Effect of Library Automation on Performance of Librarians in Private Universities in South-West Nigeria

Joseph Adeniyi Kolawole ,Dolapo Peter Olagoke

doi:10.7176/ikm/9-5-01

Abstract

This study focuses on effect of library automation on the performance of librarians in South-West, Nigeria. The survey research design was used. The population of the study was 349 librarians from 22 private university libraries in South-West Nigeria. 272 copies of the questionnaire were returned giving a return rate of 80.1%. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. Findings revealed that out of the six library services identified in this study, five were fully automated and 90% of the private university libraries have automated their services. From the findings, librarians’ performance had been increased by 70% as a result of automated library in private universities in South West Nigeria. The study showed that there was significant and positive relationship between library automation and librarians’ performance in private university libraries (r =.372, p<.01). This study concluded that most private university libraries in South-West Nigeria were fully automated which allowed librarians to increase the quality of services rendered. Library service automation contribute greatly to librarians performance in private universities in South-West Nigeria. This study recommended that university library managers need to further enlighten both the library staff and library users on the importance of library automation by organizing workshops, seminars and conferences in order to meet the current information needs of users. Keywords : Library automation, Librarians, Librarians’ performance and Private universities DOI : 10.7176/IKM/9-5-01 Publication date :May 31 st 2019

Highlights

Academic libraries are institutions that are established to take care of the information need of students, lecturers, researchers and other community of scholars
Lack of library automation has adverse effect on the quality of service delivery of the library which affects their performance. This is the reason why this study investigated the effect of library automation on performance of Librarians in private universities in South-West, Nigeria
The result shows that more than 90.5% of the respondents claimed that library automation has increased quality of library work (90.4%), made the location and description of library materials easier (90.4%), increased number of library users (90.4%), made record and materials update easier

Summary

Introduction

Academic libraries are institutions that are established to take care of the information need of students, lecturers, researchers and other community of scholars. Sudhamani (2010), supporting the above enumerated the following as the relevance of library automation It improves the quality, speed and effectiveness of service; improves access to remote users; facilitates wider dissemination of information products and services, facilitates resource sharing among librarians, enables rapid communication with other librarians, improves the management of physical and financial resources and facilitates generation of reports for better decision making and effective management of the library. It improves accuracy in all facets of the acquisition process It creates accurate and timely financial data recording, accounting and reporting, improved ability to track orders, receipts, invoice and claims, integration of acquisition with cataloguing and serial control for more effective bibliographic holdings, provide necessary management information reports and improved services to the users through faster, timelier processing of orders and receipts. Serials processing control comprises of acquisition, claims controls, cataloguing, circulation, binding, weeding etc. (Vyasamoorthy, 2007)

Conceptual Model Library Automation

Lack of technical support from vendor

Findings

Test of Hypothesis