Cataloger mentoring a survey of catalogers’ perception on mentoring for skills development in academic libraries in Nigeria: An exploratory study

Abstract

Library services in the digital age have become user self-explorations while the geometrical growth in information resources continues to task bibliographic control, especially catalogers whose task is not only to provide efficient, and effective bibliographic control, but in addition timely access to all resources. However, the Catalogers’ skills, knowledge and strength continued to dwindle in past decades; this has generated concern to the profession worldwide. Decline in education, unsatisfactory learning/training infrastructure and lowly attitude to cataloging courses by educators and students alike in Nigeria further eroded skill development and proficiency. Consequently, the catalogers are short of skills needed to perform their duties. This in turn may affect library services provisions. This study therefore, seeks to discern what catalogers across university libraries in Nigeria perceived of mentoring for skill development and critical role of mentoring for proficient cataloging skill. The study investigates 1) The state of mentoring in academic libraries of Nigerian Universities, 2) The perception of catalogers on mentoring for cataloging skill development. The research question is specifically directed at 1) What is the state of mentoring in academic libraries of Nigerian universities? a) Do Nigerian university libraries have mentoring programs for catalogers? b) What types of mentoring programs are available and how adequate and effective are the programs? 2) What is the perception of catalogers on mentoring? 3) What is the perception of catalogers on mentoring for cataloging skill development? The study adopted the descriptive survey method. With the use of a questionnaire, fifty catalogers were sampled from five Nigerian public university libraries in five of the six geopolitical zones of the country. The survey conducted in November/December, 2009 used a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire for data collection. From the total sample size, only 35 responses representing 70 percent were found useable for analysis. Findings revealed that the cataloger uses three types of mentoring programs Supervisory (81%), Situational (19%) and Group (13%) mentoring. Ninety-four percent (94%) of the respondents felt mentoring enhances their descriptive cataloging skills and their confidence in using work tools. While another 97% felt mentoring could be used for succession plans and as a stability factor in terms of changes. The catalogers perceived mentoring as a vital tool for skill development, considered it to have organizational benefits and agreed mentoring can be used to address the challenges of skill deficiency for improvement in the profession.