User Education Practices for Effective Use of Library Resources and Services in Colleges of Education in Delta State, Nigeria

The study explored user education practices for effective use of library resources in Delta state's colleges of education thereby addressing a significant gap, using a descriptive survey design with 400 students sampled from a total population of 9,979. Structured questionnaire was used and distributed by researchers with the assistance of two colleagues. assistance owing to proximity. Analysis include percentages, mean scores and standard deviation. Findings indicated insufficient user education provision, diverse delivery modes, lack of modern strategies and ineffective user education which hinders library service delivery. Recommendations include integrating modern strategies like podcasting and web 2.0 into the curriculum, organizing searching tools, mandating computer literacy courses, and conducting practical sessions, orientations, lectures, and seminars. The study concluded that embracing user education fully would foster better user-library relationships in Delta state's colleges of education. The implication is that with effective user education, students’ confusion on the use of library resources and how to navigate the holdings available in those libraries will be eradicated. It was recommended that for library staff to effectively use the resources and services available, user education should be their first concern.


Introduction
In Nigeria, the College of Education is the postsecondary institution responsible for training teachers to earn a professional certificate in education that is qualitative rather than a degree.Nigerian colleges of education were first established in the 1950s.Colleges of Education are professional training centres for teachers and one of Nigeria's third pillars of higher education; these institutions also serves as centre for research into the various education theory and practice, organises in-service vacation courses for serving teachers, produce professional teachers who are mandated to teach at both primary and junior secondary school levels.
Libraries in colleges of education are such established and mandated by teachers' regulating body by the to help fulfil the objective of the parent organization of supporting teaching, learning and research in the colleges.Hence, mandated by teachers' regulating body to have libraries with professional librarians charged with the obligation to provide clients with current knowledge in order for them to accomplish their academic goals (Udo, 2018).Library maintains a suitable collection of high quality resources and services that will meet the educational needs of users as well as the communities in which they serve (Aniebo, 2012).To https://jurnaldidaktika.org achieve this feat, they must educate their users on the effective use of such resources and services through user education practices.
User education includes instructions/guides given to library users on how to use the library's resources and services both through the library catalogue or by using databases.User education practices are means through which library staff educate their clients regarding how library resources and services are used in a goal oriented ways (Okeke, 2015).User education practices becomes important as library users needed to be guided on effective use of libraries.Again, Okeke and Idoko (2012) library users needs knowledge to function well and become useful to the social organization that promotes study, knowledge, and instruction to equip users regarding the utilization of library services and resources productively.Most users are aware of the resources for information and assistance that are accessible.in libraries but often have trouble finding them because they are unaware of necessary search tools (Aderibigbe & Abiboye, 2011).
Goal of user education is to introduce students to the facilities and services at the library; make the library the hub of scholarly activities; provide basic knowledge on library resources and services and how they can be effectively utilise; inform users about how to navigate resources; enable pupils to become self-sufficient library users and learners among others (Agyen-Gyasi, 2008).User education practices is very important for library users' success as they need such knowledge to function well in information search and retrieval (Okeke & Idoko, 2012).It becomes very crucial that orientation contribute greatly to how efficiently the library is being used by the students the community around the university system (Ntui et al., 2015).Iheaturu (2012) maintained that user education practices have been made significant as a result of information explosion.The effectiveness of user education includes been knowledgeable about the resources, bibliographic tools and how to utilize them, familiarity with the fields of study connected to the main areas of interest, and the ability to locate references to them (Esse and Ugwumba, 2014).Since library resources are informational materials that should be made available to users in the all format and on time for its utilization Alaribe (2016).
Delta State College of Physical Education Mosogar, Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba, Agbor, and Warri are the colleges of higher learning in Delta State.Since the library's entire information and communication process is addressed by user education practices (Nancy, 1984) and libraries is expected to conduct user education practices in every academic session without which users will be unable to make effective use of the academic library's services and resources.(Edem, Ani & Ocheibi, 2012).It is unclear if colleges of education in delta state take user education practices into consideration.Through observation, the researcher observed how confused most of students at these colleges appear while using the library for their information needs because they often couldn't avoid wandering the shelves or asking library employees for help rather than making use of the catalogue cabinet.Although the library catalogue was the most important tool for searching the library, students avoided it and seldom used it in these Colleges.This also affect students who use the online search engines thereby having difficulty narrowing search.All these are as a result of lack of experience which might deprive students from using the library optimally if something is not done about it.Does it mean there is no user education practices in these Colleges?If the answer is NO! then another worries remain that do such not have impact on the students searching pattern?Hence, this study therefore on need to investigate user education practices for effective use of library resources and services in Colleges of Education in Delta state.
The findings of these below earlier studies demonstrate the necessity for user education programs in light of the various information needs of students across academic fields and levels, as well as the patterns of library usage such as: Users' perceptions of user education programs at North-West University in South Africa are examined by Chlya, Onyancha, and Ezema (2023) and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa by Moyane et al. (2015), following the exploration of user education programs at the Nimbe Adedipe University library in Nigeria by Aderibigbe and Ajiboye (2013).
Thus, the study aims at bridging the gap focusing in four (4) different Education colleges in Nigeria's Delta state.In particular: Asaba Technical College of Education (FCE), Warri College of Education (COE), Agbor College of Education (COE), and Mosogar College of Education Physical (COPE).To provide fresh insights and viewpoints on user education and effectiveness in library resources and services use.Thus, this investigation aims to determine whether the colleges under study introduce students to library user education as well as the contribution such produce.It is also important to note that the colleges of education selected for this study they are leading comprehensive colleges within Delta state that offer teacher education in the state at both part-time and regular basis.Information regarding population at all four colleges are presented in Currently, numerous research has been conducted on exploring students' perception of user education in many universities.However, studies focusing on user education in colleges of education are almost non-existent which could have help to know the state of user education, especially in Delta state.In addition, the confusing nature of the students anytime they managed to use the library for their information needs as well as lack of willingness on the part of others in visiting the library gave rise to this study.The results of this study may also illuminate new directions for future research in the area and offer insight into the user education practices adopted among by the libraries in the context of Delta state.Therefore, by completing the research gap, this study aims to contribute to the body of knowledge.

Research Design
According to Matthews (2007), libraries are using customer surveys to determine whether or not they are reaching their customers' expectations.In fact, several of the earlier studies described employed a structured questionnaire (Yu, 2003;Xie & Sun, 2015).The researchers created the initial questionnaire in collaboration with a user education specialist from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.The questionnaire was chosen as the single data gathering strategy in order to reach the maximum number of respondents.
This study was conducted using a descriptive survey research approach which to Nwogu (2015) entails a systematic and thorough gathering of data on people's opinions, attitudes, feelings, beliefs, and behaviours.The ability of this design to gather data from respondents was the researcher guiding principles to systematically and thoroughly distribute data to respondents so as to retrieve their responses accordingly.Thereby, the design was so adopted.

Area of the study and Instrument Used
The area of study is Delta State South-South geopolitical zone, Nigeria.The population of the study is 400 drawn from the total population of 9,979 students who were currently enrolled in the four colleges of which are 1,682 students from Asaba's Federal College of Education (Technical) Out of which, (1,000 regular, 682 part-time), 2,869 from college of education Warri.Out of which, (1,584 regular and 1,285 part-time, 3,700 from college of  education Agbor (2,400 regular and 1,300 part-time) and 1 The study employed a questionnaire to collect its data with title Effective Library Use and Users Questionnaire (ELUAUQ).The questionnaire's items were created four (4) clusters made up the framework of the questionnaires.Cluster A with 12 items exposed the available user education practices, Cluster B with 12 items exposed students to the user education practices in the colleges.Cluster C with 14 items also was designed to gather response on the strategies used for user education delivery in the libraries.And Clusters D revealed the contributions of user education towards effective service delivery in the colleges of education libraries with 14 items.
Two specialists from the Department of Library and Information Science and one from the Department of Science Education at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.Data were distributed and collected by the researchers and two research assistants with all necessary including not interference with respondents' opinions and need to respect their privacy.Follow-ups with research assistants includes phone calls.Data collected were analised using mean and standard deviation.2.50 criteria mean was used indicating that any mean below 2.50 was considered low, while any mean above 2.50 was considered excessive.

Results
Results on table 2 revealed that user education practices such as orientation are in practice across the colleges of education.While respondents disagree that user education such as library brochure, printed guides, demonstration, individual instructions, group instructions, library week, simulation and individual self -help not in practice at FEC, Asaba & COPE, Mosogar there was agreement from respondents of such availability at COE, Warri & Agbor colleges of education.
Finding revealed that most user education are not being practice in the colleges of education under study.This implies that students might not be fully informed on the essentials of user education for effective use of library resources and services in some colleges of education under study.Results on Table 3 revealed user education delivery in colleges of education libraries such as orientation and lecture practices and Individual and self-help with percentages 89.4%; 96.4%; 93.2% & 57.6%; 92.0%, 84.5% 84.1% and 88.4% respectively were agreed as user education delivery in the four colleges of education under study.Also, other user education such as library brochure (80.4% & 70.9%), library tours (81.3% & 71.6%), printed guides (72.3% & 62.2%), individual instruction (86.6% & 65.5%), group instruction (85.7% % 62.8%) and printed guides (66.1% % 56.1%) respectively were agreed upon in some of the colleges (COE, Warri and COE, Agbor) but not all same in the other two colleges of education.
This implies that user education delivery in colleges of education libraries under study needs to be more strategic for effective use of library resources and services in the four colleges of education under study.4 revealed strategies used for delivering user education in the four colleges libraries.Strategies such as audio-visual lectures, telephone calls, ue of instant messages, use of web 2.0 and others were disagreed upon by the respondents, indicating that user education is not being given to the students in the colleges under study.The inability of students in colleges of education in Delta State to use modern strategies might lead to inability to use the modern libraries as desired.
However, since the overall mean cluster of 1.67 and below criterion mean of 2.50 the strategies used in delivering user education in the selected colleges of education libraries is rejected or of no significant to library users' effectiveness in utilizing resources and services in the library.The standard deviation of colleges of education strategies used in delivering user education in Delta State of 0.68 means that the respondents were relatively homogenous in their responses.
Findings on the strategies used in delivering user education revealed that Colleges of Education Warri and Agbor adopted audio-visual and telephone calls as strategies of delivering user education while other strategies were not in vogue in the four colleges of education under study.The inability of students in colleges of education in Delta State to use modern strategies might lead to inability to use the modern libraries as desired.
https://jurnaldidaktika.org 2927   5 below revealed the contributions of user education to effective service delivery in colleges of education libraries in Delta state.While responses from Asaba, Agbor and Mosogar (three college of education) indicated that user education has not contributed to their effective use of library resources and service such that user find it difficult to find information resources, not being independent while using online catalogue, reliance on librarians for information retrieval among others.While college of education Warri shows that user education practices have contributed greatly to effective library resource and services use.This could be established from the shortfall from the preceding tables responses by colleges even though the overall agreement seems to be high due to the fact that Warri has the largest number of respondents.
However, the overall mean cluster of 2.47 and below criterion mean of 2.50 the contribution of user education in the selected colleges of education libraries is rejected or of no significant to users' effectiveness in library utilizing resources and services.The standard deviation of user education contribution to effective use of library resources and services in colleges of education in Delta State of 0.68 means that the respondents were relatively homogenous in their responses.
Result showed how effective user education contributed to efficient service delivery in the investigated colleges of education most especially in the following areas: independent search of library catalogue by the students, ability to search from the shelves, and ability to differentiate library resources and services.International), raises awareness among users about their library rights and privileges, and fosters the acquisition of a lifelong habit of self-discovery of information both in the library and on the World Wide Web (WWW).
Compare your findings with the results of other relevant studies.This could include studies that have had similar or different results.The aim is to show how your research contributes to the field.
By implication, the finding was able to establish the reason behind students' confusion in utilizing the library effectively which also might have resulted to many of them not willing to patronize the library supposed.This has implication as well to the libraries in those colleges of education who is expected to contribute to the objective of its parent organization which is the institution in supporting teaching, learning and research.Hence, the academic output might not be as that of their counterpart in other part of the country.Therefore, since effective user education, will go a long way in eradicating users' confusion in the library as well as guiding them through how to navigate the holdings available in those libraries.It was recommended that for the purpose of ensuring that library resources and services are used effectively, user education should be the staff's first focus.
There are several approaches to investigating user education methods in libraries.However, this study relied entirely on quantitative questionnaire data.Quantitative metrics can only provide insights into this process on a broader scale; they cannot reveal the underlying motivations for individual students' attitudes regarding their college libraries and services.The overall population surveyed was rather modest.The average number of answers received at each college of education was around 4% of the total population.Another limitation of this study was that one of the participating institutions (FEC) was chosen because one of the researchers had professional contacts there, whilst the others (COPE, COE, and ACE) were picked due to proximity.Furthermore, researchers and study assistants presented surveys to students onsite at both college libraries, so the results were gathered from respondents who were already library users.Students who did not visit the physical library building throughout the data collecting period were excluded from the survey results.Finally, the closed-ended questions may have forced the respondents to give unduly simplified answers.According to Powell in Liu, Lo, and Itsumura (2016), the learning and research process is difficult to trace because it is made up of concepts, abstractions, and their relationships to one another.The current study's questionnaire approach did not allow for a more in-depth knowledge of such concerns, as other observational and interview methodologies would have.Despite these limitations, this study's findings will surely be of interest to LIS practitioners, librarians in colleges of education, library user education service providers in particular and the students who are the supposed library users in general.
From the findings and technical limitations above, the researchers therefore make suggestion for future study as follows: 1. Since the questionnaire format implemented in the current study did not facilitate a more comprehensive insight into the aforementioned matters, further researcher should consider a similar study using observational and interview techniques as method of data collection.2. Gender influence on user education in colleges of education libraries in delta state 3. Negative impact of user education in academic performance and librarians' reactions in providing lasting solution in delta state Nigeria.

Conclusion
It becomes imperative to employ adequate modes in user education practices in colleges of education in Delta State, Nigeria.This is owing to the fact that lack of adequate user education will deny their users access to the right and rich resources and services available in the library owing to lack of knowledge, thereby leading to low patronage of the library.Colleges of education should as a matter of importance adopt the use of modern methods of carrying out user education which might include the use of ICTs' and library website as users are more ICT driven.
More importantly, best strategies are adopted in meeting the need of the users by considering approach/strategies understood by the 21 st century library users living in the world of information explosion since user education could be traditional program that comprises an orientation session, an introduction to audio-visual resources, a library visit, lectures, seminars, and workshops; printed manuals; the contemporary educational system; and an emphasis on internet resources (Kumar and Phi, 2009).

Table 1 .
Hence, the following research questions serve as the study's compass: RQ 1.What user education procedures/ practices are followed in Delta State, Nigeria's Colleges of Education libraries?RQ 2. What methods of user education delivery are used in Delta State, Nigeria's Colleges of Education libraries?RQ 3. What are the strategies are used in Delta State, Nigeria's Colleges of Education libraries to provide user education?RQ 4. How much does user education help colleges of education libraries in Delta State, Nigeria, provide successful services?
,728 regular students from Delta state college of physical education Mosogar.See table one below on population distribution.

Table 2 :
Percentages and Frequency of the User Education Practices in Colleges of Education in Delta State, Nigeria.

Table 3 :
Percentages and Frequency of User Education Delivery in Colleges of Education Libraries in Delta State Nigeria.
d Table

Table 4 :
Mean and Standard Deviation of the Strategies used in Delivering User Education S

Table 5 :
Mean and Standard Deviation of the Contribution of User Education A= Agree Federal College of Education (T) Asaba (FCE, Asaba), College of Education Warri (COE, Warri), College of Education Agbor (COE, Agbor), College of Physical Education Mosogar (COPE, Mosogar), X = Mean, S.D = Standard Deviation