Acquiring New Competencies Through Continuing Library Education Programmes for Academic Librarians in Nigeria

Abstract

Information technology has created a new information order that threatens the role of academic libraries and librarians as the main sources of information in their institutions. This threat arises from the fact that many Nigerian librarians fail to re–tool and re – train themselves in order to remain relevant in the new electronic information age. The paper described the impact of the World Wide Web (WWW) and highlighted the opportunities missed by some Nigerian librarians to rebrand themselves. The major findings were that in Nigeria’s days of economic prosperity, nothing was done to make libraries and librarians feel the impact of the new technology, that the 21st professional will continue to remain illiterate if he cannot learn, relearn and unlearn, that unless Nigerian librarians accept the challenge of the new technology and use it as a tool, Nigeria will continue to be information poor and remain as a developing country, and that continuing education programmes are not taken with the seriousness they deserve. The salient recommendations are that the Librarians (Registration etc) Council of Nigeria should, as a matter of urgency, specify core competencies to be acquired by all practicing librarians, that the Nigerian Library Association must take the issue of library continuing education seriously to enable librarians to retain their jobs and global job mobility and that Nigeria Library Schools should lead the way to provide training opportunities to practicing librarians KEYWORDS: Continuing Library Education Librarians - Professional Library Education – Nigeria