ABSTRACT
The study investigated Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training needs of librarians in university libraries in the south east zone Nigeria. To achieve the purpose of the study, six (6) specific objectives and six (6) research questions were posed to guide the study. Literature review was carried out under the following sub-headings: concept of ICT; concept of training; ICT skills training needs; training needs assessment; types of ICT training; ICT facilities in librarian in the universities libraries; problems associated with ICT skills training programme of the librarian; strategies for the enhancement of ICT training needs and related empirical studies. The study adopted survey research design method. The population of the study comprised all the librarians in the nine (9) universities libraries in the study area which is made up of 4 Federal Universities and 5 State Universities. The entire population( 145) librarians were used because of their small size. A set of questionnaire (which contained 6 sections) named Information and Communication Technology Training needs of librarians in the universities in south East Zone of Nigeria (ICTTNULQ), was developed. The instrument was validated by the researcher’s supervisor and three experts from the department of Library and Information Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Data was collected by administing the questionnaire to the respondents in the nine universities in the study areas by the researcher and two assistants. Only112 out of 145 copies of the questionnaire were returned and analyzed , using frequency distribution table, percentage and means score . The findings of the study revealed that only seven (7) out of eighteen (18) identified ICT facilities such as Computers; Printers; Internet Connection; Laptop; CD- Rom; etc were readily available to the librarians in the universities libraries in south east zone of Nigeria. The librarians possessed less ICT skills such as computer basic, electronic document delivery, networking, file format digitalization, operating system window to use the available ICT facilities. All the librarians required training in all the twenty-eight (28) identified ICT skill areas like Indexing – Servers; Networking;; Computer; etc and nine only (9) out of twelve (12) ICT training programmes were available to the Librarians, such as Formal education, Training at work place., attending conferences,serminar, workshops etc’ On the other hand, eighteen (18) out 0f twenty-one(21) problems were found to be associated with the ICT programmes available to the librarians. These included Lack of technical support, frequent change in ICT, computer breakdown, Lack of trained man power, etc and all the identified strategies were perceived by the respondents as being appropriate for the enhancement of the ICT skills of the librarians in the study area. These included Provision of funds, Regular ICT seminar, Adeqsuate ICT , Training of Library personnel etc. On the basis of the findings, the following recommendations were made: (1) funding for library budget should be increased by the government; and (2) the university librarians should be empowered through training; etc. For future research, the following topics were suggested: (1) the perceived role-expectation of the national association of librarians in sustainable ICT development in Nigeria universities; (2) attitude of the librarians in the university libraries towards digital libraries in Nigeria.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page – – – – – – – i
Certification – – – – – – – ii
Approval Page – – – – – – – – iii
Dedication – – – – – – – iv
Acknowledgement – – – – – – – v
Abstract – – – – – – – – vii
Table of Contents – – – – – – viii
List of Tables – – – – – – – x
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the study – – – – – – 1
Statement of the problem – – – – – 6
Purpose of the study – – – – – – 8
Research Questions – – – – – – – 8
Significance of the study – – – – – – 9
Scope of the Study – – – – – – 10
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Conceptual Framework – – – – – – 11
Concept of Information and Communication Technology – – 11
Concept of Training – – – – – – 14
ICT Training Needs of librarians – – – – – 15
Training Needs Assessment/Analysis – – – – – 17
Types of Training – – – – – – 19
The Expected Information and Communication Technology Facilities
in Universities Libraries – – – – – 20
Problems Associated with ICT Skills Training Programme of the Librarians in Universities Libraries – – – – 22
Strategies for the Enhancement of ICT Training Needs – – 24
Review of Related Empirical Studies – – – – – 26
Summary of Literature Review – – – – 34
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODS
Research Design – – – – – – 36
Area of the study – – – – – – 36
Population of the study – – – – – 37
Sample and Sampling Technique – – – – 38
Instrument for Data Collection – – – – 38
Validation of the instrument – – – 38
Method of Data Collection – – – – – 38
Method of Data Analysis – – – – – 39
CHAPTER FOUR:
ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF DATA – – – 40
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, SUMMARY, CONCLUSION
AND RECOMMENDATIONS – – – – – 52
Discussion of findings – – – – – 52
Conclusion – – – – – – – 59
Implications of the study – – – – – 60
Recommendations of the Study – – – – – 62
Limitations – – – – – – – – 63
Suggestion for Further Research – – – – – 63
Summary of the study – – – – – – 64
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
LIST OF TABLES
Table Item Page
- Population and sample composition of the respondents
- Percentage distribution of the respondents on the basis of ICT facilities available to them.
- Mean scores of the extent of ICT skills possessed by the librarians in University libraries
- The ICT skills training needs mean scores by the librarians in University libraries
- Percentage distribution of respondents on the ICT training programmes available to them.
- Mean scores of the Problems associated with the ICT training programmes available to the librarians in University libraries.
- Mean scores of the strategies to enhance ICT skills of the librarians in University libraries.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Developments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have made enormous changes in each and every sphere of life. These developments are in areas like Computer/Information/Communication/Internet/multimedia revolution; binary age, information age, information society, information superhighway, and digital age. It has received widespread attention and taken a central place in many areas of personal and educational sector, especially, tertiary institutions. The tertiary institutions are becoming primary users of ICTs due to their fastness in providing for research, teaching, learning, processing, storing, transmitting and retrieval of information. Very crucial to the growth and development of tertiary institutions in Nigeria are the ICT – equipped libraries. In the changing environment, every university library grows in terms of ICT facilities/equipment, reading materials space, staff, services and users.
Library in general, is a place in which literary and artistic materials such as books, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, prints, records and tapes are kept for reading, referencing, and lending(Library by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia, 2007) . It is a collection of books and other materials maintained for reading, consultation, study, research, and generally organized to provide access to a specific clientele, with trained staff to make services readily available to them. From the forgoing discussion, university libraries are established to develop collections of various types such as books, thesis, project, journals, magazines, newspapers, audio/video visual materials to support the teaching, learning and research needs of the lecturers, students and researchers in the university community with the help of Librarians.
Librarianship is a profession that addresses knowledge application, theories, techniques and principles which contribute to the production, preservation, organization, and use of the library collection and information dissemination via different media (Roiberg, 2001; Ani, 2007) The importance of librarians in effective running of functional university libraries cannot be over–emphasized. They are the collectors, preservers, organizers and disseminators of all available and usable information in any university library. They are the people responsible for registration of library users, educate them how to make use of library and also responsible for cataloguing, classification, shelving and circulation of all the library collections and information.
Before the advent of information and communication technology (ICT) at the close of the 20th century, nothing like information and communication technology (ICT) in university libraries. The basic task/functions of university libraries such as registration of users, cataloguing of materials, reference services, acquisition of materials, storage and dissemination of information were carried out manually by the librarians with so much pain and strain. In the university libraries, books were piled with bundles of dusty and termite-ridden, papers, magazines and journals. Keys to many cabinets that contain the only useful books are nowhere to be found and thereby making the books unavailable to researchers/ users. University libraries were only known as reservoirs of books, books were scattered on the shelves, users use to leave their places of study, offices and people travelled many miles before making use of the library materials.
The introduction and the rapid development of ICTs have led to many changes in the statutory responsibilities of the librarians in university libraries. The university libraries are becoming globalised and traditional methods of performing library functions//tasks are fast becoming inappropriate due to ICT era. Nowadays, library activities are being carried out with electronic devices and this has replaced the traditional ways of library practices. Ramzan, (2004) observes that wireless networks, virtual collections, interactive web interfaces, and virtual reference services have brought changes into the university libraries where digital and electronic libraries complements have replace the traditional system. Therefore, for the librarians in university libraries to carry out their duties effectively in the era of ICT, they must endeavour to acquaint themselves with ICT facilities and application.
Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) are a set of technologies that facilitate information processing, storage, retrieval and transmission (Uguru, 2001; Owoyemi, 2001). They encompass the computer hardware and software, printers, scanning machines, and several other devices such as (video, audio, photography, and cameras, etc) that convert information (text), images, sound and so on into common digital form (Isabelle et.al, 2006). The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) (2001) refers to ICTs as “powerful enabler of development” because of the significant impact on the economic, scientific, academic, social, political, cultural and other aspects of life. In higher education and human capacity building, there are significant patterns of change because ICTs are impetus for change in traditional concepts of teaching and learning, as well as prime motivation behind the change in scholarly and professional activities. Sultan (2001) observed that the changes brought into the Library Information Science (LIS) profession by ICTs can be divided into two major categories; namely, natural evolutionary changes and transformatory changes. As natural evolution, the LIS profession has harnessed ICTs to perform old task better through the automation of housekeeping tasks such as reference work, bibliographic services, cataloguing, serials ,circulation and acquisition, which are performed more efficiently in an ICT environment. Transformatory changes on the other hand, include the emergence of new functions arising out of an expanded, demand-driven information society, wider and /or interdisciplinary jurisdiction and closer focus on user’s needs (Sulton 2001).
The emergence and use of ICTs in the University Libraries have automatically expanded the role –expectation of librarians. To perform their role- expectation up to the required standard under the ICTs era, they need a host of skills (Leeuwis and van den Ban, 2004; Isabelle et al., 2006). Technological change is posing a particular challenge to librarians in the developing countries unlike in the developed nations of the world. Librarians in developing countries need to learn quickly and adopt new ICTs (Ramsan, 2004). ICTs have been introduced so that the Librarians could perform library functions and provide innovative user – services They can only gain knowledge of the new ICTs through continuing education programmes, professional training, and revisions of their library information science curricula as it is obtainable in the developed countries. All the libraries in the developed countries are well equipped with appropriate hardware and software as a result of the extent of the ICT competency of their librarians. The story in the developing nations is quite different (Ramson, 2004; Adekunle, Omoba and Tella, 2007).
There is no doubt that access to internet facilities, libraries and research materials from remote areas should have changed the university libraries and librarians’ working environments in south-east Nigeria. Therefore, for the librarians in university libraries in south east of Nigeria to carry out their duties effectively and to achieve libraries’ goals in the current era of ICTs utilization, they must possess ICT skills in areas such as word processing, internet, web browsers, inter-library system, data analysis, networking, computer basic, how to e-mail, operating system, presentation (MS PowerPoint), and electronic document delivery etc.
In the year 2005, many university libraries in Nigeria were denied accreditation because they did not have adequate ICT facilities and competent librarians who could effectively handle the ICT facilities for the purpose of providing quality services to the library users (Womboh and Abba, 2008). The world has become so information conscious that people are no longer satisfied with paper and print –based library services. An information revolution has threatened traditional library practices and services. It is very imperative that the librarians must embrace this revolution and participate actively and effectively in it in order to remain relevant, especially, in the universities. According to Womboh and Abba (2008), it is gratifying to note that most university libraries in Nigeria have embraced ICT. It is also fair to say that ICT architecture (hardware) can be found in every university library in Nigeria, though in varying degrees. Internet connectivity can also be fund in most university libraries in Nigeria. However, the number and quality of ICT literate librarians and library staff are not adequate, and the university library users are no longer in need of the traditional, non- ICT literate librarians. Therefore, there is need for librarians in the university to undergo some level of ICT training.
The ICT training needs of librarians in university libraries depend on the ICT- level of the librarians. Many studies have explored the role of training in the success of ICT implementation. According to Adekunle et. al. (2007), for the Librarians in the universities to acquire the expected skills needed to meet the challenges of ICT on their job, they should be trained and re -trained. Training is the process of acquiring specific skills to perform a job better (Halim and Ali, 1997). It helps people to become qualified and proficient in doing some jobs (Dahama, 1979 in the Halim and Ali, 1997). Usually, organization facilitates the employee’s learning through identification of their training needs and actual training so that their modified behaviours contribute to the attainment of the organization’s goals and objectives. ( Ajayi and Ugo, 2005).
Identification of training needs is the first step in the training process if the goal of such training is to improve job performance and productivity (Youdeowei and Kwarteng, 1995). Therefore, they have to undergo formal education, on the job-training, and career development training etc. Such trainings are needed for the proper development of librarians in the university.
Johnson (1991) observes that the major reason for the failure of library automation project in developing countries is that librarians plan without sufficient knowledge of the purchase of hardware, software, and power supply requirements. Another problems militating against the development of ICTs in university libraries are poor power/ electricity; high cost of ICT equipment; management problem; lack of space and theft; etc. According to Mundy and Sultan (2001), the installation and use of ICT in the university libraries are not without constraints; some of these impediment include high acute shortage of fund, high cost of ICT facilities, computer breakdown and viral infection, poor connectivity, and bad signals (Nwokedi,2007).
