INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY COMPETENCIES NEEDED BY LIBRARIANS IN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN SOUTH-EASTERN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study is to identify the information communication technology competencies needed by librarians in federal university libraries in south – eastern Nigeria. This is achieved by examining the opinions of librarians on ICT competencies needed by them in their electronic environment. Five research questions were formulated to guide the study. 118 copies self administered questionnaires were distributed to the population of 104 librarians in the four federal university libraries used. Out of which 95 were retuned representing 80.5% of the copies distributed to respondents. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics were employed, such as: percentages and mean to answer the research questions. The result obtained from the findings revealed that: librarians still need some level of ICT competencies to cope in their ICT environment. That most of them already possess basic ICT competencies not enough to make them proactive in their new ICT environment. Problems such as lack of fund, lack of ICT facilities, constant change in ICT industry etc, may hinder librarians’ ICT competency acquisition.  Based on these research findings, the researcher made possible recommendations such as: The university libraries and their authorities should press for more found from government, seek for alternative sources of fund for ICT projects, continually organize ICT training programmes for librarians and themselves, map out ICT training policy, partner with ICT compliant libraries and urge government to provide solar back-ups in every university library in Nigeria.