ICT skills acquisition and competencies of librarians Implications for digital and electronic environment in Nigerian universities libraries
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Date
2015-02
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Electronic Library
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is an audit of information technology (IT) skills set of librarians
in some Nigerian university libraries with the aim of examining their relevance and adequacy to the
digital environment. Nigerian universities as knowledge creators and their libraries as gatekeepers of
knowledge are rapidly witnessing the introduction of various IT. One of the challenges facing IT/digital
library projects in Nigeria has been the readiness of the university libraries in terms of knowledge and
skills to implement the digital and electronic library services.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper used the survey approach. The sampling technique
for the selection of the universities was stratified and for the librarians (respondents), census. The
sampling frame was the approved list of universities released by the National Universities Commission
as of the time of this study. The data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.
Findings – The findings of this paper revealed that many of the respondents do have knowledge and
skills of email use and word processing tasks but lack knowledge of search engines and directories other
than Google and Yahoo, respectively. Many of them do not know how to evaluate and catalogue
e-resources; have no knowledge of subject gateways, specialised databases and some open-access
library databases; have no knowledge of database management; are not skilled in Web design; and are
equally not familiar with Web design applications.
Originality/value – The study recommends management support for IT skills training and/or
continuous professional development to improve the librarians. Librarians are also challenged and
encouraged to explore the range of training resources available over the Internet for self-development.
Description
Keywords
Digital libraries, Information management,, Academic libraries, Competences,, Electronic resources, Computer networks
Citation
Ojedokun A Ayoku Victoria Nwamaka Okafor , (2015),"ICT skills acquisition and competencies of librarians", The Electronic Library, Vol. 33 Iss 3 pp. 502 - 523