Capacity Building on Librarians’ Use of Online Cataloguing and Application Software for Effective Innovative Services Delivery for Academic Libraries in Imo State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The current trends require librarians to be consistent with the professional development, skills enhancement and to be more sophisticated in the use of application software in innovative services delivery. This work investigated the perceived impact of capacity building on librarians’ use of online cataloguing and application software for effective innovative services delivery for academic libraries in Imo State, Nigeria. Two (2) research questions and two (2) hypotheses were formulated to guide the study within a selected university library in Imo State Nigeria. Library staff formed the population of the study and a well-structured rating scale titled CBLOCAAS was used as instrument for collection of data. Analytically, a modified Likert scale of four points rating scale was used. The rating scale was validated by experts and reliability study computed using Cronbach alpha statistics. A reliability coefficient of 0.71 was obtained showing that the instrument was internally consistent as indicated by the coefficient and was sufficient and adequate to justify the use of the structured instrument. Mean and Standard Deviation were used to answer the research questions, while t-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 Alpha level. The findings of the study revealed a high level of impact on capacity building on librarians’ use of online cataloguing and application software for effective innovative service delivery in higher institution Imo State. It was concluded that capacity building in academic libraries is very crucial especially when considering the imperativeness of effective innovative service delivery. The paper recommended that Librarians should be regularly engaged with short term training or internship programmes for library professionals.