Reading Habits among Library and Information Science Students of the University of Jos

Abstract

The study examined the reading habits of the students of Library and Information Science of the University of Jos, which is located in the North Central Zone of Nigeria, based upon a random sample of 186 students from 100 to 300 levels. Data for the study were collected via 186 copies of questionnaire administered to all the students of the discipline in the University, from which 160 were properly filled and returned, representing a response rate of 86.02%. The findings showed that majority (80.5%) of the respondents read to gain knowledge; 94(59.9%) read textbooks in the library; 43.4% indicated that reading is rewarding and 44.3% read novels or fiction to learn new things. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that parents should help their children cultivate reading skills at an early age throygh living by example and giving them books, so that reading may become part and parcel of the child's life; lecturers should give only skeletal notes, coupled with assignments to students, so as to spur the students to seek more knowledge and also learn to find more information independently; and lecturers should emphasize the value of novels towards improving the student's spoken language, and encourage students to visit the hbrary not only to read lecture notes and textbooks but read and borrow novels as well.