between the present situation and the more desirable situation. According to King (1980), one of mankind’s greatest resources is information, and one of our unique assets is the ability to assimilate and use information”. Utor (1999) concluded that “information is indeed an economic resource which behaves similarly to capital and labour, and that investment in information increase productivity”. Information seeking behaviour on the other hand is mainly concerned with who needs what kind of information for what reasons, how
information is found evaluated and used. (Girja,1990). Wilson defines what he calls information behaviour as those activities a person may engage in when identifying his or her own needs for information, searching for such information and using or transferring that information. Information seeking behaviour is the attitude of individuals when searching for information. The type of information an individual needs at a given point in time depends on the problem he or she wants to address. As a result, the purpose for which the information is needed leads to the source for which such information could be obtained (Utor, 2004). The fundamental aim of the user of information generally is to make decisions on what to do about certain problems. Okwuebina (2006) stated that information is something we need when we want to make a choice. It is therefore not surprising that information is needed for awareness, increased productivity, health, up- dating knowledge etc. The information needs of an individual have to be studied in the context of the information environment, which includes not only the information needs but also the information- seeking behavior, access to information and sources of information used for meeting the information needs.
Information needs and information seeking behaviour can be influenced by certain variable, such as occupation, gender, age and educational level. Laloo (2002) identified the information needs and information-seeking behaviour of various groups such as scientists, social scientists, managers, doctors and university teachers and it was observed that information needs of such groups varies according the above mentioned variables. In another study Adimora(1983) equally identified the information needs of various groups such as hairdressers, rural farmers, customs and excise workers, and caterers in hotels and tourism centres and discovered that their information needs varies according to their occupation. The information needs of artisans can also be affected by gender. Whereas some of the vocations, such as carpentry, vulcanizing, mechanics, hair
barbing etc, are dominated by males. Some others such as dress making, hair dressing etc are predominantly females. It can also be affected by age for there is different age groups that make up the group such as younger age, middle age and the older age. The approach of each to information seeking may differ. Artisans’ information seeking behaviour can equally be affected by educational qualifications: many may not have any formal education but rather informal education. Some attended only primary school and some others secondary school, while some may be dropouts of primary and secondary schools and some have higher education.
Artisans in Nsukka metropolis of Enugu state are people who struggle with their hands and tools to work. They are located in different parts of Nsukka metropolis of Enugu state. Nsukka metropolis is located within headquarters of Nsukka Local Government Area; Nsukka Local Government Area is situated at the North Western border of the former Eastern region of Nigeria. Nsukka is the home of University of Nigeria, Nsukka. There is high demand for the wide range of goods and services provided by artisans. The artisans are found in the main market, mechanic village, shops and sheds throughout the metropolis. They need information to uplift their standard of living and to upgrade their occupations but these information are not been provided to them at a particular point in time in order to satisfy those needs.
Statement of the Problem
Information is indispensable in our contemporary world. Every individual, whether rich or poor, literate or non-literate, urban or rural based, irrespective of gender, has information needs (Afolabi, 2003). Artisans play a vital role in providing essential goods and services for the society and economy. They engage in income-generating activities to earn a living, thereby reducing unemployment and poverty. Their
information needs may range from work-related information to information on health, education, and agriculture, social life, creativity in their work, science and technology in order to improve their existing practices, promote their living standard and perform these roles.
However, it has been observed by researchers who carried out studies on artisans in
Ibadan (Mabawonku, 2004), Imo state (Adimora, 1983) and Botswana (Mooko and Aina,
2007) that the information needs of artisans are often unmet. As a result of lack of information, artisans may suffer untold hardships and stagnation in their job. If nothing is done to address this problem, it may lead to poverty, unemployment, low income and low economic development of the nation. Earlier researchers also observed that artisans find access to authentic information very difficult: this leads to their backwardness in income generation, because they work hard and get less. (Mooko and Aina, 2007).
While, scholars have done some studies on information needs and information seeking behavior of various groups, there is a dearth of studies on artisans. Given the importance of artisans in the society and economy, the problem of this study stated as a question is: what are the information needs and information-seeking behavior of artisans in Nsukka metropolis of Enugu state?
Purpose of the Study
The general purpose of this study was to determine the information needs and information- seeking behavior of artisans in Nsukka metropolis.
The specific objectives of this study are to
(1) Determine the information needs of artisans in Nsukka metropolis
(2) Find out the extent to which their information seeking behaviour helps in meeting their information needs
(3) Identify the sources used by the artisans in meeting their information needs. (4) Assess the obstacles facing artisans in their search for information
(5) Determine strategies of enhancing their information seeking behaviour for the satisfaction of their information needs
(6) Asses the influence of selected demographic characteristics (gender, age and educational background) on satisfaction of their information needs.
Research Questions
The following research questions guided the study.
(1) What are the information needs of artisans in Nsukka metropolis? (2) To what extent are their information needs being met?
(3) What sources do artisans use when seeking information? (4) What obstacles do they encounter in locating information?
(5) What strategies could be adopted to enhance their information seeking behaviour?
(6) What influence do demographic characteristics have on the artisan’s success in meeting their information needs?
Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were tested at 0.05% level of significance.
1. Ho1 -There is no significant difference in the mean scores of different age groups of artisans on the extent their information needs are met.
2. Ho2 -There is no significant difference in the mean scores of educational level of artisans on the extent their information needs are met.
Significance of the Study
It is hoped that the result of this study will be of immense benefit to various groups of people such as government, non governmental organizations, public libraries, information agencies and the artisans in a number of ways. The result will highlight information needs of artisans, which will enable the government, information providers, and non-government organizations to be equipped with such vital information that will help them address the issues squarely. It will also be useful to the government so as to know the need for adequate funding of public libraries and other agencies to enable them meet up with the challenges. The result will assist the government (Ministry of Information) to provide a better approach to addressing the information needs of artisans.
As the result is expected to find out the strategies that could be adopted in enhancing their information seeking behaviour for the satisfaction of their needs, it will enable public libraries and information centres, to prepare relevant materials that will help to create awareness and sensitize the people on how to go about searching for the information materials that will help to meet their needs. It will also be beneficial to the public libraries as it will enable them to acquire necessary information materials, especially those concerning artisans.
The result will help in improving the efforts of information agencies in meeting the information needs of this group by knowing the problems and strategies for surmounting the problems, hence improving their growth and business opportunities. It is anticipated that the result of this work will be useful to information scientists in providing the kind of information that will equip these groups by having a clue of what their information needs are like. The result will reveal the problems encountered in the process of meeting their needs. As such both the public libraries and government will embark on
vigorous programmes aimed at surmounting these obstacles. It will serve as an operational guideline for meeting the information needs of artisans.
The result will provide background information for other researchers who may be undertaking studies in related areas or encourage others to embark on studies in related areas.
Scope of the Study
This work will cover the information needs of artisans in Nsukka metropolis of Enugu state, both needs related to work and other areas of life and the approaches they adopt in meeting their information needs. The study will cover only the skilled manual workers who are self-employed and operate in the informal economy. Artisans include motor/motorcycle mechanics, hair dressers/barbers, tailors/seamstresses, wood workers (carpenters/furniture makers), Builders/constructors, masons, welders, panel beaters, auto electricians/ electronics repairers and shoe makers, vulcanizers, book binders, plumbers , painters, caterers, watch repairers, refrigeration/air-condition repairers and artists.
This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research
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