Information Needs, Sources and Information Seeking Behaviour of Women Artisans in Offa Metropolis

Abstract

Information is an important resource for individual growth and survival.The progress of modern societies as well as individuals depends a great deal upon the provision of the right kind of information, in the right form and at the right time.Information is needed to be able to take a right decision and also reduce uncertainty.A businessman needs information to be able to improve in his existing business just like a specialist also need information to be up-to-date and well informed in his area of specialization.If information is this valuable, it must be put to proper use, i.e. made available to people or group of people who need it, after ascertaining the groups information needs and seeking behavior.The Webster's dictionary sees "Rural" as relating to or characteristics of people who live in the country opposed to urban, characterized by simplicity, lacking sophistication and engaged in agricultural pursuits.To Nzirimo, rural people (which by the implication rural women) are characterized by the following; extreme poverty, malnutrition, lack of electricity, inadequate school facilities, with in-experienced teachers, inadequate and poor media facilities since rural women are women that live in the rural areas mostly illiterates, their jobs activities are bound to be unskillful jobs that does not require expertise, they involved in house-keeping and farming.Oxford dictionary defined "Artisan" as someone who uses traditional skills and tools to make thing.Wikipedia went further to describe Artisan as a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative including furniture, clothing and jewelry household items and tools or machines such as handmade device of a watch maker.It is also a person that engage in or occupied by the practice of a craft, who may through experience and talent reach the expressive levels of an art in their work and what they create.Aina (2004) posits that outside farming, rural women are equally involved in such occupational like pottery, cloth making, hairdressing, tailoring etc. for these group of people to perform excellently in their work activities, they require information.The information seeking behaviour depends on their individual personalities, attitudes, values, system, behaviour and level of socialization.In other words, it is the product of their socio-cultural, economic, environmental and individual characteristics.For any meaningful information to be provided, certain relevant information sources must be consulted.It is only through such sources that information seekers can obtain information that is ideal for a meaningful decision-making leading to increase in productivity.For the researcher, clientele and various users to elicit data on the information sources used for needed information various information sources includes books, journals, magazines and newspapers, annual reports, handbooks etc.Taylor (2008) viewed that information needs is a personal and unconscious conditions.He articulated four levels of information need that an individual passes through before he or she makes formal encounters with an information professionals.These levels are visceral need, conscious need, formalized need and compromised need.Information need is an individual or groups desire to locate and obtain information to satisfy a conscious need or unconscious need.Aina (2004) asserted that the artisans and rural dwellers need information mainly for survival.Hence any information that will improve their productivity and attract more customers will be critical to their survival.It is therefore expected that a library will provide services that will meet this critical need.Igwe (2012) describes information seeking behaviour as an individual way and manner of gathering and sourcing for information for personal use, knowledge updating and development.According to the International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science (1997) defined information seeking behaviour as the complex patterns of actions and interactions which people engage in when seeing information of whatever kind and for whatever purpose.Leckie, Pettigrew and Sylvan (2006), information seeking behaviour is expressed in various media available in libraries e.g.encyclopedia, journals and more currently electronic media.Aina (2004), opined that "the information seeking behaviour of a user depends on education, access to library and the length of a time user wishes to devote to information seeking".No matter how comprehensive the resources and services of a library are.Wilson (2000), posits information seeking behaviour as that which involves personal reasons for seeking information, the kinds of information which are being sought and the ways and sources with which needed information is being sought.Leckie, Pettigrew and Sylvian (1996), defines information seeking behaviour as expressed in various forms, from reading printed materials to research, an experimentation scholars, students and faculties actively, seeking current information from the various media available in libraries, e.g.encyclopedia, journals and more currently, electronic media The information needs and information seeking behaviour of women artisans in Offa metropolis which includes; tailors, hairdressers, cloth weavers and embroiderer, make-up artists, pedicurist and manicurists.These group of people have specific information need like other people with a specialized profession which is based on their work activity.For instance, a tailor will need information on the current styles and new materials which can be used to sew, while the information needs of the hairdressers will be majorly on the current hairstyles and the products of costmetician to be used in their work.The major information which a cloth weaver and embroiderer needs include information on the current designs that will suit a cloth and the price of the materials used in their course of works, whereas the makeup artists, pedicurists and manicurists require information on the care of hands and legs, more also the quality kind of facial treatments and their price.The information needs of rural women are indigenous information which can be transmitted informally.Okwilagwe (1993) also identified three categories of communication media available for rural people which include interpersonal or face-to-face media like the news or press conference, public meetings, mass media like radio, television, magazine etc. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary defines metropolis as a large important city.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 8 citations exist upstream.