CAPACITY BUILDING, ICT SKILLS, USE AND SERVICE DELIVERY OF LIBRARY PERSONNEL IN UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Service Delivery of Library Personnel (SDoLP) determines the provision of value-added library services, the accomplishment of university goals and users’ satisfaction. However, extant literature reveals that the SDoLP in Nigerian university libraries is poor, which has been attributed, partly, to low participation in Capacity Building Programmes (CBP), inadequate ICT skills and use among the library personnel. Previous studies focused largely on acquisition of ICT facilities, with less emphasis on Capacity Building (CB), ICT skills and use. This study, therefore, was designed to investigate the influence of CB, ICT skills and use on SDoLP in southwestern Nigerian universities.

Human Capital and Capability Approach theories and Technology Acceptance Model 2 provided the framework, while the mixed method (survey design of correlational type and qualitative method) was adopted. All the librarians (311) and para-professionals (165) in the 46 universities (federal, state and private) in southwestern Nigeria were enumerated. The instruments used were CB (r=0.90), ICT Skills (r=0.96), Use of ICT (r=0.96) and SDoLP (r=0.96) scales. In-depth interview sessions were held with the university librarians. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s product moment correlation and Multiple regression at 0.05 level of significance, while qualitative data were content analysed.

The respondents’ age was 39.40±1.60 years while the majority were females (54.2%). The respondents’ length of service spanned 1-5years (30%), 6-10years (39.9%), 11-15years (16.2%), 16-20years (8%), 21-25years (2.7%) and 26-30years (3.2%). The ICT skills were acquired via assistance from friends (80.0%), self-instruction (79.9%) and workshops/seminars (77.3%). The three mostly delivered services were internet services (96.7%), information provision on library website (96%) and user education (85.3%). The distribution of ICT facilities deployed for service delivery was computers (93.0%), photocopiers (90.8%), databases (82.4%) and printers (80.2%). Self-instruction (76.1%), workshop/seminars (74.6%) and staff retraining (57.6%) were CBPs that the library personnel mostly participated in. ICT was used mostly for stress reduction (97.3%), global content delivery (96.8%), networking and collaboration with colleagues (95.4%) and to enhance social media use (94.6%). The level of ICT skills was high (49.30) as against a threshold of 36.00. CB (r=0.27), ICT skills (r=0.39) and ICT use (r=0.58) had significant positive relationships with service delivery. The CB, ICT skills and ICT use jointly contributed to SDoLP (F(3;496)= 116.42, adj. R2=0.42), accounting for 42.0% of its variance. The CB (β=0.24), ICT skills (β=0.42) and ICT use (β=0.14) relatively contributed to SDoLP. The common challenges of SDoLP were inadequate funding, low internet bandwidth and irregular power supply.

Capacity building, ICT skills and use influenced service delivery of library personnel in universities in southwestern Nigeria. University libraries should take cognisance of these factors for effective service delivery of library personnel.