Rural Women and their Information Seeking Behavior

This study is focused at exploring the information seeking behavior of the women in rural areas. The study adopted a survey design. Four objectives were laid down for the study and a structured interview and questionnaire was used to bring out information from respondents. The findings showed that among the 294 respondents, 41% of them are 31-40 years of age, 24% of the respondents are below 30 years of age, 18% are between the ages of 41-50 years of age among others. The study also revealed majority of the women have secondary school education with 44% of them admitting that they are secondary school certificate holder. The study shows that the information needs of rural women in the top rank are occupational related with 85% of respondents, child care and family relationship with 64% of respondents. The study clearly indicates that the major source of information for the respondents is friends and family members with 95% of the respondents attesting to that, another 75% of the respondents indicated age groups as their source of information. The study revealed that the major use of information by respondents was to improve their Occupation with 91% of respondents, to care for children and run the family with 78% of respondents. It is clear from the study that no library resources is the major barrier to the access of information by respondents with 98%, illiteracy with 76% of respondents, language barriers with 66% respondents, among others. Recommendations were put forward to enhance access to information by women in the rural areas