Availability and Utilisation of Library Resources and Students' Academic Achievement in English Language in Secondary Schools in Akwa Ibom State

The study investigated the influence of availability and utilisation of library resources and students' academic achievement in English Language in secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State. Four research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. Survey research design was used for the study. The population of the study consisted of all the eleven thousand three hundred and eleven (11,311) Senior Secondary School Two (SS2) students from the two hundred and forty-three (243) public secondary schools in the area under study. A multi-stage procedure including stratified, purposive and simple random sampling technique was used for the study. A structured questionnaire with forty (40) item questions was used for data collection. The instrument was subjected to face validation by three experts in Measurement and Evaluation. A reliability coefficient of 0.78 was obtained using Cronbach alpha reliability test. This showed that the instrument was reliable. Research questions were analyzed using mean and standard deviation while hypothesis was analyzed using independent t-test statistics. The findings of the study revealed that library resources were not sufficient in secondary schools; it also revealed that students seldom utilize library resources; more so, the study revealed some of the constraints to library resources; furthermore the study revealed some strategies to improve English Language students' use of school library. Finally, the research hypothesis reveals that students who utilize school library resources performed significantly better than those who do not. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that library resources should be provided in school libraries, and qualified librarians should be employed to manage school libraries.