Institutional Factors as Precursors of Consortium Building Readiness among University Libraries in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

In many countries, especially developing ones like Nigeria, university libraries face tremendous challenges in meeting the needs of the ever-growing world of knowledge and information, particularly the demands of their users. These challenges result from diminishing budgets and the galloping cost of subscriptions to periodicals, purchasing materials, and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools, and they have warranted the need for building consortia among university libraries as an approach to address the foregoing problems. University libraries must, therefore, be ready for consortium building by providing institutional factors within them. The study investigated institutional factors as precursors of consortium building readiness among university libraries in Southwestern Nigeria. It adopted the survey design of the correlational type. Total enumeration was used to sample all 643 library personnel in the 45 university libraries in Southwestern Nigeria. The library staff sampled possess at least a diploma or degree in Library and Information Science, even a PhD. There are 45 universities located in Southwestern Nigeria. 549 copies of the questionnaire were returned and used for the study, giving a response rate of 85.4 per cent. The self-constructed questionnaire and interview schedule validated and tested on 30 library personnel at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria, were used for data collection. The data was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively using descriptive and inferential statistics, correlation, and regression analysis. Findings revealed that organisational culture (=3.20; std dev. =0.66) was the most prevalent institutional factor for consortium building. It was followed by ICT literacy skills (=3.18; std dev. =0.64), electricity (=3.16; std dev. =0.73), automation/digitisation (=3.09; std dev. =3.95), training (=2.91; std dev. =0.83), Internet connection (=2.90; std dev. =0.78), finance (=2.89; std dev. =0.81), and organisational policy (formal written document) (=2.79; std dev. =0.81). The findings also reveal that institutional factors altogether (r = .508; p<0.05) have a significant positive relationship with consortium building readiness among university libraries in Southwestern Nigeria. Institutional factors aid consortium building readiness among university libraries in Southwestern Nigeria. The study recommends that university libraries must provide institutional factors to show their readiness for consortium building.