An Investigation of Information Needs of School Children in Kibera Informal Settlements in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

Abstract: The purpose of this paper was to investigate information needs of school children in Kibera informal settlement, Nairobi, Kenya in order to ascertain the extent to which their information needs were met. Children are supposed to have access to adequate and relevant information to enable them match up their interests and abilities with their aspirations. Information needs are influenced by one’s environment which in turn affects his/her search behaviour. The specific objectives of the study were to: determine the information needs of school children in Kibera informal settlement; identify their sources of information; determine the state of library and information service provision to children in the slum; and investigate the challenges faced by school children in regard to meeting their information needs. A case study research design was employed in this paper and it adopted Constructivist philosophical world view. The study employed purposive, stratified and simple random sampling strategies to determine the study population and the sample size. Data were collected qualitatively by means of interviews and focus group discussions. The findings show that slum children’s information needs are varied and that they use a variety of information sources but rely mainly on teachers, parents, media and their peers for information. In addition, most schools do not have libraries and the few existing information materials are stored in classrooms and staff rooms. Moreover, most teacher-librarians are not professionally trained to render user services and to teach children information search and retrieval skills.