Abstract

The aphorism that a University is a library surrounded by other buildings is a clear pointer to the centrality of library to educational pursuits. It is one major place where academic resources of different formats (hard copies, online, electronic CD-ROM etc.) are organized and made available for use. This is more so in institutions of higher learning. This is probably one of the reasons why a regulatory institution like the National Universities Commission (NUC) has inculcated Use of Library into the curriculum of all Nigerian University programmes. Despite this noble effort, user education and use of library remain one huge challenge. It is established that library users all over the world face various challenges which impact on the extent to which the resources available are put to maximum and effective use. This paper is an exploration of the problems as they affect selected library users at Babcock University, Nigeria. It attempts to answer questions like: how have Librarians positioned the library for effective use of students and other categories of researchers? Are library users given adequate and impactful user education? How can this be improved upon? The paper discovered that although user education programmes exist and users are of the opinion that they helped boost their use of library, the library still needs to intensify its efforts to educate Library Users through setting up of additional methods of user education in order to achieve excellence in educational pursuit. We then come up with suggestions on the various ways in which information professionals can help users to acquire needed education in using available information resources in the library.