INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY TRAINING  NEEDS OF LIBRARIANS IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN SOUTH – EAST NIGERIA

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.

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).

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The trend of library services has changed drastically over the decades. Prior to this millennium, librarians have generally been trained to run the traditional library services. But under traditional library, things were done manually such as manual cataloguing, acquisitions of material, circulation, manual registrations etc. And when ICT facilities were introduced, the need to retrain the staff arose. In order to instruct the end-users, librarians themselves need to be trained on how to access, search and interpret different database. A librarian who does not fully understand how to operate the automated catalogue, a photocopying machine or use of these resources, may not be able to provide those services to the users lest they notice his or her ignorance. The level at which one is competent enough to take full advantage of these resources will depend on how much training one has undergone. Therefore, in order not to under-utilize

these  resources,  it  becomes  imperative to  train  staff in  the  management  of the  new  ICTs introduced, so that they may align themselves to the needs of the users (Paris 1996). This idea was corroborated by Mundy and Sultan(1999), when they emphasized that the observed changes in the facilities and skills needed by the university librarians called for training and retraining for the effective electronic acquisition of right books, careful and fast registration, cataloguing, classification and helpful services to the library users.

Literature affirms that the quality of a University can be judged by the content and quality of the services offered by the library. Unfortunately, according to Womboh and Abba (2008) the content and quality of services of most Nigerian university libraries have deteriorated to such a level that the quality of the products of such universities has been adversely affected.

Traditional libraries  in  many of the  Universities in  Nigeria contain  piles  of books, 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. Researchers without libraries are researchers who work without adequate basic facts. Bereft of the journals that contain the latest findings, lacking the books that describe standard and current techniques, scientists researchers are condemned to repeating experiments/ studies that may already have been done by others. The above scenario is part of a strategy for researchers and development workers who rely on reasonably up-to-date information in order to develop and spread new technologies. According to Nabuyanda (2008), the  librarians have generally been trained to run the traditional library and once ICT facilities are introduced, the need to retrain the staff arises.  In other to instruct end-users, librarians themselves need to be trained in how to access, search and interpret different databases (Paris, 1996).

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of the study was to determine the information and communication technology training needs of the librarians in the universities libraries in south East Nigeria. Specifically, the study was designed to:

1.        determine the ICT facilities available to the librarians in university libraries in south east

Nigeria. .

2.        identify the type and extent of ICT skills possessed by the librarians in university libraries in south east Nigeria.

3.        determine the ICT skills training needs of the librarians in university libraries;

4.        determine the ICT training programmes available to the librarians in university libraries;

5.          determine the problems associated with ICT training programmes for the librarians in university libraries; and

6.        determine the strategies for the enhancement of ICT training needs of the librarians in university libraries.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The study attempted to find answers to the following specific questions:

1         What were the ICT facilities available to the librarians in the university libraries?

2         What were the extents of ICT skills possessed by librarians in university libraries in south east of Nigeria?

3         What were the ICT skills training needs of the librarians in university libraries in south east  Nigeria?

4         What were the ICT training programmes available to the librarians in the university libraries in south east of Nigeria?

5         What  were  the  problems  associated  with  ICT  training  programmes available  to  the librarians in university libraries in south east Nigeria?

6         What were the strategies for the enhancement of ICT training needs of the librarians in the universities in south east Nigeria?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study was designed to determine the ICT training needs of the librarians in the University libraries in south-East Nigeria. Therefore, the findings of the study will be used to the following groups of organizations and people such as: University authorities, librarians in the university libraries and information professionals, library and information science students and further researchers on the study of this nature.

University authorities are going to benefit from the bundles of information on this work as the findings will help the University authorities to know the area of ICT training needs of the librarians, this will go a long way in designing and organizing appropriate training programmes for them by the university authority in order to become more proficient/ competent on the job.

Library and information science students and other future researchers will also benefit from the findings of this study in that the findings will be an added value to the dearth of reference materials on a study of this nature. The findings will be made available to them by

publishing them in journals and books of abstracts, and by presenting them at seminars and workshops.

The findings of this study will also be of good use to the library education policymakers who are interested in improving library communication system and the development of information specialists, to formulate policies that can make ICT materials accessible.

Besides, the findings of a study of this nature can provoke issues for further research and writing of a comprehensive research proposal capable of arousing the interest of the external donors such as the CTA, World Bank, FAO, SIDA, UNESCO and USAID in improving ICT system in libraries in south-East Nigeria.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study was focused on the ICT training needs of the librarians in the University libraries in south East Nigeria. The study was delimited to on the job ICT training needs of librarians  in  the  University Libraries  in  South East  Nigeria  and  they  are:  Enugu,  Ebonyi, Anambra, Imo and Abia states. The study covered all the universities Libraries (both state and Federal Universities libraries)  in the study area. The Universities Libraries  are: University of Nigeria,  Nsukka, Enugu state; Enugu state  University of Science  and  Technology, Enugu; Ebonyi  state  University,  Abakaliki;  Nnamidi  Azikiwe  University,  Awka,  Anambra  state; Anambra state University, Uli; Federal university of Science  and technology, Owerri, Imo state; Imo state University Owerri; Abia state University, Uturu; and Michael Okapara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Umuahia, Abia state. Each of these universities has an established functioning library with librarians.

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