Social Networking Sites: Changing Roles, Skills and Use by Librarians in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the extent to which librarians use social networking sites (SNSs) and the level of skills possessed by librarians to effectively use these tools. A questionnaire was used to collect data on the skills and use of social networking sites by librarians in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The questionnaire was developed using SurveyMonkey and administered using an online method. The study revealed that Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Twitter, Skype and YouTube are the most popular SNSs used by the Librarians. Other social networking sites such as ‘Nigerian Library Association (NLA) online forum’ and ‘Research gate’ were also mentioned by the librarians. The study also revealed that marketing library services, sharing information about the library resources, and news about the library were indicated as the top reasons for using the SNSs by librarians in Nigeria. Librarians in Nigeria rated their skills such as interacting with friends and relatives, searching and navigating different SNSs, applying information ethically, and ability to evaluate information on SNSs to be higher than others. The librarians mentioned power failure, bad network/low bandwidth, lack of time and lack of interest by some librarians as the major challenges in using SNSs in Nigeria. This study offers insights for academic libraries to make informed decisions in applying social networking tools

Adopting the Social Media and Infopreneurship Skills for Overcoming the Unemployment Problems of University Graduates in Nigeria

Social media is currently changing the terrain in our day-to-day communication and interaction in our society and organizations. Currently, many library graduates are becoming “netizens” and digital natives who are no longer comfortable with the conventional traditional library education after graduation. In the same vein, there is this driving zeal of these new breed librarians to become job creators and no longer job seekers especially after graduation, hence, the need for adopting entrepreneurship stance such as the introduction of “Infopreneur” to their library education. This is because, joblessness has been on the increase for so many years. Library graduates are roaming the street jobless and many are found idle. This paper considers the adoption of social media and infopreneurship skills to be acquired by our graduating students so as to mitigate the unemployment problems of library graduates in Nigeria. The paper also explored several existing body of knowledge that can do this, highlighted ways of transforming library education to gainful employment. It further stated the ways in which social media and infopreneurship can be eventful in Nigeria and concluded that the Nigerian education planners should try to encourage and expand the social media and infopreneurship education in our universities to help the outcoming graduates to provide jobs for themselves and others

Social Media Mediated Library Services during Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic Lockdown: A Case of University of Zambia Library

Between March and May 2020, Zambia was under a COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Amidst this lockdown, libraries migrated most of their services online. This development resulted in an increased adoption of social media for delivering library services. However, little is known about the usefulness of social media for library service delivery at the University of Zambia during the lockdown. To address this gap, this study investigated how the library deployed social media to support the core business of its parent institution during the lockdown. Using a questionnaire, data was collected from 50 respondents. Quantitative data were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences while qualitative data were coded and analyzed thematically. Results show that WhatsApp (100%) was the most popular tool followed by Facebook (98%). This study makes noteworthy practical contributions and valuable information to inform future planning

Social Networking: Harnessing the Potentials for Information Dissemination in Nigeria

Social networking is a new form of information dissemination platform, using WWW, COM as its driver. It uses the social media site as an interface for sharing information and content like photos, video, messages and academic resources. This paper focuses on social networking and its potentials for information dissemination in Nigeria. It examines the various social networking sites and their relevance to individuals and university Libraries in sharing of personal information and library content. It explored the implication of social networking for libraries and the role of the librarian. The paper conclude that Social networking is a useful platform for information dissemination, but faced with challenges, such as lack of awareness, copyright issues, lack of training program on the use of social media site, bandwidth problem, technophobia and unreliable power supply, and recommended periodic training and awareness campaign to enable librarians and users take full advantage of the media for information dissemination. Keywords: Social networking, social media, media educatio

Library Users’ Attitudes toward Social Media Applications for Dissemination of Information in Selected Nigerian University Libraries

Social media is one of the most engaging communication tools of modern era. The use of the social media has permeated all aspect of human endeavour be it commerce, education, social, health and entertainment. Library as a social institution has adopted the use of the media to engage the clients and share information. However, the preliminary investigation conducted by the researcher indicated that the use of the media in the libraries has been confronted with different reactions among the clients. This study therefore explored users’ attitudes toward the use of social media applications for information dissemination in selected Nigerian university libraries (Kenneth Dike Library, University of Ibadan and Centre for Learning Resources, Covenant University). Descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentages as well as inferential statistics of correlation method were used to analyse the study data. The results showed that the most prominent social media used for service delivery in the two university libraries are Facebook, WhatsApp, Flickr, Youtube and Instant Messaging.The findings indicated that significant number of respondents have positive disposition to the use of social media for information dissemination owing to the fact that the media offer immediate, relevant and better communication on library resources and services. The need to sustain the use of the social media for dissemination of information and possible filter of irrelevant contents from the media were recommended

Assessing the Scholarly Communication Attitudes and Practices of Faculty: Lessons from a "Failed" Survey

INTRODUCTION This paper reports on a survey administered to faculty at Chapman University to assess their knowledge, attitudes, and practices with regard to scholarly communications, in order to help the new scholarly communications librarian plan appropriate library programs and services to meet faculty needs. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM The survey was adapted from the Institute on Scholarly Communications’ “Faculty Involvement in Scholarly Communications Opportunity Assessment Instrument” for a faculty audience in early fall 2013. It “failed” in that it faced long administrative delays and was met with a low response rate when finally published in December 2013. However, the responses received were enough to deduce general trends and gaps in faculty knowledge about scholarly communications, including a misunderstanding of the meaning of open access, misconceptions about its quality, concern with how publicly accessible research and data could be used by others, and a desire for information on how to manage, preserve, and share data. NEXT STEPS Both the survey results and the obstacles encountered in the survey’s administration provided important lessons in how to structure, market, and assess the impact of future scholarly communications discussions, such as those surrounding the university’s upcoming institutional repository. While the survey itself might have “failed,” these lessons can be applied to future endeavors in order to contribute to the long-term success of the faculty and the university as a whole

The use of social media technologies (SMTs) in the provision of library and information services in academic libraries of South-West, Nigeria.

Doctor of Philosophy in Information Studies. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2018.The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of Social Media Technologies (SMTs) in the provision of library and information services in academic libraries of South-West, Nigeria. This study is motivated by the fact that SMT adoption and use in academic libraries in Nigeria have not been embraced to a large extent in providing information services. The study adopted the post-positivist paradigm and a survey research design using structured questionnaires and semi-structured interview. The structured questionnaires were utilised to collect quantitative data from 107 academic librarians and 222 4th year Computer Science students, while the interview schedule was used to elicit qualitative data from 6 university librarians. Six universities were purposively selected, namely: University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, Ekiti State University, Lagos State University, Babcock University and Covenant University. Response rates of 96.8% and 83.2% for 4th year Computer Science students and academic librarians were achieved respectively. Findings revealed that the degree of awareness of SMT for each group of respondents in the study was the same. Conferencing tools, Chatting tools, Image and video sharing were the three major SMT technologies respondents were aware of in their day-to-day interaction with the libraries. The results also showed that the respondents were aware of all the listed SMTs in the study. Chatting tools such as Facebook messenger, Blackberry messenger, WhatsApp and Google Talk, MSN had the highest level of accessibility, hence its highest adoption; Blogging such as WordPress and Blogger had the least access suggesting they are the least adopted in all the libraries sampled. The study further revealed that majority of students accessed the Library Services offered through SMT from their classrooms or lecture theatres, while the minority accessed the services from Off-campus. The study further revealed that social networking, chatting tools and image and video sharing tools, were the first set of three most used SMTs by academic librarians in the surveyed universities. The aversion to the use of Podcast was evident in the high number of academic librarians (79.8%) who claimed they never used it regularly. One of the most revealing facts, about the frequency of usage, was the high percentage of respondents who claimed they never used Blogs, Microblogs, Collaborative tools, Podcast, Social tagging and bookmarking, Scheduling and meeting tools as frequently as possible. Majority of the students (66%) were of the view that as at the time of the study, their information needs in the surveyed university communities were not being met via SMT by academic librarians, while the remaining 34% believed otherwise. The intercorrelation matrices for both groups of respondents revealed that at p < .05, there were no multicollinearities between or among the variables of study. All the predictor variables in the study were found good enough to be part of the model in ascertaining the influence of the independent variables on the dependent variable. Moreover, the study showed there is a paradigm shift in library service delivery which negates the conventional method of service provision where clienteles accept whatever the library offers them. The study recommends the University Management and Library Management to work together in developing strategies of creating awareness about the different SMTs which can be harnessed for the provision of library and information services; and the formulation of policy to guide the adoption and use of SMT in the provision of library services in academic libraries of South-West Nigeria

Information behaviour of Nigerian undergraduates in the world of Web 2.0: The case of Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Delta State, Nigeria, a specialized university

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD (Library and Information Studies)The study investigated the information behaviour of Nigerian undergraduates with a focus on online media, especially Web 2.0. Nigeria has a laudable vision tagged Nigeria Vision 20:2020 (NV 20:2020), which is to be one of the top 20 knowledge economies by the year 2020. To achieve this grand feat, the nation requires a skilled population with 21st century graduate attributes who are information literate. That is, graduates who possess the competencies and high capabilities to effectively use and disseminate information for optimum service delivery in this epoch of information proliferation and technologies that are yet evolving. To ascertain the preparedness of Nigeria for the laudable Vision 20:2020, the research work investigated the information behaviour of Nigerian undergraduates using a specialized university, the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, as the case study site. The university was established in 2007 to meet the demands of the petroleum industry which is the largest in Nigerian in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)