Search results

The aim of the paper is to investigate the achievements of librarians from the workshop on e‐library services organized by the Librarians' Registration Council of Nigeria (LRCN) in collaboration with The United States Mission, Nigeria.

In total, 35 librarians purposively selected from universities, colleges of education, and polytechnic libraries participated in the study, which adopted semi‐structured interviews.

It emerged that librarians who participated in the workshop have been exposed to skills in areas such as database searching, using different search engines, using social media, knowledge of relevant websites, and knowledge of planning for e‐libraries. The participants are of the opinion that a workshop of this kind should be organized at least twice a year to upgrade librarians' skills on e‐library services in Nigeria.

Library associations in other developing countries can also partner with professionals from developed countries to organize workshops and seminars like this to equip librarians with the necessary skills to render e‐library services effectively and also to train users to use e‐resources effectively.

The paper reports skills the librarians have been exposed to through the workshop on e‐library services. Acquiring such skills will enable them effectively to use e‐resources and also train users on different search strategies.

The aim of the paper is to examine the various information literacy (IL) practices in university libraries in Nigeria, to identify the likely barriers facing information literacy programmes in Nigeria, and to provide suggestions on how best to improve the IL practices.

Librarians from 36 university libraries participated in the survey which adopted an online method.

The study revealed that university libraries in Nigeria were found to be engaging in different information literacy (IL) practices ranging from library tour/orientations sessions to introductory information skills, database searching skills, bibliographic training and use of the library. Barriers such as lack of interest by students, teachers, and management, inadequate human resources to handle IL training, lack of facilities, low acceptance of online IL delivery approach and absence of IL policy were identified as factors militating against librarians' efforts when advocating and providing IL programmes in university libraries in Nigeria.

The study will inform librarians or library administrators in developing countries who want to train users on information literacy skills in order to facilitate full exploitation of information resources and services in their libraries.

The paper describes information literacy practices in university libraries in Nigeria. The findings may be of help to librarians who want to improve on their IL programmes in university libraries in Nigeria and other developing countries.

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether undergraduate students in the College of Health Sciences in Niger Delta University are information literate, and to determine whether they are aware of and use different information resources including electronic ones, and to assess their ability to evaluate information before use.

Questionnaire and interview methods were used to collect data from the students.

The students mostly rely on textbooks, medical journals, the internet, colleagues, and the Nigerian National University Commission's virtual library for information. They rarely use electronic resources such as MEDLINE, HINARI, the Cochrane Library, and EbscoHost. This could be because of a lack of awareness and skills necessary to search databases. Problems such as lack of time, the challenge of locating “good citable stuff”, inability to use effectively the medical library, and poor skills in information searching were mentioned. The study recommends that medical librarians and faculty should collaborate in integrating information literacy skills into the medical school curriculum.

This paper may help inform discussion about students' competences for locating, selecting, evaluating and using information essential for lifelong learning.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the state of information literacy (IL) education in library schools in Africa. Principally, to understand how prepared the library schools are to take the lead by integrating IL courses into their school curricula.

The survey was carried out in two parts: first, the researcher conducted a survey of web sites maintained by library schools in Africa to identify the IL course offered and also to analyze the course contents. That was followed by sending an e‐mail message containing three research questions to library and information science (LIS) faculty members to ascertain the availability of IL courses in their curricula.

Results from the study revealed that, presently, only a few library schools offer the course IL as a stand‐alone course in their curricula. Many library schools have not yet incorporated “IL” as a stand‐alone course in their LIS curricula, rather, it is briefly discussed as a topic in related courses. The reason being that the LIS departments lack the technological facilities and qualified personnel to teach the course “IL.” Although not all the library schools in Africa were examined due to language barrier, more than 60 library schools were investigated, among them 20 institutions were found offering IL courses or a related area.

The researcher could not examine all the library schools in Africa due to language barriers, as many of the African countries have French as their official language and others Portuguese.

The results from the study reported in this paper will provide important data and insight into the current state of IL education in African library schools, and generate suggestions for educators and policy makers developing and including “IL” as a stand‐alone course in the LIS curriculum.

The purpose of this study is to examine the standards, strategies, support and challenges of digital preservation in institutional repositories in academic libraries in Ghana.

The research was qualitative. Data used for analysis were drawn from interviews with respondents selected purposively from eight Ghanaian academic libraries.

A key finding of the study was that although the academic libraries had operational directions for digital preservation activities in the institutional repositories, available standards and practices for ensuring long-term preservation seem to be unsuitable.

Recommendations based on findings included development of comprehensive digital preservation policies to provide mandate and direction to preservation of the libraries digital collections, development of disaster plans, adequate funding, staff development and support from management.

The study has demonstrated the need for academic libraries in Ghana to have and develop good digital preservation standards for sustaining the institutional repositories to help in realizing its benefits.

This paper aims to present the results of a study which was carried out to find out whether the undergraduate students in the College of Health Sciences in Delta State University are aware of and fully utilize the medical databases and other online information resources within and outside the medical library.

A questionnaire and interview methods were used to elicit data from the students.

The results revealed that majority of the students are not aware and do not use the online information resources such as: MEDLINE, HINARI, CINAHL databases, NUC virtual library as sources of information to retrieve materials related to medical literature. This could be as a result of lack of training for information literacy skills and ineffective user education programmes in the medical libraries and medical schools to equip the medical students with necessary skills to use the medical databases and other online information resources. Problems such as lack of skills to use the online information resources, lack of time, poor user education programmes, and slowness of server were mentioned by the students as some factors militating against the effective use of online information resources.

The findings will be useful for medical librarians and faculty in highlighting the need to collaborate in integrating information literacy skills into the medical school curricula in developing countries. Paper type Research paper

Since 2004 the Niger Delta University Library has adopted a job rotation program to help solve manpower and skills acquisition problems. The study reported in this paper aimed to evaluate the Niger Delta University Library job rotation program, including the impact of the program on newly employed librarians and their job performance, and the university library.

The study has two parts. Firstly, the paper reports results from focus group interviews with Niger Delta University librarians who participated in the job rotation program. Secondly, an interview was conducted with the Niger Delta University librarian who adopted the job rotation program to elicit insights into the impact and challenges of the library job rotation program. The Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick four‐level evaluation framework was chosen to use as a framework for the evaluation of the responses.

The study revealed that the job rotation program is an important program for allowing librarians to acquire new skills, enhance staff productivity, develop new relationships across the university library and gain skills needed for future career advancement. The participants in the job rotation program who were interviewed showed a high level of satisfaction with the program.

The findings of this study will inform library administrators or management about the adoption of job rotation programs in their libraries. Many university libraries have problems with a lack of skills experienced by new librarians and also as a staff development tool in the workplace.

The paper calls for proactive effort by university libraries to adopt new strategies to enhance skills development for efficient productivity.

In this digital age, students and researchers are less and less dependent on physical libraries. Any university library without internet connectivity is simply cut‐off from the rest of the world. Because they cannot provide quality and timely services to its users, neither can they communicate or share knowledge with others globally. The purpose of this study is to investigate the availability of internet connectivity in university libraries in Nigeria, and to bring to limelight their readiness to render quality services and communicate with the rest of the world.

The study covered the 104 universities in Nigeria made up of federal, state, and private universities. Out of the number, 86 university libraries responded to the survey. E‐mail and telephone interview methods were used to elicit data from the university librarians and senior library personnel.

The study revealed that despite the laudable directives from the National University Commission (NUC), many university libraries in Nigeria are still operating without internet connectivity. They are mostly the state‐owned and private university libraries. This may be why many programs in the universities are either suffering from partial or no accreditation from the NUC Accreditation Team. Many of the university librarians and senior library personnel interviewed mentioned lack of fund, absence of technical staff to maintain the networks, and lack of maintenance culture as some of the factors hindering internet connectivity.

The paper will help decision makers plan for installation of internet facilities in their libraries.

The paper calls for proactive effort by the library administrators to lobby for fund and the technical staff to enable their libraries get connected to the rest of the world.

The main purpose of this paper is to bring to light the state of education in digital libraries (DLs) in library schools in Africa, and the readiness of library schools to produce future digital librarians in Africa.

The survey was carried out in two parts: first, a survey of web sites maintained by library schools was conducted to identify any DL course offered and also to analyze the course contents, followed by e‐mail messages containing three research questions to library and information science (LIS) faculty members to ascertain the availability of DL courses in the curriculum.

Results from the survey revealed that only a few library schools offer courses specifically related to DLs. Many library schools have not developed DL as a standalone course in their LIS curriculum; rather, it is briefly discussed as a topic in related courses. The reason for this is that the LIS departments lack the facilities and qualified personnel to teach a course on DL. More than 45 library schools were investigated, among them 20 institutions offering DL courses or related courses.

The results from the study presented in this paper will provide important data and insight into the current state of DL education in African library schools, and generate suggestions for educators and policy makers for developing and including “DLs” as a standalone course in the LIS curriculum.

This paper aims to investigate the level of awareness and use of Web 2.0 tools by librarians in university libraries in Africa.

A questionnaire was used to collect data from 140 librarians from 16 leading university libraries in Africa.

The study revealed that librarians in Africa are mostly familiar with Web 2.0 tools such as social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), blogs, instant messaging and wikis. It was also found that the most frequently used Web 2.0 tools by the librarians in university libraries in Africa are Facebook, instant messaging, blogs, Twitter and wikis. The study revealed that the librarians use the Web 2.0 tools for the purpose of announcing library news/events, online reference services, training resources, blogging and image and video sharing with users. Finally, lack of skills, power failure, lack of facilities such as computers with Internet access, lack of time and lack of interest were mentioned by the librarians as some of the challenges to using Web 2.0 tools.

These research results can also be consulted by interested librarians when they plan to make Web 2.0 applications in their libraries.

This study draws an overall picture of the Web 2.0 applications in university libraries in Africa and attempts to provide these libraries with helpful information to better understand how their colleagues elsewhere are utilizing Web 2.0 technologies in rendering library services.