Influence of personnel competence and communication skills on library information resources use by undergraduates in three university libraries in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The use of Information resources by students depend to a large extent on library personnel professional competence and communication skills. Anecdotal and empirical evidences have confirmed inadequate use of library information resources by undergraduates. This study therefore investigates the influence of personnel competence and communication skill on library information resources use by undergraduates in three university libraries in Oyo State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Population of the study comprised 23,268 undergraduates in three universities in Oyo State, Nigeria, namely: University of Ibadan, Lead City University and Ajayi Crowther University. Two stage sampling techniques (purposive sampling and proportionate to size) was used to select 225 undergraduates used in the study. Data was collected with the questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics of frequency table and percentage counts, while Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and regression analysis were used to test the research hypotheses. The findings revealed that personnel competence and communication skill have significant influence on university library information resources use by undergraduates. University library management should promote competence among their personnel through training and skills acquisitions programmes as well as encourage personnel to develop their personal communication skills to improve information resources use by students.