Abstract:
The study is on meeting the health information needs of people living with HIV and AIDS through public library services in Benue State. Five research questions were developed to guide the study. The descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The population of the study was 16,502 and the sample was 748. The instrument for data collection was the questionnaire. A 46 and 50 items structured questionnaire was developed for public librarians and PLWHA respectively from literature and used for data collection. Experts validated the instruments Cronbach alpha method was used in determining the reliability of the instrument. A reliability coefficient of .786 and .893 for public librarians and PLWHA respectively were obtained. The findings of the research shows that PLWHA have health information needs such as information of treatments of tuberculosis, fever, body itching, diarrhea among others. Public libraries in Benue State provide only four services in meeting the health information needs of PLWHA. These include; photocopying, loan, reference and current awareness services. The major methods employed by public libraries in meeting health information needs of PLWHA are: through newspapers, textbooks, journals/magazines and posters. Several problems militate against meeting the health information needs of PLWHA, such as: inadequate fund/budgetary allocation to public libraries, low remuneration to public librarians, and inadequate staff among others. The recommendations based on the findings were that, public libraries in Benue state should acquire health information resources in the areas of the needs of PLWHA and process same SDI services should be provided by public libraries for PLWHA to meet their health information needs. Benue State government should provide adequate funds/budgetary allocations to equip public libraries. Government should employ more staff. And harmonize the salary structure of the public librarians alongside with their counter parts in other organizations. Government should set aside a special grant for PLWHA to alleviate their poverty and encourage them to access the services of public libraries, more public libraries should be established in Benue State, to repackage health information in various formats and translate programmes in local languages for the illiterate PLWHA.
