Soft skills and information literacy as determinants of quality reference service delivery among school librarians in FCT, Abuja

Abstract

The paper assessed the influence of Soft skills and Information literacy skill of school librarians as determinants of quality Reference service delivery in secondary schools of FCT, Abuja. The population of the study comprised school librarians in FCT while the sample comprised 20 school librarians in Gwagwalada and kwali Area Councils of FCT. 20 school librarians were purposively selected from 20 schools that have school libraries and librarians. The schools comprise 5 private and 5 government schools from each area council surveyed. Data for the study was gathered with a research instrument developed by the researcher. The instrument was validated by two experts from the fields of librarianship and measurement and evaluation and trial tested with four librarians that were not part of the original study. The test yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.83 which was considered okay for the study. Data collected from the study was analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency count, percentages and Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient (r) Findings revealed reveal awareness and acquisition of soft skills and information literacy by school librarians, availability of enough hard copies but
low e-resources and a positive significant relationship between soft skill, information literacy and quality reference service. It is recommended that IL and SK should be included in school library curriculum, acquisition of online resources, adequate budgetary allocation among others.