ABSTRACT
The study examined the digital skills of library staff and the delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria. It was guided by five (5) specific objectives, corresponding research questions were answered and five (5) null hypotheses were formulated and tested. The study adopted a correlational research design. The population of this study was 112 which comprises the library staff in all 11 Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria. Complete census sampling was used in selecting the entire population as respondents. The Digital skills and Services Delivery Questionnaire (ILSSDQ) was used for data collection. The data collected were analyzed using inferential statistics to answer research questions and test the hypotheses at .05 level of significance. It was found that there is a significant positive low association between the health information literacy of library staff and delivery of services (p- value = 0.03), a significant positive low association between the agricultural information literacy of library staff and delivery of services (p-value = 0.01), a significant positive very low association between business information literacy of library staff and delivery of services (p-value = 0.04), the non-significant positive very low association between the media literacy of library staff and delivery of services (p-value = 0.76), and a non-significant positive very low association between digital literacy of library staff and delivery of services (p-value = 0.08) in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others, that library authorities should intensify efforts in creating an understanding of digital skills, their essence and application to enable the library staff to acquire more of the skills as well as apply them in the discharge of their duties, and placing more emphasis on the acquisition of digital skills in academic libraries by providing other sources and supporting library staff who wish to acquire more skills, either through scholarships, organization or sponsoring of conferences, workshops, and other programmes.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
• Background to the Study
The recent exponential growth in the amount of information available in different sources and formats coupled with the rise in the human desire to solve his or her information problem independently, have brought about much emphasis on the patterns and systems of information creation, organization, dissemination, preservation and conservation. This has increased the need for individuals, especially, the information services providers, such as the library staff to acquire competencies and skills for effective and efficient searching, locating, retrieval and utilization of the right information at the right time and from the right place. Thanuskodi (2019) strongly emphasizes the challenge of the library staff in the digital or Internet age. This is because of the rise in competitors, as well as library users’ demands and expectations. However, the ability of an individual to obtain the right information at the right time and from the right place is tantamount to quality and healthy living, which invariably affects the way such individual functions in his/her chosen career.
According to Eromosele et al. (2022), information remains a vital tool for human development and is considered very essential in planning, higher cognitive process and implementation. This information, which exists both in print and electronic formats is significant for human existence and influences decision-making at every stage of mankind's existence. It further aids a person with facts, knowledge, ways and process to use in actualizing a plan. Nonetheless, every individual regardless of age or social stratification requires and needs information for growth, decision-making, career development, practices and to display professionalism. Information could also be viewed as knowledge, a packaged human experience, a source that provides a myriad of data, a resource that takes different formats, packaging, transfer media, and varied methods of delivery. It is the result of processing, manipulating and organizing data in a way that adds to the knowledge of the receiver. This information under description is what Magaji (2017) considers a very important resource to individuals and organizations. Furthermore, information is that which aids teaching, learning and research not only in theory but in practice. It is the increase in knowledge obtained by the recipient by matching proper data elements to the variables of a problem. With these, it is not far-fetched to conceptualize information as anything that informs or that, upon which a decision is taken. The proper acquisition of this information from the rightful place, and its proper application is what makes an individual information literate, hence, the concept of information literacy
This concept of Information Literacy (IL) was coined by Paul G. Zurkowski in the year 1974. In his identification of the concept, the propounded believes so much that information literacy is that which forms the basis for lifelong learning and academic enhancement. It goes beyond merely understanding how to read and write, to involving other things of great emphasis. In his description, Thanuskodi (2019) describes information literacy as the ability to identify the exact information needed, understand how such information is organized, identify the best sources of information for a given need, locate those sources, evaluate the sources critically, and share the information to the appropriate recipient. Summarily, the author sees information literacy as that which forms the basis of understanding one’s information concerns and needs and having the ability to identify, locate, evaluate, organize and effectively create, use and communicate information to address issues or problems at hand. Igbinlola et al. (2019) observe that information literacy is a self-empowering ability which enables all classes of individuals in society to seek, access, analyse, translate, transform information and create knowledge to address challenges, solve problems, as well as achieve personal, social, occupational, and learning goals for the improvement of quality of life.
Additionally, Olaopa (2017) opines that information literacy is a prerequisite for participating effectively in the information society, and is part of the basic human right of lifelong learning. Hence, information literacy is a boundless concept which is not only meant for those in the field of library and information science or university students but is common to all disciplines, all learning environments, and all levels of education. This is because it enables the learners to master content and extend their investigations, it also enables the individual who possesses it to become more self-directed and assume greater control over their learning. This set of abilities or competencies is what is referred to as digital skills.
According to Adeyemi (2017), digital skills include a set of abilities, competencies and knowledge requiring individuals to identify when information is needed and can locate, evaluate and use the needed information effectively. It further refers to the act of knowing when and why one needs information, where to find such information, how to evaluate it, and use/communicate information, ethically. In the view of Thanuskodi (2019), these skills are used for academic purposes, such as writing research papers and group presentations. They include library research skills and information technology (IT) literacy skill which goes beyond the ability to find and present information, but it is about higher-order analysis, synthesis, critical thinking and problem-solving. Furthermore, digital skills involve seeking and using information for independent and lifelong learning. Nonetheless, in this era of information explosion, digital skill is an essential skill that empowers individuals (information seekers) to identify, retrieve and effectively use the information to sustain and extend learning and professional engagement (Adeyemi, 2017). To this end, digital skill is therefore important in the contemporary environment of rapid technological change and proliferating information resources.
Igbinlola et al. (2019) opined that digital skills include the ability to define and articulate the need for information, access the needed information, evaluate information and its sources, incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge and value systems, understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and the ability to access and use the information ethically and legally. It is very clear that as a result of the escalating complexity of today’s environment, several individuals are faced with diverse and abundant information choices. These information choices surface in their academic studies, workplaces, and personal lives. Secondly, the complexity of these choices is further aggravated as a result of many openings through which information could be acquired, disseminated and stored. Today, a large measure of information could be obtained from libraries, community resources/information centres, media, and the most popular, the Internet or the World Wide Web. Increasingly, information comes to individuals in unfiltered formats, raising questions about its authenticity, validity, and reliability. This is highly true of most of the Internet information and information resources. In addition, information is available through multiple media, including graphical, aural, and textual. All these openings pose new challenges for individuals, especially, the library staff in accessing, evaluating and understanding it, hence, the need for these library staff to appreciate the issue of digital skills.
The library staff could be seen as people who look after the storage and retrieval of information in libraries. This category of the workforce is trained and educated to deal with information in a wide variety of formats and settings (Jude-Iwuoha et al., 2020). They further help library users and other information seekers to navigate the voyage into the Internet and evaluate information efficiently. Library staff could also be viewed as employees charged with the provision and delivery of library and information services to the students, faculty members and the entire library user community. They are among the individuals faced with difficulties in information search and service delivery. These difficulties could be overcome or surmounted by their professional training and digital skills. According to Igbinlola et al. (2019), library staff can acquire different information skills such as; academic information literacy, health information literacy, agricultural information literacy, political information literacy, business information literacy, media literacy, and digital literacy.
Library staff could be found across the types of libraries such as academic libraries. Akidi and Oduagwu (2021); Onuoha and Chukwueke (2021) define the academic library as a library established, maintained and administered by tertiary institutions such as universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, colleges of agriculture, and other mono-technics. The purpose of academic libraries is to foster teaching, learning and community services. This they do through the provision of an array of information resources and services. Consequently, library services refer to as assistants provided by a library to the users. Adegoke (2021) defines academic library services as the day-to-day activities offered by the academic library to satisfy the information needs of staff, students and researchers in their various tertiary institutions. These services represent a series of personal, direct or indirect assistance provided by the library staff to the users of the library.
Some of the academic library services as given by Adegoke (2021) may include digital library services, virtual reference services, ‘ask a librarian’ services, adaptive learning services (ALS), referral services, current awareness services, knowledge creation and digital humanity services, inter-library lending services, data services, data consultation services, publishing support services, digital scholarship services, makerspace services, reservation services, selective dissemination of information services, information resources lending services, translation services, photocopying services, and library instruction services. Others include indexing and abstracting, OPAC services, cataloguing and classification, collection development, bindery, and Internet and e-mail services.
Academic libraries through the activities of the library staff adopt different patterns in their service delivery. Nonetheless, in any method adopted, efficiency and effectiveness must be ensured. To this end, Nnadozie et al. (2017) believe that the library staff and other information specialists are expected to possess learned techniques and skills for utilizing a wide range of information tools as well as primary sources in moulding information. Agreeably, Furthermore, the development of such techniques and skills should take place throughout the individual’s life, especially during the educational years. Jude-Iwuoha et al., (2020) further write that those engaged in the librarianship profession (such as the library staff), as a part of the learning community and, as experts in information management, should assume the key role of facilitating information literacy through the creation of curriculum-integrated programs with the involvement of faculty. However, not minding that the library staff are drivers of information literacy programmes, it is expedient to look into their skills in building an information-literate society through the delivery of arrays of services. This is based on the fact that no one can give what he/she does not have. And, this is the rationale upon which this study is set
• Statement of the Problem
The effective and efficient delivery of library services lies in the provision and application of the right resources and tools. The right application of these resources and tools in turn enhances library productivity, and visibility and brings about user satisfaction. This has made it so, that the delivery of services in academic libraries has become an issue of concern considering the importance of their resources and services for teaching, research and community development. On the other hand, is the issue of digital skills of these library staff through whom the library services can be enhanced. Digital skills are valuable input required by all categories of individuals, especially, information providers such as the library staff. This is because it provides the basis upon which the right source is consulted; the right information is gotten and applied in the right way. Not mind the importance of this concept of digital skills, literature as well as preliminary observations have shown a reduction in the possession of these skills by most of the library staff in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. Where these skills are possessed, their application to the delivery of library services remains another great issue of concern. This could be attributed to some factors such as poor training and inadequate technologies, among other things. A preliminary survey has also shown that adequate possession of digital skills plays a major role in the delivery of library services. It could be asserted that when individuals are highly knowledgeable about the movement of information and its directions, they might offer quality services, which in turn leads to user satisfaction.
Nonetheless, the fact that the information literacy concept and practice made its entry into librarianship and the Nigerian Library and Information Science Curriculum only a few decades ago (Adeyemi, 2017) is enough worry to trigger a study that will assess the library staff’s actual practice of digital skills in their professional works. Besides, despite the growing availability of literature and research on digital skills possession by a workforce of the library and professional services as contained in Anyaoku et al. (2015); Ogbomo and Ambrose (2022), there is no available study to show what has transpired in the Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria. Before this study, no one knows if there is any association or relationship between the digital skills of library staff and the delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library. This, therefore, is an obvious gap that this work intends to fill.
• Purpose/Aim of the Study
The main purpose of this study is to examine the association between the digital skills of library staff and the delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria. Specifically, the study:
• Examined the association between health information literacy of library staff and delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria;
• Ascertained the association between agricultural information literacy of library staff and delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria;
• Investigated the association between business information literacy of library staff and delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria;
• Assessed the association between media literacy of library staff and delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria; and
• Determined the association between digital literacy of library staff and delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria.
• Research Questions
The following research questions were answered in this study:
• What is the association between health information literacy of library staff and delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria?
• What is the association between agricultural information literacy of library staff and delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria?
• What is the association between business information literacy of library staff and delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria?
• What is the association between media literacy of library staff and delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria?
• What is the association between digital literacy of library staff and delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria?
• Statement of the Hypotheses
The following null hypotheses were tested at a .05 level of significance.
HO1: A significant relationship does not exist between health information literacy of library staff and delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria
HO2: Significant relationship does not exist between agricultural information literacy of library staff and delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria
HO3: There is no significant relationship between business information literacy of library staff and delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria
HO4: Significant relationship does not exist between media literacy of library staff and delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria
HO5: There is no significant relationship between digital literacy of library staff and delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria
• Significance of the Study
The finding of this study shall be directly beneficial to different categories of individuals in different ways. Such individuals include academic library heads and managers, academic library staff, researchers, students, research designers, policymakers, information system developers, academicians, and the general public.
Evidentially, understanding the digital skills of academic library staff is vital for the effective and efficient management of academic libraries. This study will, therefore, serve as a wake-up call to academic library heads and managers, especially, University, Polytechnic, and College Librarians (Heads of Academic Libraries) who are saddled with the responsibility of assigning duties to library staff. This is because the study will expose these library heads to some digital skills of the staff under their supervision, which will enable them to work effectively as well as understand the challenges facing the acquisition of these literacy skills for improvement.
It is also believed that this study will equip library staff in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria and beyond, on the means of acquiring digital skills and how to apply such skills in the course of delivering their services. In like manner, researchers, especially, those in the field of library and information science and other related disciplines will benefit as the study will reveal areas where they could venture into, for the furtherance of research and addition to new knowledge.
To students, this study will further enlighten them on the issue of digital skills and the delivery of services in libraries. It is also hoped that the recommendations made from this study will be significant to policymakers, information system developers, and the academician. This is because, the study will create awareness among policymakers, about the information literacy requirements and problems that library staff face in the course of acquiring these skills. This may help them to come up with policies, which will develop and promote the library in tertiary institutions. Furthermore, information systems developers are not left out as they will, through this study, understand the digital skills and capabilities of the library staff and the librarianship profession as a whole.
Nonetheless, it is hoped that with the research findings available and the recommendations made, the academic library designers will be able to design systems that will be appropriate and user-friendly to library staff. Conclusively, the result of this research will serve as a reference source for researchers, students and academic staff who are researching similar topics. Besides, the research results will add to knowledge and already existing literature on digital skills and library services delivery.
• Scope of the Study
This study covered Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. This is because specific attention was paid to those academic libraries found in the State. These libraries include the College of Agriculture Library, Jalingo; College of Education Library, Zing; College of Health Science and Technology Library, Takum; College of Nursing and Midwifery Library, Jalingo; Danbaba Danfulani Suntai Library, Akwa Ibom State University, Jalingo; Federal Polytechnic Library, Bali; and Muwanshat College of Health Science and Technology Library, Jalingo. Others include Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed Library, Federal University, Wukari; Rufkatu Asibi Kuru Danjuma Library, Kwararafa University, Wukari; Peacock College of Education Library, Jalingo; and Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic Library, Suntai. The choice of these libraries is due to the nature of the study which focused on the Akwa Ibom State University Library.
This study further examined the digital skills of library staff and delivery of services in Akwa Ibom State University Library, Nigeria. The digital skills, which is the independent variable were delimited to health information literacy, agricultural information literacy, business information literacy, media literacy, and digital literacy, while the delivery of services constitute the dependent variable. The association between these information literacy skills (independent variable) of library staff and delivery of services (dependent variable) in Akwa Ibom State University Library was studied.
The instrument for data collection was limited to a questionnaire while the staff of the libraries studied served as respondents for the study. Inferential statistics were adopted in answering the research questions and hypotheses testing. Furthermore, the study is expected to be effective from 2021 when it started to the present day of its effectiveness.
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