By Nzang, DN; Awandia, JT (2024). Greener Journal of Social Sciences, 14(1): 117-128.
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Vol. 14(2), pp. 117-128, 2024
ISSN: 2276-7800
Copyright ©2024, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
https://gjournals.org/GJSC
1 General Certificate of Education (GCE), Examination Board, Buea, Cameroon.
2 Lecturer, Faculty of Education, University of Buea, Cameroon.
Article No.: 072024097
Type: Research
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This study examines Information Service Delivery and its impact on student’s academic achievement in tertiary institution libraries within Buea Municipality. The study was guided by two research questions. (1) How does indexing service impact students’ academic achievement in tertiary institution libraries in the Buea Municipality? (2) How does referencing service impact students’ academic achievement in tertiary institution libraries in the Buea Municipality? These questions were transformed into two research hypotheses. The research design used for this study is the convergent research design. The target population was 15994 and the accessible population was 340 students, 42 staff and 3 directors. The sample size was made up of 42 students and three directors and 21 staff selected using simple random sampling technique. The instruments for data collection were a questionnaire for students that use the library and library staff while the interview guide was for library directors. The Data collected from the field were analyzed both descriptively and inferentially. The data from interview were analyzed thematically, while for inferential statistics, the data were analyzed using Pearson product moment correlation coefficient so as to test the hypotheses. Findings revealed that, indexing services and referencing services have a relationship with students’ academic achievement. Based on the finding, the following recommendations were made to the Higher educational authority. The authority should add more modern and constantly update the libraries with information resource so as to meet up with the day to day need of their users. The university council should allocate more money to the library so as to ease the purchase of library resources.
Published: 17/08/2024
Awandia Joseph Tazitabong
E-mail: awandiatazi@gmail.com
One of the most essential elements that all forms of life need is information. Information is a term difficult to describe because it has several dimensions. Bitagi (2013) discloses that information is news that comes to the receiver for the first time which enables the receiver to take action according to expectation.
Information is obtainable from various resources which are referred to as information resources that comprise a range of materials acquired by libraries to meet the users’ quest for information. There are various types of information resources such as print and none print resources. Specifically, Okonkwo as cited by Akor (2014) categorizes library resources into books and non-book materials. The non-book materials include staff, finance, building, equipment, tapes, films and many other audio-visual resources while book materials include newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, pictures and maps. These resources contained in the library tend to accomplish the teaching, learning and research activities in tertiary institutions when the students familiarize themselves with the use of the library. This study deals with; indexing services and referencing services. The researchers are interested in finding out the relationship between information service delivery and students’ academic achievement in tertiary institution libraries within the Buea Municipality.
Statement of the problem
In Cameroon, the most leading debate in education spectrum nowadays is the issues of tertiary institutions poor academic achievement. Parents and other stakeholders in education complain over the high rate of poor academic achievement of students in semester examinations. It has been observed that a few numbers of students make good use of information resources in the library by using indexing and referencing services within their libraries that are provided to them in their various universities by their proprietors for private owned universities and by the government for Government own universities. The Government recruits’ staff annually and the various establishments have been carrying out in- service training annually with the purpose of improving on the quality of services delivery to the library user by the librarian.
The process of teaching and learning is complicated. There are so many intervening factors one has to consider in establishing the effective and quality environment as to ensure quality results and among many factors the availability of well-prepared and equipped library is among the factor, which seemingly promote student achievement through the delivery of information services such as indexing and referencing services.
Tertiary institutions in Cameroon, specifically in Buea municipality are faced with the problems of meeting the information needs of students and researchers in different fields of study. This trend affects learning and research in the various institutions, leaving students with poor quality and limited information resources. Through observations, student academic achievement within the academic field in Buea municipality is dropping day by day. The researchers ponder whether this is as a result of the quality, availability and method of delivery information services such as indexing services and referencing services.
The current literature falls shortly to explain the relationship which exists between library information services available and the academic achievement of the students in tertiary institutions in Cameroon, specifically in Buea municipality. Therefore, these researchers intend to find out the availability, its usage and effects of information service delivery by libraries on promoting student’s academic achievement in tertiary institutions in Buea municipality. It is based on this that this study investigated the relationship between information service delivery in Tertiary Institution Libraries and Students’ Academic Achievement in Buea Municipality
Information service delivery as a product or activity that meets the information needs of the user. According to the World Meteorological Organization (2012), information services should possess the following attributes to be effective: (i) Available and timely: at time and space scales that the user needs, (ii) Dependable and reliable: delivered on time to the required user specification, (iii) Usable: presented in user-specific formats so that the client can fully understand, (iv) Useful to respond appropriately to user needs, (v) Credible: for the user to confidently apply to decision-making, (vi) Authentic: entitled to be acceptable by the stakeholders in the given decision contexts, (vii) Responsive and flexible: to the evolving user needs (viii) Sustainable: affordable and consistent over time; and(ix)Expandable: to be applicable to different kinds of services
Information service systems refer to institutions established for the sole purpose of information collection, storage, retrieval and dissemination (Wang and Shieh,2006). Examples of such systems include libraries, information and referral service centers, online databases, and other forms of information clearing houses. Several online databases such as AJOL, DOAB, DOAJ, APA and institutional repositories, are available over the Internet and allow access to and download of their specialized and/or wide-ranging collections. Unfortunately, while poor reading habits are strengthening the idea of information search services, repackaging and delivery to the busy and/or lazy literates of today. Aina (2014) illiterates by implication will have no need for libraries and online databases. Although researchers have noted that libraries are indispensable in information service delivery to the student population (Aina, 2006). there has not been any available research to show how the same libraries have effectively delivered appropriate information needed by students in third world countries like Cameroon (Bawack, 2009).
Information sources are available in various forms such as journal, articles, research paper, books, magazines film and audio/video recording plus the data stored in computer as well as in compact disks. As a growth in literature its volume, variety and complexity has put severe constraints of the users search for their needed information. The complexity of electronic resources also led to the tedious search. The library service can be said to be the cornerstone of a good and functional school system. For school to function and recognized as a place for teaching and learning, such school must ensure the provision of library so as to allow students to have access to books and other materials in order to enhance their learning (Ajegbomogun & Salaam, 2011). In addition, school library is established to serve certain purposes and its establishment is to serve as a stimulating place to improve the reading culture of both the teachers and students (Uzuegbu & Ibiyemi, 2013). In theory and practice, the purposes of library services are: to stimulate the students to access relevant materials for the teaching and learning process, which serve as one of the inputs in the school system, to enhance the academic performance of the students, to serve as a reference point for other users of library information and to offer wider opportunities for teachers to explore the library resources (Harris, 2008).
Nevertheless, Salman et al. (2014) are of the view that no matter how big the school library is, it needs to be staffed with qualified library personnel to manage the library for effectiveness. To achieve this, therefore, professional staff should be recruited to the library, which should be headed by school librarian to run the day-to-day activities of the library. Concerning the adequacy of facility in the library. Adetoro (2006) observes that adequate library facilities help in delivering library services, thus school library should be well built, furnished with the up-to-date and relevant materials as well as interior decoration and conducive environment. Buttressing the foregoing point, Chinaka (2011) noted that a standard school library should have plethora of materials such as journals, newspapers, magazines, textbooks, diagrams, maps and pictures (Print), while television set, radio, toys and multimedia materials (Non print). The school librarian has to work with the school in providing these educational materials.
The goal of any library and information centre is to satisfy the information needs of its clientele. Thus, all services provided in the library are geared towards user satisfaction, for the library to fulfil these needs, it acquires all kinds of resources such as prints and non-prints materials. These resources have to be organized so that they can be accessible to the users who have different interest, and need relevant information in order to satisfy their various interests.
The information needed may be found in any document be it print or non-print. For this relevant information to be available to existing and potential users. Aina (2004) said libraries, have devised tools such as catalogues, bibliographies, indexes, abstracts etc. which are expected to make users or readers aware of the variety of information carriers such as books, serials, audio-visual materials available in the library and information centres collections. Satisfaction by users can only be guaranteed when relevant information materials are accessed or retrieved to their requests. To retrieve information, involves the library acquiring the right collection and also providing the right processes for locating the document that matches the customer’s request.
According to Aina (2014), indexing is the basic problem as well as the costliest bottleneck of information retrieval. Indexing is still the central problem of information access and Aina’s mind would surely have boggled at the immensity of the information access problems posed by the World Wide Web. The major defect of the Internet as an information source, apart from its sheer size, is the fact that it lacks any form of quality control. That information services work reasonably effectively in the world of print on paper is due to the fact that various institutions are in place to perform a quality filtering function. Publishers of scholarly books and journals apply reviewing procedures that are, at least to some extent, effective in eliminating the most worthless of what is written.
The published indexing and abstracting services provide the next level of quality filtering, mostly by choosing the journals, report series, or other publications that they cover on a regular basis. Finally, libraries, particularly those serving the research and scholarly communities, put into place the filters closest to the actual users by purchasing those materials judged of most value to these users and by arranging collections by levels of accessibility, the most accessible materials (physically and perhaps also intellectually) being those that users will be most likely to want frequently (Aina,2014).
According to Reitz (2004), indexing service is the “process of compiling one or more indexes for a single publication such as a monograph or multivolume references work or adding entries for new document to an open-end index covering a particular publication format (example newspapers), works of a specific literacy form (biography, book reviews, etc.) or the literature of an academic field discipline or group of disciplines”. Indexing which is a technique of producing an index is also seen as the process of providing a guide to the intellectual contest of a document or collection of documents. The end product of an indexing process is the index which is an important tool for the retrieval of relevant information context of a publication or document (Aina, 2004).
The index service serves as a guide to the intellectual content of publications or reading materials. Such content are presented as a list comprising the major terms, concepts, subjects, topics and named arranged in a particular order especially alphabetical or chronological with references (particularly page or pages) to show where each item indexed can be found in the original document (Nnadozie, 2007). Indexes therefore have become the indispensable tool for navigating the complex reservoirs of information, whether these is contained in a single column of text, several columns or whether they lie buried in any hundreds of issues of Newspapers, journals, magazines, documents or other reports”. There are various types of indexes found in a standard library for example indexes to individual books or back of the book index, indexes to collection of books (the card catalogue in a library), index to the contents of journals or periodicals, for instance reader’s guides to periodical literature (Wilson,1901).
Before science publications became more readily available online, researchers and students located articles through a printed index. An index, within a library setting, is a list of articles or other publications within a discipline or topic. It provides bibliographic information such as author (s), title, where it was published, and sometimes abstracts. This information assists students and researchers to locate publications and deciding if there are relevant to his or her topic. Abstracting and Indexing in the early part of the 19th century assisted the researchers to keep abreast of increasing current developments in his field of interest which may be difficult to achieve as a result of information explosion. The need to be updated in all fields and kept abreast of any development has, therefore, become necessary in order to avoid any duplication of efforts on the part of the research mind.
Although there has been a great deal of activity in electronic publishing, there are still aspects of document composition that have not been fully automated. One of the most time-consuming concerns is the preparation of an index. In ordinary books, an index allows a reader to access essential information easily. A poor index with many omissions or poorly chosen concepts detracts from other aspects of the book. For highly complex technical material that may include computer programs, different kinds of indices may reference even the identifiers of a programming language. A good example of an elaborate indexing scheme can be found in Knuth’s TEX: the Program and his WEB system in general. For computer programs like these, completeness is essential and the accuracy of traditional hand methods will not suffice for software engineering applications. Standard authors’ guides, such as reference. According to the British indexing standard, an index is a systematic arrangement of entries designed to enable users locate information in a document (Brown, 2010). A document in this instance can be a book, a journal, an audiotape, a computer film and so on. However, a clear distinction between indexes to a book and indexes to a volume of journals is that, while indexes to a book is an alphabetical list with page reference to a subject, persons and places dealt with within a particular book, indexes to journals or other periodicals indicate what articles have been written on subject, commentaries on a case, statutes, official reports or any other document. However, indexes to legislation cover the laws of a particular jurisdiction that are either in force, repealed or spent.
Indexing service is a very important tool employed by the library to aid the users in retrieving information required by the user. The index service serves different purposes but the most relevant to this study is that which serves as information storage and retrieval device used in libraries, archives, documentation centres and other information institutions. According to Akor (2014), Indexing service serves as a guide to the contents of a particular library as in the case of a library catalogue which is also referred to as an index to the contents of the library. It serves as a guide to the content of a publication and also serves as a guide to the existing literature in a given field or by a given author, as in a bibliography which is an index to what publications exists. Generally, index serves as a pointer to the where about of an item or document in an information system. The most popular function of an index is perhaps as a guide to intellectual content of publications or reading materials, which are presented as a list comprising the major terms, concepts, subjects, topics and names arranged in a particular order. Abstracts are very important tools of information storage, management and retrieval. Abstracting services make information efficient and satisfying (Nnadozie, 2007).
Some principles of indexing include: (i) Correctness or accuracy: This has to do with correct spelling and correct presentation of information in the index, (ii) Uniformity or consistency: Since indexing systems vary, indexer must adopt informing in indexing, (iii) Completeness: This simply complete bibliographic data, (iv) Clarity: There should be specific and concise subject heading and (v) Consideration: This must use the language the user can easily understand.
Reference service is a specific service tailored towards the information needs of each library user hence, giving each individual library user a sense of belonging in the library. Reference service is also the various library activities specifically aimed at making information easily accessible. Reference service includes guiding users in order to know what services and resources are available and how to locate them within the library. The guidance usually comes in form of instruction, and orientation which is generally referred to as user education.
In the library, reference service is offered by a librarian at a designated desk within the library building, over the telephone or through correspondence, however this is gradually giving way to faceless correspondence (Mishra and Mahapatra, 2013). The referencing service in a library handles all types of queries, from directional questions to in-depth research. Yusuf (2011) highlighted that the reference librarian’s role also involves teaching users how to find information either within the library or outside the library.
University libraries also acquire and provide access to reference sources. These information carriers are very essential and critical to research activities. Nwalo (2000) states that reference sources are information resources in any form or location which can provide answers to the information needs of library users expressed as queries. Reference sources do not only exist in print form, they are also on compact discs and in electronic format available on the internet. Aina (2004) affirmed that reference sources can be categorized mainly into three. These are primary sources, secondary sources and tertiary sources. The primary sources include journal articles, technical reports, dissertations and theses. Indexes, abstracts and bibliographies are examples of the secondary sources, while dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographies, yearbooks, handbooks, fact books, almanacs are examples of the tertiary sources.
Reference sources are essentially utilized whenever there are needs for such because of their content and features. Fayose (2000) expressed that reference resources are not meant to be read from cover to cover like study books, users only look for specific items of information in them whenever there is a need. These resources are also revised on a regular basis to keep them current, they are multi-disciplinary in nature, provided with detailed indexes and cross references and they are organized for quick and easy usage. These characteristics make them valuable tools for research. The era whereby reference sources in the university library were the only information resources consulted whenever an information needs for research arose appears to have gone. Presently, computers and communication technologies form an integral part of the research process in general (Moahi,2002).
ICT has also enhanced reference service in university libraries with the provision of different services that can be rendered online, making it possible for libraries to manage websites. Ganaie (2013) states that through the virtual reference, queries of users can be sent online and a reference interview can be conducted through the use of a phone or through chat room via the social networking sites. Some libraries websites include the icon ask-a-librarian through which users can send their formatted enquiries to the reference librarian. The librarian provides an answer, links the user with useful electronic reference resources or links the user with a subject expert.
All these symbolize that the reference sources in university libraries are not just the traditional print resources and those on CD-ROM, online reference sources have also found their way in, coupled with online reference services. Users of the university libraries can also access internet-based reference services within the university libraries. Undergraduates are among users of the university library and they engage in research activities of which they could utilize the reference sources in the university library or consult the web search engines on the Internet.
Reference service has existed since 1876 in American libraries (Deng,2014). Among all the library functions, reference service is one of the service’s that really connects between the library and the users. It is a primary practice in the library organization as it is closely related with the users in fulfilling their needs. Because of that nature, many scholars at the beginning like Samuel Sweet Green, Margaret Hutchins and Samuel Rothstein attempt to do in – depth studies on reference services in order to have a better understanding about it (Deng,2014). One of the earliest definitions of reference services were made by Wyer in (1929), He defines reference work as “direct sympathetic and informed personal aid in interpreting library collections for study and research (Deng,2014). Then, it has been expanded by many researchers according to their understanding on reference services. In order to guide the users who are not familiar with the other library services and sources, reference service is one of the library services users can seek for help (Hussien & Mokhtar, 2018).
Sohail and Pandye (2012) in their study on use of library resources by the students of University of Kalyani found that to meet the information needs of student’s guidance, help is required to use the library resources and services. They suggested that the latest edition of text book and reference materials should be added to the library collection. Reference service is one of the essential services that should be provided by any library organization. It is considered as the heart of library services by several authors in their works, therefore, it is important to conduct evaluations to identify the existing problem or deficiencies in order to ensure that the service is running successfully (Luo & Buer,2015).
Reference services began in the late nineteenth century with the purpose of assisting the inexperienced, unskilled readers and scholars in using library services and resources. Reference service is also known as reference and information services where it refers to personal assistance that provides information needed by the library users (Chowdary, 2002). Nowadays, it can be seen that many reference services approaches are available not only in traditional form but also in digital form which allows the users to communicate with the librarians virtually and indirectly make the librarians become more transparent to the library users. Thus, by having a good relationship with the library users it can increase the users’ satisfaction on the library service and can encourage them to continuously use the library services and resources. Library user’s satisfaction plays a vital role in the development and provision of the library by evaluating their feedback on the service (Sriram & Rajev, 2014).
The theories used in study this are; Information theory by Claude Shamon, (1948), theory of human service delivery by Green (2011) and theory of academic achievement by Walbergs (1992).
Information Theory by Claude Shannon (1948)
Shannon, (1948) Information theory is the mathematical treatment of the concepts, parameters and rules governing the transmission of messages through communication systems. It was founded by Shannon (1948). He was interested in how much information a given communication channel could transmit. Information theory is based on a measure of uncertainty known as entropy (designated “H”). The information theory researches, and defines communication, storage, and quantification of information-bits and bytes in the digital world, signal and noise in analogue signal processing. Information Theory grows out of the concepts introduced in “A Mathematical Theory of Communication.” Although, the phrase “information theory” is never used in this paper, Shannon’s emphasis on the word “information” probably help to coin the term. The idea that something as nebulous as “information” could be quantified, analyzed, and reduced to a mathematical formula attracting tremendous attention.
Information theory is relevant to telephone and electrical engineering as well as computer science, the internet, the web, and mobile applications. It is traditionally agreed that the seminal work for the mathematical view of information is the paper where Claude Shannon in (1948), introduces a precise formalism designed to solve certain specific technological problems in communication engineering. Roughly speaking, Shannon entropy is concerned with the statistical properties of a given system and the correlation between states of two systems, independently the meaning and any semantic content of these states.
According to Shannon, (1948), see also Shannon and Weaver, (1949), a general communication system consists of five parts:
A source S, which generates the message to be received at the destination.
A transmitter T, which turns the message generated at the source into a signal to be transmitted. In a case in which the information is encoded, encoding is also implemented by this system.
A channel, CH, that is, the medium used to transmit the signal from the transmitter to the receiver.
A receiver, R, which reconstructs the message from the signal.
A destination, D, which receives the message.
Shannon, (1948) published his paper “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” in the Bell Systems Technical Journal. He showed how information could be quantified with absolute precision, and demonstrated the essential unity of all information media. Telephone signals, text, radio waves, and pictures, essentially every mode of communication, could be encoded in bits.The paper provides a “blueprint for the digital age”.
In his original paper, Shannon,(1948, p.349), explains the convenience of the use of a logarithmic function in the definition of the entropies: it is practically useful because many important parameters in engineering vary linearly with the logarithm of the number of possibilities, it is intuitive because we use to measure magnitudes by linear comparison with unities of measurement; it is mathematically more suitable because many limiting operations in terms of the logarithm are simpler than in terms of the number of possibilities. In turn, the choice of a logarithmic base amounts to a choice of a unit for measuring information. If the base 2 is used, the resulting unit is called ‘bit’ –a contraction of binary unit –. With these definitions, one bit is the amount of information obtained when one of two equally likely alternatives are specified.
The following diagram, figure 1, illustrates the formal architecture Shannon offered as a schematic for a general communication system.
Figure 1: From Shannon’s “A Mathematical Theory of Communication”, page
Source: Shannon, (1948)
It is quite clear that H(S) and H (D) are average amounts of information. Nevertheless, in the literature they are usually termed ‘entropies’, a strategy that could be explained by the fact that it is a name shorter than average amount of information. However, according to a traditional story, the term ‘entropy’ was suggested by Neumann, (1948) to Shannon in the following terms: “You should call it entropy, for two reasons. In the first place your uncertainty function has been used in statistical mechanics under that name. In the second place, and more importantly, no one knows what entropy really is, so in a debate you will always have the advantage.”
The two most important results obtained by Shannon are the theorems known as First Shannon Theorem and Second Shannon Theorem. According to the First Theorem, or Noiseless-Channel Coding Theorem, for sufficiently long messages, the value of the entropy H(S) of the source is equal to the average number of symbols necessary to encode a letter of the source using an ideal code: H(S) measures the optimal compression of the source messages. The proof of the theorem is based on the fact that the messages of N letters produced by S fall into two classes one of the approximately 2 (S) NH S typical messages, and the other of a typical message. When N the probability of a typical message becomes negligible; so, the source can be conceived as producing only 2 (S) NH S possible messages. This suggests a natural strategy for coding: each typical message is encoded by a binary sequence of length NH(S), in general shorter than the length N of the original message. On the other hand, in the early 1940s, it was thought that the increase of the rate in the information transmission over a communication channel would always increase the probability of error.
The Second Theorem, or Noisy-Channel Coding Theorem, surprised the communication theory community by proving that assumption was not true as long as the communication rate was maintained below the channel capacity. The channel capacity is equal to the maximum rate at which the information can be sent over the channel and recovered at the destination with a vanishingly low probability of error. Summing up, by contrast with types and tokens, Shannon information is a measurable item, Shannon (1948). Although the idea of type-information does not imply to endow types with meaning, a type needs to have some content to be able to identify its tokens: the distinction between types and tokens is not merely syntactic. On the contrary, Shannon information is neutral with respect to any content, since the only relevant issue is the selection of a message among many.
In summary, although it is true that Shannon’s theory is not interested in individual amounts of information, this does not mean that those quantities cannot be defined. Shannon, (1948) explicitly says that his own proposal aims at extending the work of Hartley, (1928), where a logarithmic function is introduced as a measure of uncertainty in the case of equal probability; the Hartley function can be viewed as measuring individual entropy. In Shannon’s theory, where the magnitudes introduce are conceived as average amounts of information, the individual magnitudes must necessarily be part of the formalism, since only in terms of them the averages can be significantly computed. This is precisely the strategy adopted by Shannon in his study, when he defines an entropy H1 for each state s1 of the source, and defines the entropy of the source “as the average of these H1weighted in accordance with the probability of occurrence of the states in question”. Shannon, (1948 p.396).
According to the theory of human service delivery by Greene (2011), human service delivery entails a variety of systems such as education, social welfare services, health care and mental health services. Professional in human services manages the agencies which offer this kind of services. These services depend on direct interaction or contact between a deliverer and his or her client. A human service worker assists individuals and the community to function efficiently. Greene, (2011). For a human service worker to perform such duties, he or she must exhibit personal traits such as good communication skills, patience, understanding and a sense of responsibility.
The theory of human service delivery entails an understanding of how people work within systems to deliver services. People are resources unlike any other in what their value and availability can be difficult to quantify. It is fundamental to provide good quality and quantity of service delivery by increasing the number of people involved in the organization’s workforce. Theorists of human service delivery put emphasis on motivation of the workforce through ideology. This provides them with guidelines and a broader mission and vision to be able to tackle a variety of challenges and to justify their own work.
There is also an increasing emphasis on inter-organizational collaboration as a way to meet the needs of the library users. Thus, the human service deliveries in institution in particular must model effective functioning within its general environment, task environment, and internal environment. The activities of the institution would then provide a parallel process to meet up the users need which is information service delivery.
In summary, human service delivery managers must possess certain levels of cognitive and ethical development in order to grasp these complex relationships and effectively handle current user demands. In addition, these managers need an orienting theory or framework to guide them in handling complex interactions while aligning themselves with their organizational mission.
In this study, we will focus on the human service model of information service delivery. It is believed that information resources need occur because human existence is a complex process and we need information to be updated and progress in life especially in academics. This process involves interpersonal contact with other individuals, groups and institutions. The main method of service is through problem solving where focus is channeled towards the identification and maximization of client’s strength in searching information with a positive self-esteem and sense of responsibility. This ensures that people learn and avoid any future problem in their path of life Greene, (2011). The problem-solving approach is essential in both human training and information delivery. The services delivered should be accessible, accountable and coordinated among professionals and agencies. It is viewed as critical to teach the client problem solving skills and ways in which to build their strengths taking into account the impact of social institutions, social systems and social problems, Greene (2011).
There is discussion regarding the growing need for human service delivery institutions such as academic libraries to be able to respond to increasing client complexity and diversity within a rapidly changing global environment and digital world. In particular, human service delivery institutions such as the academic libraries should be able to model high-level environmental negotiations and interactions, empowering clients served by the agency. Recently, more emphasis has been placed on open-systems perspectives and strategic management practices that deal proactively with environmental uncertainty. Human services organizations, however, are lacking an integrative theory that can guide practitioners throughout the agency at all levels.
Another important theory to support this study is Walberg’s theory of academic achievement propounded in 1992. Walberg’s theory of academic achievement (1992) posits that psychological characteristics of individual students and their immediate psychological environment influence educational outcomes (cognitive, behavioural, and attitudinal (Walberg, 1993).
Walberg, (1993) theory of educational achievement/productivity includes nine factors hypothesized to affect the learner’s cognitive, as well as affective, outcomes. These nine factors include (a) ability or prior achievement, (b) age, (c) motivation or self-concept, (d) quantity of instruction, (e) quality of the instructional experience, (f) the home environment, (g) the classroom or school environment, (h) the peer group environment, and (i) the mass media Walberg, (1982). Walberg’s model extends beyond earlier models of academic learning by examining out-of-school influences and social-psychological variables (Walberg, 1993). The first five variables that reflect student aptitude and instruction are found in other educational models, including Walberg and Tsai, (1985). The remaining variables involve the educationally stimulating psychological environment, both within and outside the classroom.
The first three variables in Walberg’s model (ability, age, and motivation) can each be seen as internal traits to the learner or student aptitude. Ability or prior achievement, for Walberg, includes factors that can be measured by “the usual standardized test”. These factors would include the learner’s aptitude, ability, and IQ, as well as previous achievement. Walberg, (1993) assessed this variable using students’ mathematics, science, and reading cognitive subtest scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The next two variables, quantity of instruction and quality of the instructional experience, examine instructional factors. Quantity of instruction is described as the amount of time students engage in learning, including the time scheduled, allowed, or assigned for a given instructional unit by the teacher, as well as the fraction of this time the student actually spends learning the content. Walberg and his colleagues have measured quantity of instruction through reports of weekly homework and class attendance. In addition, this variable has been measured through effective use of class time, interruptions during class, and teachers’ ability to gain students’ attention quickly. Others have measured quantity of instruction as time on mathematics homework in school and outside of school.
For Walberg the age variable includes chronological age, but also development and stage of maturation Keith (2002). In his research Walberg has attempted to keep the age variable as a constant. Motivation or self-concept, in the Walberg model, is operationalised as scores on personality tests of the student’s willingness to persevere intensively on learning tasks Walberg and Tsai, (1985).
According to this theory, the quality of the instructional experience includes psychological and curricular experiences, and can be seen as the appropriateness of the instructional experience. The quality of instructional experience variable has been measured using a 4-point Likert scale. The scale is used to assess the instructional focus of the teacher in areas such as teaching, lab techniques, including conducting experiments and requiring written reports Walberg (1992). Also assessed are the amount of homework number of semesters of science class. Walberg et al. (1986) states that if teacher tells students they are right or wrong, teacher reviews lessons, students report that they understand the teacher. Parkersonet et al. (1984) and students report that the teaching is good in their school and that the teacher offers praise (Ma & Wang,2001).
The final variables: home environment, classroom or school environment, peer group environment, and mass media, are characterized as environmental factors. Home environment refers to the support given to students while at home. It has been measured in various ways, including family interest in school and in science, parental education, number of times the dictionary is used at home and home socioeconomic status. Classroom and school environment, including classroom morale refers to as a social atmosphere and has been measured through access to classroom materials and the percentage of students who continue towards a bachelor’s degree or take additional science class. Others have measured classroom and school environment through student reports of feeling put-down by the teacher or by other students in the classroom.
Peer group experience refers to how well students get along with each other outside of the school environment. Measures have included how important schooling and good grades are among friends, peers seeing themselves are good students, planning on attending college, and doing well in science. The mass media variable refers to the minimum leisure-time, television viewing, and the reading of books or magazines.
Walberg and his colleagues have tested his model in a national sample of high school seniors Walberg et al. (1986), Reynolds and Walberg, (1992) and found the included variables to be good predictors of learner achievement across gender and race. While the initial Walberg model of educational productivity involved a simple structure with each of the nine factors independent and in a single order Walberg, (1981) a more complex distal-proximal model has been found to demonstrate better fit in subsequent studies.
This study adopted the exploratory sequential design. The target population consisted of 15974 students and 42 staff in the area of library and information sciences and the directors of the three selected institutions. The accessible population comprised of 650 students, 42 staff and 3 Directors of the three institutions. The accessible population consisted of 3 Director and 42 staff and 685 students. The sample size was 42 students, 3 directors and 21 staff. The sampling method for this study was purposive sampling. The instruments for data were interview guide for directors and questionnaire for library users and staff of the library. Data collected were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Data from the questionnaire were analysed using Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient while thematic analysis was used to analyze data from interview guide from the interview guide.
HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY
HA1: There is a significant impact between indexing services and the academic achievements of students in tertiary institutions in Buea municipality.
H01: There is no significant impact between indexing services and the academic achievement of students in tertiary institutions in Buea municipality.
HA2: There is a significant impact between referencing services and the academic achievement of students in tertiary institutions in Buea municipality.
H02: There is no significant impact between referencing services and the academic achievement of students in tertiary institution in Buea municipality.
Descriptive Analysis:
Table 1: Shows the analysis of the interview with library Directors on the influence of indexing service on students’ academic achievement
Are there some challenges users have at the indexing service in your library?
i) Poor internet network which leads to poor connectivity
ii) Lack of collaboration among staff
iii) Lack of qualified and strained staff and
iv) Lack of equipment
v) lack of enough budget to run the activities of the library
Inferential Analysis:
Table 2 shows the inferential analysis of the relationship between indexing service and students’ academic achievement
. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
The result of the analysis reveals that the calculated Гxy -value of 0.434 is higher than the critical Гxy -value of 0.2108 at .05 level of significance with 62 degrees of freedom. Also, the p-value of 0.006 is lower than 0.05. With the result of this analysis, the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternative hypothesis retained. Therefore, the null hypothesis that states that indexing service does not have a significant relationship with students’ academic achievement was rejected and the alternative which states that there is a significant relationship between indexing service delivery and students’ academic achievement was retained. A further exploration of the effect showed that the Гxy =0.434 was positive. This indicates that the better indexing service the more the students’ academic achievement in the Buea Municipality.
Table 3: Analysis of the Interview with library Directors on the influence of referencing service on students’ academic achievement
i) Lack of automated system
ii) Lack of infrastructure
iii) Lack resources
v) Lack of internet connectivity
vi) lack of Budget to manage the library
Table 4 shows the relationship between referencing service and students’ academic achievement
The findings from table 4 shows that the calculated Гxy -value of 0.338 is higher than the critical Гxy -value of 0.2108 at .05 level of significance with 61 degrees of freedom. Also, the p-value of 0.006 is lower than 0.05. With the result of this analysis, the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternative hypothesis retained. Therefore, the null hypothesis that states that referencing service does not have a significant relationship with students’ academic achievement was rejected and the alternative which states that there is a significant relationship between referencing service delivery and students’ academic achievement was retained. A further exploration of the effect showed that the Гxy =0.434 is positive. This indicates that the better referencing service the more the students’ academic achievement in the Buea Municipality.
In line with research question one, indexing service has an impact on the quality of information resources in the three academic libraries. Secondly, the finding also showed that referencing service has an effect on students’ academic achievement. The study also showed that the three libraries have many challenges such as; lack of automated system, lack of infrastructure, lack resources, lack of equipment, slow internet connectivity and insufficient budget to manage the library.
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were proffered: Tertiary institution libraries directors should add more resources related to the specific fields of studies so that future library users can do better than present library indexing service users. The management of tertiary institution Libraries should organise seminars/workshops for library workers and users on the organisation and use of information service delivery and library indexing services.
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Cite this Article: Nzang, DN; Awandia, JT (2024). Information Service Delivery and Its Impact on Students’ Academic Achievement in Tertiary Institution Libraries within the Buea Municipality. Greener Journal of Social Sciences, 14(2): 117-128.
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