Browsing by Author "Markwei, E."
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Item Everyday Life Information-Seeking Behavior of Marginalized Youth: A Qualitative Study of Urban Homeless Youth in Ghana(International Information and Library Review, 2015-04) Markwei, E.; Rasmussen, E.This article examines the everyday life needs, information needs, sources of information, and information-seeking behaviors of homeless youth in Accra, Ghana. Forty-one homeless youth, ages 15 to 18 years participated in this qualitative study. Participants were identified by snowball sampling and data was collected by field observations, an adaptation of the critical incident technique and in-depth interviews. The results show that (1) information needs of the homeless youth in the study relate to basic needs following Maslow's hierarchy of needs; (2) their information sources are primarily interpersonal and comparatively limited in range; and (3) the most important information-seeking behavior is a community approach, characterized by free sharing of information among their social network of friends. The results further revealed that participants relied on their social network of friends to meet 8 of the 11 information needs identified in the study. The study suggests that this behavior results from their environment of limited resources, a proposition that should be examined with further research on the everyday life information-seeking behavior of marginalized communities. © 2015, Published with license by Taylor & Francis.Item Information Seeking Behaviour of Graduate Students of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (Upsa)(University of Ghana, 2016-07) Gyesi, K.; Markwei, E.; Alemna, A.A.; University of Ghana, College of Education, School of Information and Communication Studies, Department of Information StudiesA study of the information seeking behaviour of students is an important pre-requisite for a library to provide efficient information resources and services to meet their information needs. The purpose of the study is to investigate the information needs, information sources, information seeking behaviours, library use, and challenges to information seeking behaviour of graduate students of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA). The study employed the survey methodology. Stratified random sampling was used to select 121 graduate students from a population of 804 to participate in the study. The main data collection instrument was the questionnaire. The data was analysed descriptively by using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The main information needs of students identified in the study include career information, self-development, employment, course information, health, entertainment, sports, and religion. They use five main categories of information sources: interpersonal, internet, mass media, electronic and print. The internet was the main source of information even though they also indicate the use of the library. Their information seeking behaviours include active search, passive search, and ongoing search. The challenges they encountered in seeking information are mostly technical, which are, unstable internet connection, low internet speed, issues regarding accessibility using password, and inadequate computers. The study concluded that it is important for the university authorities to work together with the library to address these problems so that the information needs of students are fully met to enhance their academic work.Item Marketing intangibles: the case of library services in higher education institutions(Library Hi Tech News, 2020-02-12) Markwei, E.; Ofori, W.O.; Quagraine, N.T.Information provision in the twentyfirst century is no longer a monopoly of libraries. Libraries across the globe, including academic libraries, are competing with other service industries such as big publishing houses, online book dealers, academic database vendors, the internet and others enhancing easy access to information. Thus, libraries today have no choice than to adopt a marketing approach in their operations and services to remain visible, valuable and relevant to their communities and patrons (Kumbar, 2004). However, Alemna (2001) is of the view that the application of marketing concepts to the operations of library and information services is a common phenomenon globally. Many libraries have begun to identify that marketing services remain a critical factor in their survival. Other factors identified by Jestin and Parameswari (2005) to the adoption of marketing by libraries are the information explosion, the technology revolution and the case of escalating library costs. Baro and Ebhomeya (2013) add that marketing within a university library implies a need for the library to align its products and service offerings to identified objectives and users and meeting their needs.Item Students’ Use of Electronic Resources in University of Professional Studies, Accra(University of Ghana, 2016-09) Acheampong, E.K.; Ankrah, E.; Markwei, E.; University of Ghana, College of Humanities, School of Information and Communication StudiesThis study investigated students‟ awareness of the availability of e-resources in UPSA, their extent of use of these e-resources, reasons for use, usefulness of e-resources for students‟ academic performances, challenges with use, and the relationship between “students‟ computer literacy skills” and “use of electronic resources”. This study is beneficial to three (3) main categories of people within a university community, and includes university administrators, library information professionals, and students. It also adds to knowledge in its area of study. A survey methodology was used in this study, and the study has a population size of 2,850 (level 400 students of UPSA). A sample size of 570 (which is 20% of the population of 2,850) was used. A convenience sampling technique was adopted for data collection. SPSS was used to analyze data that were collected via questionnaires, whereas an interview schedule was analyzed according to themes. The findings revealed that UPSA students are fairly aware of electronic resources, and they fairly used electronic resources to conduct their researches and to answer their assignments. It was further discovered that comparatively, electronic resources‟ significance quite outweigh that of paper-form documents. Some challenges such as overcrowding of the library‟s electronic resources section by students due to inadequate number of computers and inadequate training on how to use e-resources were discovered. A Chi-square test revealed the direction of relationship between “students‟ computer literacy skills” and their “extent of use of electronic resources”. It was discovered that “students‟ computer literacy skills” affect their “extent of use of electronic resources”. Recommendations to improve the situation were madeItem Use of Course Websites to Enhance Face-To-Face Instruction: A Study of Students' Perceptions(2017-03-16) Markwei, E.; Tagoe, M.One of the benefits of the Internet is the development of course websites to enhance traditional face-to-face-instruction. Although course websites are prevalent in many disciplines, only few studies have investigated students’ perceptions of these websites. This study investigated the perception of students of an interactive website designed on the PBWORKS platform for an Information Storage and Retrieval course at the School of Information and Communication Studies, University of Ghana. The main objectives of the study were to examine students’ use of the website, their computer literacy skills, mode of accessing the website, problems encountered in using the website and their instructional preferences. The survey methodology was used for the study and 37 students participated in the study. The findings showed that students had intermediate computer literacy skills, used the websites frequently, were generally satisfied with the contents which include course outline, lesson notes, assignments, class project instructions, announcements, links to relevant websites, course readings etc, and liked the fact that they could post messages on the website. They accessed the website mostly from home using their laptops and mobile phones. The problems they encountered in using the website include unstable Internet access, power outages, and initial registration with PBWORKS. The study has implications for application of technology in tertiary education that is, use of free wikis to enhance face-to-face instruction