Perceived attitude and self-efficacy as correlates of librarians’ adoption of mobile apps in private university libraries in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Technological advancement in form of mobile applications (apps) has created diverse opportunities for virtually all human endeavour and professionals like librarians to provide services and carry out specific functions with ease. Nevertheless, observations and empirical studies have shown that the use of mobile apps among some librarians seems to be low. Imaginably, this observation may not be unconnected with perceived attitude and self-efficacy displayed towards mobile apps which could have effect on how they are put to use by librarians. So, the study examined perceived attitude and self-efficacy as predictors of librarians’ adoption of mobile apps. The descriptive research design of the correlational type and total enumeration technique which enabled the participation of all the twenty-five (25) librarians in all private universities in Oyo State, Nigeria were used for the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in analysing the reseach questions and hypotheses. Results show that communication apps, such as internet browsing and email 64%( x = 3.64) and multimedia apps, including graphics and presentation viewers 48%( x =3.44) were highly accessible and used among others. Findings show that; accessing current news updates 56%( x =3.56), document delivery services and financial transactions ( x =3.48) were the most outstanding purposes of adopting mobile apps among librarians. The study further reveals that there was no statistical significant relationship between perceived attitude and adoption of mobile apps by librarians (r=.237, n=25, p(.253)>.05). The study therefore concludes that The high level of adoption of mobile apps among librarians could be predicated upon their high level of self-efficacy even though their attitude had little or no effects. The study therefore recommends that librarians should be encouraged to access more of other categories of mobile apps so as to acquaint themselves with their functionalities and librarians should be encouraged to sustain a high level of adoption as much as current and future information service delivery will require.