Essential competencies for effective information service delivery in Nigerian University libraries

Abstract

The new innovation in university library processes has brought a lot of changes on the roles and expectations of the information professionals. Information professionals are now to be more acquainted with competence of handling new technologies related to collection, processing and dissemination of information. Application of new technologies in the libraries require improvement of different kinds of skills and competencies to enable information professionals catch up with the technological advances and adopt the development to the library work for effective and efficient library and information service delivery. The paper aims to identify types of competencies required by librarians in university libraries and determine how competencies are acquired for effective information service delivery. Survey research method was adopted for this study. One hundred and thirty seven (137) librarians from three (3) university libraries were used as sample size for the study. Questionnaire was used for data collection. The data collected were presented and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study concluded that the vast changing university library environment demands that the librarians in Nigerian University Libraries must be someone with multi-skills to enhance effective and efficient library and information service delivery.