CONSCIENCIACIÓN AMBIENTAL

Evaluation is a process of examining and judging the accomplishment and effectiveness of something (Patton 1990). In the opinion of Mark and Henry (2004:35), evaluation is closely

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related to types of endeavours that influence people’s way of life. In the context of the current study, by evaluation of research method, it implies that the researcher justified the criteria he used in judging the relevance of the methodology used in collecting data for the study. Thus, evaluation in research entails the consideration of the logic behind the adoption of a particular research method (s) by a researcher in the context of his/her study and the rationale behind the adoption of that particular research method (s) or technique (s) upon others (Kothari 2004:8).

According to Garaba (2010:182), it is a well-known fact that every research method either qualitative or quantitative has its own weaknesses and strengths. This was the rationale behind the introduction of mixed methods approach in which inquirers draw liberally from both quantitative and qualitative assumptions (Creswell 2013:39). For this reason, a researcher needs to understand the research approach that he/she adopts in carrying out his/her research for credibility of the findings. The main objective of mixed methods approach was not to substitute either of the two approaches, but rather to attract from the strengths and reduce the weaknesses of both in single research studies (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie 2004:14). In this regard, the use of mixed methods approach enables a researcher to develop a clear understanding of various phenomena of his/her interest that could not have been fully understood using only a single approach (Venkatesh, Brown and Bala 2013:21). In a study conducted by Garaba (2010), it was indicated that the researcher used more than one method in carrying out that study because of the need to enhance validity and reliability of the findings.

Within the mixed methods, pragmatic approach and sequential exploratory design were employed to examine the provision of public library services to meet the information needs of rural dwellers with respect to the North-Western zone of Nigeria. This methodology was chosen because of the need to integrate the results obtained from the qualitative and quantitative phases. In the current study, the data obtained from the qualitative and quantitative phases was elicited from three categories of participants (as shown in section 4.6). This was to ensure the credibility of the research findings. The combination of qualitative and quantitative research in this study enabled the researcher to determine whether or not the information needs of the rural dwellers in question are met in relation to the kinds of public library services provided.

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Accordingly, the evaluation of the research method in the current study was based on the research approach and research design used. The research design was organized based on the research instruments used, theoretical framework, the time and other resources available in carrying out the research. From experience, the researcher of the current study would prefer to use interviews and observations if given the opportunity to carry out the same study again. This was because of the major challenge (s) involved in the use of questionnaire. The use of questionnaire in the current study was challenging in terms of reliability due to the nature of the illiterate library users. This category of users found it difficult to fill in the translated research instrument themselves due to their level of literacy; as such the instrument had to be read out to them for their effective responses at the site of the study. In addition, the use of questionnaire was also found to be unreliable even among the category of the literate library users because of the time it took a participant to fill in the instrument, unlike interviews and observation which were faster and more reliable in collecting data.

From the foregoing therefore, it can be deduced that in a research of this nature, the use of interviews and observations should be considered as the most appropriate than the use of questionnaire. The use of interviews enabled both the researcher and the participant to seek for more clarifications on the underlying issues than the use of questionnaire. However, the use of different instruments for collecting data enhances the validity and reliability of the data and their interpretation (Zohrabi 2013:254). As such, the combination of interviews, observations and questionnaires in this study appeared to be more reliable and credible in the entire research process.

Furthermore, in the current study, a pre-testing of research instruments was carried out to ensure the validity and reliability of the instruments used. In the pre-test, the director of Kano state library board was interviewed, 10 questionnaires were administered to heads of branch/public libraries in some local government areas in the state. In addition, 30 questionnaires were also administered to some library users. All the obtained reliability coefficients indicated that the instruments could be considered reliable and internally consistent for the study (as shown in section 4.9.1).

Finally, the researcher was not able to visit all the states in Nigeria. Consequently, this meant that the results obtained from the use of the interviews, observations and questionnaires were not generalizable to the entire country. Interestingly, these shortcomings did not prevent the current study from coming up with interesting findings that are essential to authorities of

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public libraries in the North-Western zone of Nigeria, and Nigeria in general towards revitalizing public library services that can meet the information needs of the rural dwellers.

4.12 Summary

This chapter presented the methodology used in carrying out the current study. It discussed the research paradigms commonly used in social science research and in particular the pragmatism paradigm, which is consistent with mixed methods research design employed for this study. The study used mixed methods which are a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods. The chapter discussed the population of the study which comprised three groups of participants (as shown in section 4.6). A total of 427 participants were drawn to form the sample size of the study using Krejcie and Morgan’s (1970) theory and proportionate sampling technique. The chapter also discussed the instruments used for the study which include interviews, observation and questionnaires. In the data analysis, Nvivo software, thematic analysis and content analysis were used to analyse the qualitative data. Similarly, SPSS software was also used to analyse the quantitative data using descriptive statistics. In addition, the pre-testing of the research instruments for validity and reliability was also discussed in the chapter. All ethical considerations that provided grounding and direction for the study were discussed and strictly adhered to, as well. Finally, the evaluation of the research methodology used in carrying out the study was also highlighted. Chapter Five presents and analyses the empirical data collected for the study.

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CHAPTER FIVE

DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION 5.1 Introduction

This chapter presents and analyses the empirical data obtained from the participants of the study. This is in an attempt to answer the research questions of the current study. The data presented in this chapter was drawn from questionnaires, interviews and observations administered to the participants of the study. The purpose of the current study was to examine the provision of public library services to meet the information needs of rural dwellers in the North- Western zone of Nigeria. With the help of research assistants, the researcher administered 52 and 370 questionnaires to the heads of the branch libraries and library users respectively. The researcher also conducted semi-structured interviews with five directors of the state library boards in the area under study. The interviews were conducted in the offices of the directors at the headquarters of the state library boards. The selection of directors of the library boards as participants in the study was deliberate. This was because they were experienced, part of the policy makers of the libraries as well as the custodians of the policies and provision and maintenance of the libraries. The quantitative and qualitative data on similar themes were integrated where necessary for coherence and avoidance of unnecessary repetition. The current study addressed the following research questions, with respect to the North-Western zone of Nigeria:

1. What are the information needs of the rural dwellers?

2. What skills do rural dwellers effectively use to identify, access and use information from public libraries?

3. What information sources and services are used by rural dwellers to seek and satisfy their information needs from public libraries?

4. What channels are used by the public libraries to disseminate information to the rural dwellers?

5. What challenges are faced by the rural dwellers in seeking and using information from public libraries?

In view of the foregoing, this chapter is organized in accordance with the themes of the research questions, theoretical framework and other issues surrounding the research questions. The quantitative data obtained is presented in statistical tables of frequencies and

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percentages. Abbas (2009:88) opined that when organizing or summarizing quantitative data collected, to make meaning, tables, figures and charts should be used. In the current study therefore, a structured questionnaire was adopted based on Likert scaling technique to indicate how many participants agree and how many disagree. The library users were presented with range of answer options to indicate whether they strongly agreed, agreed, strongly disagreed, disagreed or were undecided about each item. Therefore, the responses to each of the items on the questionnaires are presented in tables of frequencies and percentages. Responses on each item on the questionnaires are based on a midpoint average of 3.0 at which response would be regarded as agreement or disagreement. A mean score of magnitude 3.0 and above would therefore indicate agreement while a mean score below 3.0 signifies disagreement. Therefore, both the mean scores and standard deviation are used to determine whether or not there is consensus agreement or disagreement between the opinions of the participants on each of the listed items. Low standard deviation results close to mean and high standard deviation results far away from mean.

Accordingly, results from the interviews and observations were used qualitatively to complement the quantitative data obtained from the heads of the branch libraries and the library users. The interviews were transcribed and were thematic and content analyzed. In circumstances where there were varied opinions between the heads of the branch libraries and the library users on a particular item, the qualitative data was used to confirm the real situation.