Relating library user education to business students’ information needs and learning practices: a comparative study
ISSN: 0090-7324
Article publication date: 10 July 2020
Issue publication date: 30 November 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to investigate current library instruction programs to help business students make better use of library resources and improve their information. However, students’ information acquisition ability, library usage and their perception toward library user education are inevitably changing along with the rapidly evolving information landscape as well as the socio-cultural environment driven by information technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
For this study, 90 business students from three different majors at the Faculty of Business and Economics, the University of Hong Kong were invited to participate in the online survey for comparison.
Findings
The findings of this study suggest that the subjects, in general, recognized the importance of library user instruction. However, when the subjects encountered difficulties in information searching, they preferred to use search engines (such as Google) and seek help from their classmates.
Practical implications
The results of this study show that there were distinctive differences in library usage and views toward library instruction among students of three different majors. This study sheds light on the feasible actions of academic libraries to enhance library user instruction services and improve the IL skills among business students.
Originality/value
Although there is much research about the library instruction of academic libraries, scant research focuses on library usage and views toward library instruction of business students, especially on the comparison among different business majors.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to Qianxiu Liu, who worked on the original version of the questionnaire with us, and Kit-man Chan (Business Subject Librarian at the University of Hong Kong), who kindly provided useful information about the target student groups – their library usage patterns, in relations to the range of library services provided by the University of Hong Kong Libraries.
Citation
Zhang, Y., Lo, P., So, S. and Chiu, D.K.W. (2020), "Relating library user education to business students’ information needs and learning practices: a comparative study", Reference Services Review, Vol. 48 No. 4, pp. 537-558. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-12-2019-0084
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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