Availability and Use of Serials Among Postgraduate Students in Nigerian Academic Libraries

In the face of the eminence position of serials usage amongst the resources acquired in the library most especially academic libraries. Despite their exceptional values as reliable and dependent sources for researchers and the increasing cost of their acquisition, serials have not been satisfactorily utilized by the postgraduate students in tertiary institutions. This study, therefore, was undertaken to find out the availability and use of serials among postgraduate students in Federal University of Technology (FUTO) Owerri, Imo State and how this affects their academic performance. This study adopted a survey research design. A total of (Postgraduate Diploma -28, Masters – 69 and Ph.D. – 43) was selected at random through the simple random sampling technique, resulting in a total of 140 postgraduate students to form the sample size for the study. The rating scale used was titled: Serials Availability and Use in Academic Library (SAUAL). The instrument was validated, with the reliability co-efficient of 0.76 using the test-retest technique. The data collected for the study were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The findings of the study revealed that postgraduate students acknowledged the existence of serials. However, the study identified problems that are against the effective use of serials which need to be tackled to ensure that patrons are satisfied. Hence, the recommendations made consist of the provision of necessary infrastructural facilities that will make the library conducive for the users. Similarly, the management should organize information literacy skills seminar for the library users to help them to acquire skills on how to search for and locate the information resources needed in the library.