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This paper examines the University of Botswana’s efforts at implementing e‐learning and transforming the University of Botswana Library (UBL) into a learning resource centre (LRC), with the assistance of the US Government’s education, democracy and development initiative (EDDI) project. The paper informs that the project is on course, with the Centre for Academic Development having run demonstrations on “smart classroom”, “WebCT”; “high impact WebCT” and redesigned a lecture room into a fully functioning e‐learning room. Enumerates the EDDI consultants’ recommendations on how to effectively transform UBL into a LRC. Concludes that commitment and the political will on the part of all stakeholders is germane to the success of this new vision of student‐centred approach to teaching, and the LRC approach to information services support.

The Library of Congress (LC) compact disc machine‐readable catalogue (CD‐MARC) was recently acquired by the Kenneth Dike Library, University of Ibadan. Its use by the cataloguing librarians was evaluated in terms of efficiency (effect on cataloguing lime) and effectiveness (effect on monthly output) when compared with using other information sources such as microfiches, cataloguing‐in‐publication (CIP) data and printed sources — LC subject headings, LC National Union Catalogue, LC monographic series, etc. The positive influence of the new technology was evident as there were reductions in cataloguing time and increases in monthly output of items catalogued.

Inconsistency and/or a lack of a clear understanding of the criteria for serial selection and evaluation have been observed to characterise the presentation of requests for approval of serials at the University of Botswana Library (UBL). This, on a number of occasions, has made decision taking difficult and sometimes inconclusive. The paper provides a case study of the examination of guidelines in use in other academic libraries. It also describes the process and procedure currently in use at the UBL. The study identified some anomalies and suggests modifications to ensure consistency in the presentation of submissions to guide better decision making by the Serials Selection Committee of the Library.

The purpose of this paper is an audit of information technology (IT) skills set of librarians in some Nigerian university libraries with the aim of examining their relevance and adequacy to the digital environment. Nigerian universities as knowledge creators and their libraries as gatekeepers of knowledge are rapidly witnessing the introduction of various IT. One of the challenges facing IT/digital library projects in Nigeria has been the readiness of the university libraries in terms of knowledge and skills to implement the digital and electronic library services.

This paper used the survey approach. The sampling technique for the selection of the universities was stratified and for the librarians (respondents), census. The sampling frame was the approved list of universities released by the National Universities Commission as of the time of this study. The data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.

The findings of this paper revealed that many of the respondents do have knowledge and skills of email use and word processing tasks but lack knowledge of search engines and directories other than Google and Yahoo, respectively. Many of them do not know how to evaluate and catalogue e-resources; have no knowledge of subject gateways, specialised databases and some open-access library databases; have no knowledge of database management; are not skilled in Web design; and are equally not familiar with Web design applications.

The study recommends management support for IT skills training and/or continuous professional development to improve the librarians. Librarians are also challenged and encouraged to explore the range of training resources available over the Internet for self-development.

This paper aims to examine and discuss the crucial roles libraries play in e‐learning; the challenges and opportunities facing the e‐learning program and the library's involvement.

To elicit the necessary information, a literature review of studies done on e‐learning and libraries was done. Materials were sourced online and offline to build the literature of this work. The paper gives an overview of e‐learning and types; benefits of e‐learning; the infancy stage of e‐learning, libraries, and e‐learning technologies; starting points for libraries and e‐learning and challenges facing e‐learning.

A lot of challenges are facing the successful implementation of e‐learning in institutions and also the role of libraries in enhancing e‐learning needs a lot of issues to be addressed as library's involvement in e‐learning is found to be very crucial.

This paper establishes that libraries are the heart of institutions and so, are meant to play a vital role in the learning activities, as well as support all kinds of learning which includes e‐learning. There is also need for librarians to be trained in adopting e‐learning technologies and collaborating with faculties and departments in tutoring the learners.

The study possesses two characteristics that make it different from other studies in the related area. First of all, it provides a theoretical basis for librarians to be actively involved in e‐learning as it listed some responsibilities of the library and librarians in executing e‐learning programmes. Secondly, the paper proposes six laws (Sm²U²L) to govern e‐learning and libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to assess digital literacy skills possessed by library and information professionals working in university libraries in Africa.

Online questionnaire was developed to collect data from 214 librarians working in various university libraries in English-speaking countries in Africa.

The study found that librarians working in university libraries in Africa rated their database search skills, uploading documents to online platforms, skills in using different social media, sending and receiving e-mails skill, digital library development skills, skills in applying new technologies into library services, ability to create different file formats and ability to use open source software as very high. While, metadata development skills, and library website development skills were rated to be moderate and low. Overall, the librarians rated their level of digital literacy skills possessed to be moderate, and differences emerged between librarians in Nigeria and South Africa with regard to digital literacy skills possessed.

This study attempts to identify skills that are central to librarians working in university libraries. The study will be useful for trainers who want to arrange training for academic librarians in Africa and other developing countries. For some library schools, it may help them to review their curriculum in accordance with the required skills and competencies for academic librarians in the market.

Findings will be helpful to explore the skills and competencies needed by information professionals and to act as a guideline for competency development and curriculum update in library schools in developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to find out the perception of university librarians about the current and required competencies and to identify the current rank and to point out the benchmark for competencies of library professionals at public universities in Pakistan.

Quantitative research design is used for the conduct of the current study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The Special Libraries Association instrument “Competencies for Information Professionals of the 21st Century” was used to design the questionnaire. A paired sample t-test is used to establish whether there is any noteworthy distinction between the current and required levels of skills. Inferential statistic was also used and independent sample t-test and ANOVA was used to identify the difference in perception on the basis of different demographic variables.

There is a significant gap between the perceptions of university librarians about their present skills and required skills. The present level of skills is lower than the desired level of competence. There is no significant relationship between the length of job (i.e. experience), grade and skills of academic librarians. But in the case of gender, male have a higher score on the current level of competencies while female have a higher score on the required level of skills.

The findings of this study are helpful for universities in the recruitment, management and training of their librarians on the basis of required skills. Furthermore, it will be useful for librarians in their career planning and continuing education and library schools to revise their curriculum in accordance with needs.