ABSTRACT
The study was designed to analyze how the knowledge of the diverse career opportunities Library and Information science affects the choice of students when choosing a career path.
For the study, a well-structured questionnaire was employed to collect data, and the descriptive survey research method was used. For this study, the 720 Library and Information Science Students enrolled at Delta State Polytechnic and the University of Benin for the 2021–2022 academic session were used. The study's objectives included examining the career choices of library and information science students, determining the extent to which those students were aware of the career opportunities in the field before beginning their studies, and identifying the factors that affected those students' decisions as well as the diverse opportunities available in library and Information science. In the field of library and information science, there are many different career choices to consider. There were 150 questionnaires issued to the respondents, and 100 of those were later collected and determined to be usable, yielding a 67% response rates,
The result revealed that book editing, records, archival management, indexing and abstracting, library consultancy and intelligence information services were the career choice of the students. The study also revealed that the extent of the awareness of the students were to a very low extent and also, the inability of students to meet the required JAMB /POSTUTME score for their desired course was the major factor that influenced their choice of Library and Information Science. Web design, writing and computer science are diverse opportunities in library and information science. Based on the results of the analyses, it was proposed that library administrators should always develop awareness programs for students to independently search for information in the library as well as on how to use the catalog cabinet, that library administration should come up with ways to make users fully aware of its resources to increase their interest, and that library users should be trained on the knowledge of library usefulness and how it will affect academic achievement.
