LIBRARY AUTOMATION, ELECTRONIC INFORMATION RESOURCES’ USE AND PERFORMANCE OF LIBRARIANS IN PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH-WEST NIGERIA

 ABSTRACT

Librarians’ performance is meeting information needs of users by providing quality services and resources. Library automation afford great chance for library personnel to get and use required information to enhance their effectiveness and efficiency. The use of electronic information resources assists librarians to meet the current level of users’ requirement for information and services which promotes the performance of librarians.  Librarians’ performance seems to be below the expectations of its users with the rate and current level by which users demand and want information. The aim of this study therefore, was to find out the extent to which library automation and electronic information resources’ use affected the performance of librarians in South-West, Nigeria.

The survey research design was used. The population of the study was 349 librarians from 22 private university libraries in South-West Nigeria. Total enumeration technique was employed. A self-constructed questionnaire titled “Library Automation, Electronic Information Resources’ Use and Performance of Librarians questionnaire” was used to collect data. 272 copies of the questionnaire were returned giving a return rate of 80.1%. The reliability coefficient for Library Automation was 0.76, Electronic Information Resources’ Use was 0.78 and Librarians’ performance was 0.81. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and multiple regression.

Findings revealed that out of the six library services identified in this study, five were fully automated and 90% of the private university libraries have automated their services. More than 90% of known electronic information resources like TEEAL, electronic journals, e-books, AGORA, social network, JSTOR, HINARI, AJOL, EBSCOHOST and OARE were available in the libraries. More than 60% of electronic information resources available were used by library personnel and users in various libraries. From the findings, librarians’ performance had been increased by 70% as a result of automated library and electronic information resources’ use in private universities in South West Nigeria. The study showed that there was significant and positive relationship between library automation and librarians’ performance in private university libraries (r =.372, p<.01). Electronic information resources’ use had significant and negative relationship with performance of librarians (r =.-126, p<.049). Library automation had greater contribution to performance of librarians (β = .391, p(.000)<.05) than electronic information resources’ use (β = .044, p(.505)>.05)

This study concluded that most private university libraries in South-West Nigeria were fully automated which allowed librarians to increase the quality of services rendered. Both the library service automation and electronic information resources’ use were determinant factors of library performance in private universities in South-West Nigeria. This study recommended that university library managers need to further enlighten both the library staff and library users on the importance of library automation and use of electronic information resources by organizing workshops, seminars and conferences in order to meet the current information needs of users.

 Keywords: Librarians’ performance, Electronic information resources, Electronic information resource’s use, Library automation, Librarians, Private universities