The Influence of Social Networking Sites on Information Service Delivery to Students at the Asom Bur Library of the University of Mkar

Abstract or Introduction

This study investigates the influence of social networking sites on information service delivery to students of Asom Bur library of university of Mkar. Five objectives and five research question guided the study. The descriptive survey research was adopted for the study. A total of 958 registered users of Ason Bur learning resource center (library) of university of Mkar constituted the population of the study. A sample size of one hundred and sixty (160) students were randomly selected from the entire population of the study using proportionate random sampling technique. A self-developed questionnaire was used to obtain information. Data collected were analyzed using mean scored and standard deviation.

Finding revealed that, high percentage (50%) of the students mainly use social networking sites for social activities, only 20% percentage of the population use social networking sites for education. Findings further revealed that to benefit the rich potentials of social networking sites, students should spend less time socializing on them and utilize them for more for school-related activities and worthwhile events. It was also recommended that the university management through the library should encourage the students in the use of other social networking sites like Skype, LinkedIn, MySpace, Google Classroom and Zoom Meeting so that their knowledge will be widened, students should include the use of Google Classroom to the list of social networking sites they explore to reap its benefits. Though students use social networking sites frequently (daily and weekly), care must be taken to avoid them from using them when lectures are ongoing. This will help to curb the extent to which students are distracted during lecture periods. The university library through the library should encourage other methods of service delivered to student such e-books, posting photos, videos, voice over protocol and others. Also, the University management through the library should ensure the provision of basic information needed by academic community, faster and effective information service delivery, independent and life-long learning and provision of information necessary to improve quality of teaching.