ABSTRACT

The study investigated public library as a source of business information for small-scale business enterprises in Nigeria. Six states in the Southwest region of Nigeria were used for the study, while purposive sampling was used to select forty small-scale businesses from each of the states, which brought the population of the study to 240. As a survey research, a questionnaire was used for data collection. The findings of the study revealed that information on sources of business funding was the major information need of small-scale businesses, while books were the most available information sources in the public library. Based on the findings, the study recommends among others, that government should provide more funding to support small-scale businesses; and that public libraries should acquire more information sources particularly those on sources of business funding, to complement available ones. The study contributes to literature and its empirical data will be useful to policymakers on how to reposition public libraries for effective provision of business information to small-scale business people.

摘要

该研究调查了作为尼日利亚小型商业企业商业信息来源的公共图书馆。本研究以尼日利亚西南地区的 6 个州为研究对象，通过有目的的抽样从各州抽取 40 家小型企业，使本次研究的总人数达到 240 人。用于数据收集。研究结果显示，有关企业资金来源的信息是小型企业的主要信息需求，而书籍是公共图书馆中最容易获得的信息来源。根据调查结果，该研究建议政府应提供更多资金支持小型企业；公共图书馆应获取更多信息来源，尤其是有关商业资金来源的信息来源，以补充现有的信息来源。该研究对文献有贡献，其实证数据将有助于决策者如何重新定位公共图书馆，以便向小规模商业人士有效提供商业信息。