LIBRARIANS’ UTILIZATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN PROVISION OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN SOUTH-EAST, NIGERIA

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ABSTRACT


This work sought to provide answers on issues bothering on Librarians’ use of social media in the provision of library and information services in university libraries in South-East, Nigeria. Six specific objectives and six corresponding research questions guided the study which include to: identify the types of social media used by librarians in the provision of library and information services in these university libraries, investigate the extent to which librarians integrate them to provide library and information services in these libraries, among others. Six null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 significance level. The study reviewed related literature and was centred on three theoretical frameworks namely: The Diffusion of Innovation Theory, McLuhan Media Theory and Uses and Gratification Theory. Relevant empirical studies were reviewed and inferences drawn. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. It covered the South-Eastern states of Nigeria. The study has a population of 177. The entire population was used for the study adopting enumerative sampling technique. Social media university librarians’ use questionnaire (SMULUQ) was used as the data collection instrument, which was validated and tested for reliability. The data collected was scored using a 4-point rating. Data were analyzed using the mean (x) statistics to answer research questions and standard deviation to determine degree of responses. The hypotheses were tested using t—Test statistical tool at 0.05 level of significance. The study ascertained that Facebook, Whatsapp and Online professional group are the social media used by librarians to provide library and information services in university libraries in South-East Nigeria. Eight types of library and information services that librarians apply social media to provide library and information services include resource sharing and inter-library loan services, among others. Librarians in these university libraries, to a high extent, integrate three social media in the provision of library services. Uploading videos on Facebook, applying ethics in sharing information content, creating and managing Whatsapp groups for users, are the ICT skills they possess to effectively integrate social media to library and information services. Low bandwidth / slow internet connectivity, insufficient knowledge about social media platforms, non-existence of social media policy, were among the fourteen challenges librarians contend with in integrating social media to their services. Twelve strategies for effective integration of social media in the provision of library and information services were suggested to include increasing awareness on use of social media tools for library and information services, improving ICT skills of librarians, organizing of workshops on application of social media to library and information services, etc. Besides, there was no significant difference between the mean responses of librarians in federal and state-owned universities in South-East Nigeria on the various variables tested in provision of library and information services. The study recommends, among other things that University librarians and library managers should integrate the use of social media in providing library and information services in order to adequately meet the demands of library users in the 21st century.




TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page                                                                                            i

Declaration                                                                                          ii

Dedication                                                                                          iii

Certification                                                                                        iv

Acknowledgements                                                                            v

Table of Contents                                                                               vii

List of Tables                                                                                      x

Abstract                                                                                              xii

CHAPTER 1:            INTRODUCTION                                                               

1.1       Background to the Study                                                       1

1.2       Statement of the Problem                                                       4

1.3       Objectives of the Study                                                          6

1.4       Research Questions                                                                 6

1.5       Hypotheses                                                                             7

1.6       Significance of the Study                                                       8

1.7       Scope of the Study                                                                 10

CHAPTER 2:            LITERATURE REVIEW              

2.1       Conceptual Framework                                                           12

2.1.1    Social media use                                                                     12

2.1.2    Information utilization                                                            16

2.1.3    Role of university libraries                                                      18

2.1.4    Types of social media available to university libraries            20

2.1.5    Types of services rendered by university libraries                  21

2.1.6    Library and information services social media are…              24

2.1.7    Extent of integration of social media into library and…        25

2.1.8    Challenges to integration of social media into library…        27

2.1.9    Strategies for improving use of social media into…               28

2.2       Theoretical Framework                                                           30

2.2.1    The diffusion of innovation theory                                         30

2.2.2    Mcluhan’s media theory                                                         31

2.2.3    Uses and gratification theory                                                  32

2.3       Empirical Studies                                                                    33

2.4       Summary of Literature Review                                              44

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1       Design of the Study                                                                46

3.2       Area of the Study                                                                   46

3.3       Population of the Study                                                          63

3.4       Sample and Sampling Technique                                            63

3.5       Instrument for Data Collection                                               64

3.6       Validation of the Instrument                                                  64

3.7       Reliability of the Instrument                                                   65

3.8       Method of Data Collection                                                     66

3.9       Method of Data Analysis                                                       66

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION               

4.1       Results                                                                                    68

4.2       Major Findings of the Study                                                  81

4.3       Discussion of the Study                                                          83

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1       Summary of the Study                                                            91

5.2       Conclusion                                                                              97

5.3       Implications of the Study                                                       99

5.4       Recommendations                                                                  101

5.5       Limitations of the Study                                                         102

5.6       Suggestion for Further Study                                                 102

REFERENCES                                                                                103

APPENDICES                                                                                  114

 

 

 

 

 

LIST OF TABLES

4.1       Mean and standard deviation of the responses on

types of social media used by librarians                                                         55

4.2       t-test analysis of the mean ratings of responses on

 types of social media used by librarians                                                        56

4.3       Mean and standard deviation of the responses on types

of library and information services that librarians apply social media            57

4.4       t-test analysis of the mean ratings of responses on types of

library and information services librarians apply social media                        58

4.5       Mean and standard deviation of the responses on extent

to which librarians integrate social media                                                        59

4.6       t-test analysis of the mean ratings of responses on the extent

to which librarians are integrating social media                                              60

4.7       Mean and standard deviation of the responses on ICT

skills possessed by librarians to effectively integrate social media                 62

4.8       t-test analysis of the mean ratings of responses on ICT

skills possessed by librarians to effectively integrate social media                 63

4.9       Mean and standard deviation of the responses on challenges

librarians contend with in the course of integrating social media                   64

4.10     t-test analysis of the mean ratings of responses on

challenges librarians face in integrating social media                         65

4.11     Mean and standard deviation of the responses on

strategies for effective integration of social media                                         66

4.12     t-test analysis of the mean ratings of responses on

strategies for effective integration of social media                                         67

 

 


 

 

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION


1.1       Background to the Study

The 21st century evolution, technologies, and approach to knowledge creation and utilization have pushed libraries of various types across the globe to incorporate social media into the services offered. The library is drifting rapidly from as a physical location where people must visit to get information to a social information superhighway where users access, communicate and promote the frontiers of knowledge.

Social media are podia for interaction that are internet-based. While social media are user-created online contents designed and deployed for opinion, knowledge, and for sharing information among various people (Yahaya, Aliyu & Adamu, 2016), social media refer to any of the evolving tools that enable online interaction among people, groups and organizations. Apparently, the lists of social media are unending, but the platforms that are beneficial to librarians and library services are central to this study. Such platforms include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flicker, Blog, MySpace, Wikis, RSS feeds, Whatsapp, Podcast, The Library Thing, LinkedIn, Instagram, Online Professional Group, Slideshare (Alonge, 2012). Each of these platforms embody the typical features of a social media which, according to Olaniran (2014), are concept (art, information, or meme), media (physical, electronic, or verbal); and social interface (intimate, direct, social viral, electronic broadcast or syndication or print).

Even as social media are being used for diverse purposes (Lindsay, 2011), its usage in libraries and information centres are specifically for marketing, branding, building customer relationships, enhancing reference services, and disseminating of library news (Jain, 2013). Consequently, the traditional library walls are getting dismantled through social media services. No wonder the burgeoning call for libraries to be present on social media and, that, with a thoughtful meaning (Simeaton & Davis, 2014). Of course, no other meaning applies here than that of utilizing the social media to endorse library collections, render information services, and exploit new spaces. Hence, social media, which are increasingly changing the way people connect with and share information nowadays, is also making ways for libraries to effectively communicate and interact with their numerous users (Akporhonor & Olise, 2015). So far, everything about social media incorporation into library services has only proved advantageous to the librarianship (Ezeani & Igwesi, 2012; Parveen, 2011). For instance, studies in university library settings have shown that students who do not visit their institution’s physical library can be attracted to the same library through electronic information services configured on social media (Ayiah & Kumah, 2011; Dickson & Holley, 2010). While this draws implications for Nigerian university libraries, no one knows how far those in the Eastern part of Nigeria are applying social media to entice their user publics. Yet, the necessity of a university library in education, knowledge acquisition and scientific investigation cannot be overemphasized (Yahaya et al., 2016).  

University libraries are critical components of any university in the world. They are the fulcrum upon which any university academic and research activities revolve.  In Nigeria and elsewhere, university libraries are seen as sophisticated and highly developed information systems that inhabit a collection of information resources on all the knowledge areas pursued by a university (Nwosu, Okeke & Ejedafiru, 2013; Usman, 2015). They are organizations saddled with the responsibilities of assembling and consolidating knowledge for operative use, and for making available the services and infrastructure that support it (Ranganadham & Babu, 2012). University libraries, therefore, play a role in fulfilling the educational needs of both students and faculty. Without the university library, the educational process in the university is incomplete. University libraries help their host institutions to attain their main missions. And in Nigeria, the university libraries serve the entire university community (Nkamnebe, Udem & Nkamnebe, 2014). All the same, amidst the indispensability of an adequate library in a university to the university’s mission lies a worrisome concern, which is a concern on how acquainted librarians in Nigerian university libraries are with social media as well as how prepared and furnished they are to adopt social media oriented services, including the level librarians currently exploit social media to serve their user publics.

A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library, providing access to information and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users (United States Bureau of Labour Statistics, nd). A librarian is a person who is in charge of a library or who has been specially trained to work in a library (COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary nd). A librarian is a professional trained with a minimum of first degree certificate in Library and Information Science and other related fields or a first degree in another discipline and Masters in Library and Information Science degree (LRCN, 2019). He or she is expected to be certified by Librarians’ Registration Council of Nigeria (LRCN). Amidst this pre-requisite qualification, with the current technological advancement and the new media, he/she should be well informed and skilled to apply these new media to library and information services. 

In fact, most scholars agree that popular social media are important avenues for librarians to attract and render exceptional services to their patrons (Chitumbo & Chewe, 2015; Ezeani & Igwesi, 2012). The patrons are already familiar with and are immersed in this new found world of social media. Thus, promoting librarians adoption of social media to reach their varied user publics is appropriate. Imperatively, librarians must therefore know about the trending social media and become familiar with their use in other to utilize them effectively to serve the ever growing and sophisticated patrons. This is situation that is worth studying, especially as it pertains to South-Eastern Nigerian university librarians.

Meanwhile, the term, service, in this study, refers to performance of duties or work for another. Service provision is therefore the act of rendering services to library patrons. This conceptualization is synonymous with Umoh (2017) who outlines the services available in university libraries in Nigeria to include circulation services, reference services, current awareness services (CAS), selective dissemination of information services (SDI), reprographic services, technical services, and inter-library cooperation services, amongst others. With these arrays of services in university libraries, it would not be unscholarly to investigate the extent of use by librarians of these social media to carry out some of the outlined services to their publics. 

Already, some studies have shown how social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter are used to market library services and render reference services in libraries (Yahaya et al., 2016). However, preliminary inquiries revealed that seven out of the ten university libraries within the scope of this study are adopting social media to render library services to their patrons. Yet, anecdotal interactions with thirty nine students of the same institutions failed to corroborate the reports from the university libraries. As a matter of fact, the students are concerned that their university libraries are not visible on the social media. And, in thinking about the ever-increasing low patronage of students to university libraries, most of which seem to be dependent on students’ overwhelming preference for the internet as their source of information, the need for university libraries to move along the drift to social media is paramount, and rightly justifies the need for a study of this nature.

 

1.2       STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Social media usage is becoming a common phenomenon in many organizations (both profit and non-profit). It is being maximally explored by organizations to promote their products and services and also reach a wider spectrum of clients. Libraries like other organizations have started embracing and incorporating social media to its services.  Drawing from the university environment, the university libraries have variety of products and services for its users. However, it is worthy to note that majority of these users explore the social media in the digital environment to allay their varying needs for information. Resulting from this digital cross-over, should the library allow the users to migrate and thus be relegated to the background? Existing and potential library users should not be allowed to shift focus to allied and related information providing agencies and institutions. Libraries therefore, must inevitably embrace change that is being necessitated by the influx of technologies, especially social media platforms.

No doubt, social media, with its numerous benefits and potentials, can be applied to most activities carried out in libraries and information centres. However, as a matter of fact, the students are concerned that their university libraries are not visible on the social media. And, in thinking about the ever-increasing low patronage of students to university libraries, most of which seem to be dependent on students’ overwhelming preference for the internet as their source of information, the need for university libraries to move along the drift to social media is paramount. Evidence therefore, abound that the rise and popularity of social media has also posed some challenges that are demanding on the library science profession.

Pre-research observation of university libraries by the researcher revealed that South-Eastern, Nigeria University libraries are faced with the challenge of integrating social media into library service delivery which has not been empirically unraveled. This is assumed to have contributed to low patronage of users especially students to these libraries from the interaction had randomly with thirty-five (35) students each of five (5) of the institutions under study. This kindled the researcher’s curiosity to investigate empirically social media use by South-Eastern, Nigeria University libraries and the level they utilize these social media in providing their services.

 

1.3       OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This study sought to investigate librarians’ use of social media in providing library and information services in university libraries in South-East Nigeria. The specific objectives of this study were to:

1.      identify the types of social media used by librarians in the provision of library and information services in university libraries in South-East Nigeria;

2.      determine the types of library and information services that social media are applied by librarians in university libraries in South-East Nigeria;

3.      investigate the extent to which librarians integrate social media into provision of library and information services in university libraries in South-East Nigeria;

4.      find out if librarians possess the Information Communication Technology (ICT) skills required to effectively integrate social media into library and information services in university libraries in South-East Nigeria;

5.      determine the challenges that librarians in university libraries contend with in the course of integrating social media into library and information services delivery in South-East Nigeria; and

6.      suggest strategies for integrating social media effectively into the provision of library and information services in university libraries in South-East Nigeria.

 

1.4       RESEARCH QUESTIONS

            The following research questions were formulated to guide the study

1.      What are the types of social media used by librarians in the provision of library and information services in university libraries in South-East Nigeria?

2.      What types of library and information services do librarians apply social media in providing library and information services in university libraries in South-East Nigeria?

3.      To what extent do librarians integrate social media into the provision of library services in university libraries in South-East Nigeria?

4.      What are the ICT skills possessed by librarians to effectively integrate social media into library and information services in university libraries in South-East Nigeria?

5.      What challenges do librarians contend with in the course of integrating social media into library and information services in university libraries in South-East Nigeria?

6.      What are the strategies for effective integration of social media into the provision of library and information services in university libraries in South-East Nigeria?

 

1.5       HYPOTHESES

The following null hypotheses are formulated and were tested at 0.05 significance level:

Ho1: There is no significant difference between the mean responses of librarians in federal and state-owned universities in South-East Nigeria on the types of social media used by librarians in provision of library and information services in university libraries in South-East Nigeria.

Ho2: There is no significant difference between the mean responses of librarians in federal and state-owned universities on types of library and information services librarians apply social media in providing library and information services in university libraries in South-East Nigeria.

Ho3: There is no significant difference between the mean responses of librarians in federal-owned universities and state-owned universities in South-East Nigeria on the extent to which librarians are integrating social media for provision of library and information services.

Ho4: There is no significant difference between the mean responses of librarians in federal-owned universities and state-owned universities in South-East Nigeria on the skills required to effectively integrate social media into library and information services.

Ho5: There is no significant difference between the mean responses of the librarians in federal-owned universities and state-owned universities in South-East Nigeria on the challenges that librarians face in integrating social media into the provision of library and information services.

Ho6: There is no significant difference between the mean responses of librarians in federal and state-owned universities in South-East Nigeria on strategies for effective integration of social media in the provision of library and information services in university libraries in South-East Nigeria.

 

1.6       SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The following individuals and stakeholders would benefit from the findings of this study; they include library managers (Heads of libraries), librarians, users of university libraries and library educators in Nigeria, and researchers.

First, university librarians would benefit from this study as the findings would provide information on the status of social media tools in libraries, their relevance and the various services that social media could be applied to in libraries. In other words, it would help university library administrators to take practical steps that would help to reposition the library. It will bring to the forefront the necessity of incorporating social media to the services rendered by university libraries. This can be achieved by creating social media accounts for the library, create a social media unit to anchor these accounts and supervise library services provided on these platforms.

Through the findings of this study, libraries and information professionals in university libraries would appreciate the need to apply social media to library and information services provided. It would go a long way to stimulate the interest of librarians towards embracing social media and as well formulate viable social media policy. The study would help them to understand the nature of different types of social media and their areas of relevance to library and information services. Through the findings, university librarians would be able to appreciate and understand the social media that are adaptable and applicable to Nigerian university libraries. When this is known, the university library and information professional would make sure that he/she is skilled in the these social media especially the ones their library have active accounts on to be able to effectively render library and information services to patrons on these social media platforms.

For the users of the university libraries, the findings would provide library managers with information that would be used to improve the services offered to the users. In other words, the users are the end-beneficiaries of the application of the findings of this study. Through, the incorporation of social media into university library and information services, users may not need to physically visit the library at all times before meeting their information needs. All they need to do is to pay their school and relevant fees to be able to have adequate access to the ample resources available on the libraries website and social media platforms from the comfort of their hostels.

The results of the study would help to raise the consciousness of library educators in Nigeria to address and re-visit the curriculum to incorporate social media application to library and information services. This would provide librarians-in-training with the necessary social media skills needed as to fully apply them in the work environment. A committee should be set up to review the curriculum both at undergraduate and post graduate levels and incorporate courses theoretical and practical on social media, uses and benefits to research, library and information services. 

The study is significant because it highlights contemporary practices in the application of ICTs to library and information services delivery in academic libraries. Improvement in the application of social media to library and information services could lead to better patronage of university libraries. As mentioned earlier, creation of social media platforms for the library will improve the library’s visibility and patronage will invariably increase.

Furthermore, researchers would find the outcome of this work worthwhile, as it would add to the store of knowledge and provide platform for further study and discourse on the subject matter of social media.

 

1.7       SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study was conducted on libraries of public universities in the South-Eastern zone of Nigeria. The South-East covers Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States. The researcher focused on Federal-owned and State-owned university libraries within the zone. The South Eastern states are bounded on the west by Delta State, Rivers and Akwa Ibom States on the south, on the east by Cross-River State and Benue State on the north. The region occupies an estimated land mass of 29,525 square kilometers of Nigeria’s 923,768 square kilometers i.e. approximately 3.2% of the land mass of Nigeria (World Gazetteer, 2013).  

The study covered librarians because they are better positioned to give objective answers to the research questions. The research focuses on librarian’s utilization of social media in providing library and information services in university libraries in South-East, Nigeria and it covered the types of library and information services that social media can be applied to, extent to which social media are being applied to library and information services, the challenges to effective incorporation of social media into the providing of library and information services and strategies to effectively integrate social media in provision of library and information services.

 

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