Perceived Usefulness and Utilization of Search Engines to Access Current Information on Covid-19 Pandemic by the Medical Practitioner in Maiduguri Metropolitan, Borno State

Abstract

Medical practitioners were cautious in attending to patients in their various locations worldwide, as a result of Corona virus outbreak. This has made many sick persons to lose their lives. This research examined the perceived usefulness and utilization of Search engines as Smart library by medical practitioners in Maiduguri metropolitan, Borno State. Survey Research Design was used for this study. The study was guided by two formulated hypotheses. Self-developed structured questionnaire, aided by Google Form and Whatsapp, was used to collect data from four hundred and twenty (420) medical staff that responded to the Google Form through their Whatsapp Groups. Descriptive statistics (frequency count, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics of Chi-square (X2) were used to analyse data. The results revealed that there is a correlation between Perceived Usefulness and Utilization of Search Engines (r=.304), pvalue=0.001 < 0.05, Perceived Usefulness of Search Engines (X2 cal=103.010 > X2 tab=3.84; Utilization of Search Engines (X2 cal=333.038 > X2 tab=3.84), indicating that the PU and Utilization of SE by MPs in accessing information about COVID-19 are significant. Therefore, the study recommends that library stakeholders and administrators in Nigeria should harmonize financial and human resources to develop Dynamic Online Crisis Tracking Application (DOCTA)—Android App or Web-based) to curtail misinformation, distorted information and fake news about any crisis such as COIVD-19 pandemic, thereby reducing the reliance on public SE as a major tool for accessing current, real and reliable information in Nigeria.