Abstract

The study was design to access the information seeking behavour of prisoners; A study of Owerri prisons. Five research question were design to ascertain the sources of information of the prisoners, attitude ofprison inmates, method of searching information among prison inmates, challenges prisoners encounter in searching information and strategies necessary for enhancing the information. A descriptive statistics using mean and frequency count. The population of the study comprises 2,256 prisoners. The study used Owerri Prison inmates in Owerri Prison with about 22 Welfare andAdministrative officers ofwhich 451 was drawn from the population. The result of the study revealed, "books from the prison library” has a mean response of 3.52 and is therefore accepted; prison officers with mean response of 3.09 is accepted. An 8 item-statement presents the response to the question that seeks to know the information needs of inmates. The data analysis shows that all the items were accepted. The question that seeks to know how the prison library meets the information needs of inmates. The data analysis shows that all the nine (9) item statement listed were accepted. The response to the question that seeks to know the problems encountered by prison inmates in seeking forinformation, shows that the respondents accepted all the 10 items indicated. The response to the question that seeks to know the strategies to enhance the information seeking behaviourofprison inmates shows that all the 10 item statement were accepted as strategies. In line with findings of this study, the following recommendations was made; the prison library should provide other sources of information to cater for the needs of inmates, including organizing extra mural classes to help inmates acquire knowledge and improve their information seeking behavior.