Abstract:
The School Library Media Centre (SLMC) provides support for teaching and learning activities in Nigerian secondary schools. However, low patronage of the centre and its services by students is a source of concern to stakeholders in education. Based on this, this study investigated the influence of user perception on SLMC service patronage. Descriptive survey research design was employed, a simple random sampling technique was adopted to select one Federal Government college in each state in South Western Nigeria. Federal Government Girls College, Ikirun (Osun State), Federal Government Girls College, Akure (Ondo State), Federal Government College, Ikole Ekiti (Ekiti State), Federal Government College, Ogbomoso (Oyo State), Kings College, Lagos State and Federal Government Girls College, Shagamu (Ogun State) . Total enumeration was adopted to cover all the 1,662 senior secondary school II students comprising 54.7 males and 45.3 females. The questionnaire titled ‘User Perception and Library Services Questionnaire’ constructed by the researcher was used to collect data. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, means and standard deviation. The result showed that user perception was low, service patronage was moderate while SLMC were facing various challenges. Observation shows that students have poor perception about the SLMC. In conclusion, the study recommends that the service of SLMC in FGC should be improved to facilitate service patronage.
