Abstract:
The role of the State Department for East African Integration in Kenya is to coordinate
the affairs of East African Community. Access to and use of information by staff at the
State Department for East African Integration is so critical if the Department is to
achieve its goals and objectives. Despite the importance of information in meeting the
aspirations of the department, members of staff appear not to have fully benefited from
the information services in the department. For those who have been fortunate to access
this information, the information has not been adequate judging from the information
resources and services found within the department. The aim of the study was to
investigate access to and use of information by staff at the State Department for East
African Integration in Kenya with a view to proposing appropriate measures for
improvement. The specific objectives of the study were to: establish the kind of work
that staff at the Ministry of East African Integration do; determine their information
needs and information seeking behaviour; establish tools used by staff in accessing
information resources and services; ascertain the effectiveness of the information
resources and services provided to the staff in the Department; identify the factors
which hinder access to and use of information resources and services; and to propose
measures for better access and use of information resources and services by staff at the
department. The study was informed by Wilson’s theory of Global model of
information behaviour and Niedźwiedzka’s proposed general model of information
behaviour. The study was qualitative in nature. The researcher used interview schedule
to collect data. Data analysis was done thematically. The study established that the
information resources and services provided in the department were inadequate to meet
the needs of the staff and this impacted negatively on their work; tools used in
accessing information resources and services were not adequate and effective and
funding was also found to be a major obstacle inhibiting provision of information
resources and services. It can be concluded that although the staff at SDAA are able to
work with the available information services, they are still inadequate thus calling for
their improvement in terms of information, staff and financial resources. It is
recommended that SDEAI should improve information resources and services by
providing adequate information resources in the library and internet services; the
department should ensure that tools for accessing information resources and are
provided; a strong information management unit should be established to coordinate
information resources and services scattered in the department and the department
should allocate enough financial resources to carter for the provision of information
resources and services.