Librarians’ Awareness, ICT Skills and Marketing of University Library Services in the 21st Century in Delta State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined librarians’ awareness, ICT skills and marketing of academic library services in the 21st century in Delta State. It adopted the descriptive survey research design with a population of 112, comprising all librarians in the university libraries in Delta State using the total enumeration sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used as the instrument to gather data of which only 87 were completed and found usable, giving a 78% response rate. The data generated were analyzed using simple percentages, frequency counts and weighted mean. The findings revealed among others that university libraries market mostly reprographic, serials, e-library, reference, circulation, current awareness, technical, selective dissemination of information and webliography services. It identified the use of library websites and social media such as WhatsApp, Facebook, X, Instagram, etc. as the major marketing strategies. Librarians in university libraries are aware of marketing library services to a high level. They also possess  ICT skills such as Microsoft Office skills, information retrieval and social media skills for marketing library services to a large extent. Funding, inadequate technological infrastructure and lack of adequate support from management were identified as the major factors inhibiting effective marketing of library services. It recommended training on modern marketing strategies such as content creation tools and other digital technologies for librarians.