ICT SKILLS, SOCIAL MEDIA USE AND SERVICE DELIVERY BY LIBRARIANS IN FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTH-WEST, NIGERIA 

ABSTRACT

Service delivery is the primary function of any university library. The cumbersome nature and the inadequacies of traditional library services have prompted university libraries to adopt social media in library service delivery. Observations have shown that globally, many university libraries have embraced the use of social media in their library services. However, the pace of integrating the use of social media in library by librarians in Nigerian University libraries is slow. Could this low usage be attributed to lack of ICT skills to incorporate social media use?  Therefore, this study investigated the influence of ICT skills and social media use on library service delivery by librarians in the Federal Universities in South-West, Nigeria.

The survey research design was adopted for the study. The population was made up of 126 librarians from Federal Universities in South-West, Nigeria. Total enumeration sampling technique was used to cover all the librarians from five out of the six Federal Universities. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire. The Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient for ICT skills was 0.93, Social media was 0.83 and library service delivery was 0.73. A response rate of 95.4% was obtained. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.  Findings showed that librarians were skilled in ICT. It was also shown that the extent of use of social media tools for library services was generally low. Findings also revealed that the most popular social media tool used was Facebook, followed by WhatsApp, You-tube and Instant Message (IM). It was also revealed that librarians made a very low use of Pintrest, Flickr and Podcast. Erratic power supply, poor internet access, and inadequate ICT facilities were some of the constraints in the use of social media. Significant relationships between ICT skills and library services (r = 0.677, p < .05) and Social media and Library services (r = 0.415, p < .05) were found. The two variables jointly influenced librarians’ library services which accounted for 98% variance in the dependent variable (R² = .98, F _(1,56) = 56, p < .05). It was found that ICT Skills positively influenced Library services (β = .256) as well as Social Media Use (β = .163)

The study concluded that majority of the librarians were skilled in nearly all the ICT skills. However, the use of Social Media by librarians in library services proved to be very low. The study recommended that awareness in the use of social media should be created for effective library services. Also, the library management in conjunction with the management of these Universities should create an enabling environment for the training of librarians on web technology (Web. 2.0), provide adequate internet access points and tackle erratic power supply. These could motivate the librarians in using social media tools which, in turn, would lead to the enhancement of library services.

Keywords:  ICT skills, Social media use, Library services, Librarians, Federal universities