The study is a descriptive survey and covers 100-400 level undergraduate students in history in the humanities in three universities in the South-South geo-political zone of Nigeria. They are Niger Delta University Amassoma, Bayelsa state. Delta State University Abraka, Delta State and University of Port-Harcourt, Rivers State. The population of this study is 867 being the total population of all 100-400 level undergraduate students in the department of history 2007/2008 session from the three universities. The sample size of 259 was generated being 30% of the total population of 867 used for the study. The sampling procedure adopted in this study is cluster sampling technique, where the researchers arrived at cluster units made up of level of study, gender, and institution. Having identified the appropriate clusters, the researchers composed a list of all sample units and a simple random sampling of each cluster was selected from the list of sampled. Questionnaire was used for the data collection for the study. The questionnaire was entitled "Information Seeking Behaviour of Undergraduate Students in the Humanities Questionnaire (ISBUSHQ)".The questionnaire is made up of 30 items covering the various research questions raised to guide the study. The split-half method of testing reliability was employed in testing the reliability co-efficient of the instrument using another separate institution different from the ones used for the study. The value of 0.78 was obtained as the reliability co-efficient of the instrument, using the Pearson's product-moment formula.
To supplement the data from the questionnaire, the researchers engaged some of the students in history department of the three universities on a visit to the various institutions in a structured oral interview in which the students' responses were recorded down. Observation method was also used to know the undergraduate students information seeking patterns, and the strategies they use in searching for information in the various university libraries. Out of the 259 questionnaires administered to the respondents in their various classrooms, 250 completed questionnaires were returned and were used for the analysis. Data collected was analyzed using frequency counts and percentages.