Social Media Platform as a Knowledge Management Tool: Nigerian Librarians Experience

Abstract

The purpose of the work was to investigate the use of Social media (SM) platform among Nigerian Librarians as a Knowledge management (KM) tool. The methodology employed for this work is descriptive research design using a self-developed questionnaire which is carefully compared with available literatures. 26 different tertiary institutions (Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, School of Nursing) covering four states in the south west Nigeria were used. Frequency count using tables, graph and charts were adopted for the analysis. From the analysis of the result, it was found that librarians have good background knowledge of SM but continuous professional development (CPD) attendance on it is just average and there seems to be more of personal interest by the librarians to learn about KM. The level of knowledge of SM as a KM tool is very high but the practice is just average, also the level of knowledge of usage of SM as KM tool is just average. On the issue of KM practices performed through SM, the sampled response is in-between. On the issue of Challenges: infrastructure, training knowledge and cost are the major ones faced by Nigerian librarians. Based on the findings, recommendations were made to improve the knowledge and skills about SM and KM together with how to use SM as a KM tool.