Enhancing professionalism through ICT in Nigerian university libraries: Challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Librarians play a major role in providing information in various forms to lecturers, students, researchers. There must exist an effective information communication technology (ICT) in all academic libraries to assist its users and professionals. This paper examines the problems and opportunities of ICT in University libraries and how ICT can enhance professionalism of librarians for better library service delivery. The paper also examined the degree of automation in the libraries and the effectiveness and efficiency of the ICT facilities. Also, staff attitude towards the use of ICT in the libraries were assessed. Four Universities in South-West Nigeria were used in this study. Questionnaire was administered to librarians and library officers using total population sampling technique. Data were analysed using simple percentage. The result indicated that library personnels believed that ICT is important in improving job productivity and library services. However, it was examined that only a small percentage of respondents have a fully automated library and majority of the respondents face issues such as inadequate power supply, poor internet facilities and constant hard-ware breakdown. It was highly recommended that funds should be made available to libraries with adequate skilled manpower and policies should be developed and implemented so as to encourage the deployment and development of ICTs in all institutions. Enhancing professionalism through ICT will improve librarians' ability in managing information effectively with user-centered services while staying up to date with global best practices.