Prisoners and Their Information Needs; Prison Libraries Overview

Sambo, Atanda S. , Usman, Saliu A. , Nafisa Rabiu

Prisoners and Their Information Needs; Prison Libraries Overview

dc.contributor.author	Sambo, Atanda S. , Usman, Saliu A. , Nafisa Rabiu
dc.date.accessioned	2022-01-10T12:52:03Z
dc.date.available	2022-01-10T12:52:03Z
dc.date.issued	2017
dc.description.abstract	The study aims at identifying the prisoner’s information needs. The descriptive survey design was adopted for this study. The census sampling technique was adopted for this study. Four objectives were set for the study and the interview was used to elicit information from respondents. As of the time of collecting data for this study, there were 936 prisoners in the four selected prisons. Findings showed that 95% were male while 5% were female. Findings also reveal that the information needs of prisoners covered health conditions, financial (99%), spiritual and moral (88%), life after prison/ information on legal issues (86%), family/friends (68%), literacy education (65%), skill acquisition (63%), right in prison (42%), prison rules (34%), and others information needs (26%). The majority of the respondents found libraries condition inadequate (85%). The study revealed that mosque/church were the popular ways of meeting information needs of the prisoners (75%). This is followed by family/friends (65%), physician/Nurses (56%), radio/television broad cast (23%), prison staff (22%), 2 books/newspaper/magazine (20%), others (15%) and libraries (11%). Factors affecting information seeking behaviour of the prisoners include, problem of uncomfortable nature of the prison/ long delay before trial (97%), poor funding of the library and prison as a whole (95%), building used for library is unfavourable (85%), among others. The paper concludes that State and Federal Government should take into consideration the prisoners information needs amongst us, thereby provide adequate funding, current information and conducive reading room. Recommendations were put forward to enhance access to information by the prisoners.	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	https://uilspace.unilorin.edu.ng/handle/20.500.12484/7337
dc.publisher	Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)	en_US
dc.subject	Prisoners information behaviour	en_US
dc.subject	Information needs	en_US
dc.subject	Awaiting trial Prisoners,	en_US
dc.subject	ATPs	en_US
dc.subject	Prison Libraries	en_US
dc.title	Prisoners and Their Information Needs; Prison Libraries Overview	en_US
dc.type	Article	en_US