Abstract:
The study investigates the information needs and information seeking behaviour of Secondary School Teachers in Imo State. The study was carried out with a descriptive survey; the questionnaire was used for the collection of data. Imo State has three educational zones and the educational zones were dully represented. The population of the study covers all the secondary schools in Imo State both private and public. The total population used for the secondary schools was 465 out of which 46 representing 10% were chosen. The total teacher population of Imo State was 8600 but only 860 were used to represent 10% of the entire population of the teachers. Responses from the questionnaire collected were computed and analyzed with internal consistency reliability using Cronbach Alpha. The study was backed up with hypotheses drawn from the research questions. The findings from the results of the study showed that secondary school teachers in Imo State need information and therefore, seek information in order to satisfy their information needs. The teachers, whether from private or public schools, male or female, seek information to satisfy such needs as; information on their teaching subjects and methods of teaching, school curriculum, use of new technological facilities, workshops, conferences and seminars, enhancement of their professional development, to mention but a few. From the findings, it was indicated that secondary school teachers in Imo State whether from the private or public schools have their information sources as books, libraries, computers, colleagues, radio/television, friends and neighbours, internet, seminars and workshops, government document/publications, magazine and newspapers, conference paper reference materials, CD-ROMs, audio – visual materials and other too numerous to mention. The level of use of the various information sources were all reflected using their different mean ratings to show the extent of use. The findings disclosed various factors affecting secondary school teachers in getting their needed information. Strategies for satisfying teachers’ information needs were enumerated. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended that there is need for the establishment of well equipped libraries to enhance effective learning/teaching activities in the secondary schools in Imo State. Provision of adequate teaching resources should be made available to secondary school teachers in Imo State; government should develop and implement policies that will help in the satisfaction of secondary school teachers’ information needs; government should provide new technological facilities to enable teachers join the global world. Training and retraining of secondary school teachers to be ICT compliant is recommended as a way to handle the students properly, especially now that the world is at the computer age.
