Abstract:
University libraries render varieties of services to users with attendant effect on teaching, learning and research output. However,service delivery in many university libraries has become inadequate for meeting user information needs.Past studies focused on user needs by measuring service delivery from users’ perspectives with little consideration for the impact of knowledge sharing, leadership styles, and librarians’competence.This study, therefore, was carried out to investigate Knowledge Sharing (KS), Organisational Learning (OL), Leadership Styles (LS) and Personnel Competence (PC) as correlates of Service Delivery (SD) in University Libraries (UL) in the Southwestern, Nigeria.
Personnel Competency and Resource-based View theories provided the framework, while the survey design of the correlational type was adopted. All the universities in Southwestern states - Ekiti, Lagos, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, and Osun were enumerated, while functional university libraries in each of the state were purposely selected. The population of the study comprised 635 personnel (339 librarians and 296 library officers) from 35(21 private, 6 federal, and 7 state) functional university libraries. Instruments used were KS (r = 0.83), OL (r = 0.90), LS (r = 0.90), PC (r = 0.97), and SD (r = 0.96) scales. Data collected were subjected to descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation and Multiple regression at 0.05 level of significance.
The majority of therespondents werefemale (59.1%)andmale(41.9%).Library personnel qualifications comprised: Masters in Library and Information Studies(44.5%); Bachelor of Library and Information Science (29.1%) and Diploma in Library and Information Studies (5.1%). Methods adopted for KS were departmental meetings (29.1%); library blogs (11.5%); communities of practice (15.2%); and mobile phones (8.4%). Policy documents(57.9%), bulletin boards (68.4%), mentoring (60.4%), intranets (68.4%) and e-mails (68.4%) were moderately available to enhance OL, while KS (62.2%) washigh. The OL (60.4%) and respondents level of PC (57.9%) were high. Transformational leadership style (70.0%) was more adopted than transactional leadership style (57.0%). The major services delivered to users in university libraries were digitised document (89.6%); telex/ telephone (87.8%); document delivery (86.8%); electronic serials (82.8%);audio/visual materials (80.8%); bibliographic compilation (72.8%); online/C.D ROM database search (74%); Photocopying (70.0%); and compilation of electronic theses and dissertation (68.3%).Knowledge sharing (r = 0.47); OL (r =0.45); LS (r=0.29) and PC (r=0.42) had significant positive relationships with service delivery. Knowledge sharing, organisational learning, leadership styles and personnel competence jointly predicted service delivery in the university libraries (F (4;572) = 60.95), Adj.R2 = 0.30), accounting for 30.0% of its variance. The KS (β = 0.33), OL (β = 0.07), LS (β =0.01) and PC (β = 0.27) had relative contributions to service delivery in university libraries.
Transformational leadership style,organisational learning,tacit knowledge and personnel competence positively influenced service delivery in university libraries in southwestern, Nigeria. University libraries management should promote knowledge sharing practices, regular organisational learning, and recruit competent personnel for improved service delivery of library personnel.
