Awareness of the expected skills sets and development requir

International Journal of Library and Information Science (IJLIS), ISSN: 2277 – 3533 (Print),
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION
ISSN: 2277 – 3584 (Online), Volume 2, Issue 2, July- December (2013) 2013, © IAEME

SCIENCE (IJLIS)

ISSN : 2277 – 3533 (Print)
ISSN : 2277 – 3584 (Online)

IJLIS

Volume 2, Issue 2, July- December (2013), pp. 26-38
© IAEME: www.iaeme.com/ijlis.html

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AWARENESS OF THE EXPECTED SKILLS SETS AND
DEVELOPMENT REQUIRED BY NEW ERA LIBRARIANS IN
ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN SOUTH EAST GEO-POLITICAL ZONE
OF NIGERIA
UGWUANYI CHIJIOKE FERDINAND,

EJIKEME ANTHONIA NWAMAKA

Nnamdi Azikiwe Library, University of Nigeria Nsukka

ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The paper tries to determine the extent to which academic librarians in South
East Nigeria are aware of the changing roles of new era librarians. Precisely, it identifies the
competencies/skills sets required and their development by the current information
professionals.
DESIGN/METHODOLOGY:
This is a research paper which identifies the
competencies/skills set, required and their development by the current information
professionals in creating and managing information and facilitation of their use in digital
environment. Questionnaires were distributed, collected and the result analyzed using
descriptive statistics.
FINDINGS: It was found that the level of awareness is very high due to the earlier adoption
of ICT. Various ways of acquiring these skills set include: on the job practice, assistance
from fellow professionals, and attendance to conferences, workshops, seminars, and joining
online professional group.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATION: Traditional librarians are disadvantaged by their work
environment in the present digital era. The paper proposes ways of updating their skills for
efficient and effective service delivery.
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ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The originality of the paper lies on the provision of insight into
the changing roles of academic librarians in the present digital era and their capacities and
ways of overcoming the adverse circumstances by moving from traditional roles to the new
roles.
INTRODUCTION
Librarians need some skills, knowledge and attitudes to survive and flourish in the
new era of librarianship. However, the competencies or skills available to Librarians in their
current and future job remain a problem to be solved. The information landscape is changing
and is requiring some skills different from the traditional skills of librarianship of acquisition,
organization, dissemination and preservation of library materials. Khoo (2011) noted that the
awareness of the competencies, the acquisition and application of these competences is
proportional to the talent, aptitude, personality and interest of the individual professional.
Competencies according to Griffiths and King (1993) comprise of knowledge, skill
and attitude related to effective behaviours and work performance. They stressed that
knowledge refers to having information about, knowing or understanding something, skill is
the ability to apply knowledge effectively and attitude refers to the individual’s interest
mental or emotional approach to something.
Khoo (2011) enumerated some of the skills need by library and information
professionals to include the following: traditional librarianship skills in acquisition
cataloguing, reference and information search skills and value added skills which includes,
research skills and skills in synthesizing and packaging information to support clients’ work
and decision-making. Transferable skills that are generic cut across disciplines especially
skill in communication management, leadership, teaching and training, and team work, as
well as the ability to emphasize with users and understand their information needs,
appropriate attitudes, values and personal training traits, especially those of users orientation
and service orientation, flexibility and willingness to handle a wide range of tasks,
adaptability and ability to handle change, continual learning and entrepreneurial attitude,
domain knowledge (subject knowledge) that are specific to the type of information they are
working in.
Library and information professionals in the present era should engage in “value
added ‘work. This can be done by evaluating, filtering, interacting, analyzing, summarize,
synthesizing and packaging into a form that is ready for immediate use by their clients for
decision making and other purposes instead of just identifying the source of information and
providing documents. Through this, they will move from information work to knowledge,
thereby having direct impact on their users’ work and the effectiveness and competitiveness
of their parent organization.
The new era librarians in public and private organizations may be called upon to
participate in a lead knowledge management projects and initiatives in their organizations.
Information professionals also need to be semi-professionals. They have to keep tracts of
developments in technology and new information products to assess them for use in their
libraries and to exploit them to improve their services. They also need sufficient IT
knowledge to supervise IT projects in their library and to draw up specifications for these
projects. These information professionals play the teachers roles and serve as IT trainers,
providing workshops and short courses on the use of new technologies and new information

27


products, and on interest and technology-oriented topics (Ashcroft, 2004 Braun, 2002,
musher 2001) .
They equally need transferable and soft skills, especially communication,
management, leadership, training and team work skills. Information professionals have to be
effective in oral written and electronic communication with users, colleagues and supervisor/
manager. They effectively promote and market their services, as well as promoting the value
of their services to the parent organization. A good interpersonal and networking skill is
necessary to interact with their users and collaborate effectively with their colleague. Social
and communication building skills are for information professionals ---both for building a
community of colleague, community of practice or special interest group) and communities
of users.
Behavioural traits are indispensable as employers keep emphasizing appropriate
attitudes and personal traits. Information professionals have to be user-oriented, servicesoriented, adaptable and the flexible, quick to pick up new skills, and have an entrepreneurial
or enterprising spirit.
For more service, information professionals are expected to have subject knowledge
and knowledge of the industry they are working in for easy navigation through the political
terrain of the parent organization. Khoo (2011) asserted that such a professional should have
industry awareness and the knowledge of industry trends, as well as the trends and political
undercurrents in the parent organization. He went further to say that this helps them to
understand their clients needs, interact and network with their clients more easily, and tailor
and promote their services to their clients more effectively.
The role and expectations of the librarians and information professionals have
changed over the years as a result of the introduction of ICT (information, communication
and technology). Hashim (2005) had the fear the librarians and information professionals
will be left behind if it still insists on the old role of the traditional librarians. He insisted that
some of the core skills can be adapted into the new global library environment such as
training and facilitating skills, evaluation skills and concern for the customers. All these are
embedded in cataloguing, classification, indexing enquiring work and user education.
Librarians and information professionals need to be aware of the new skills to change and
adapt to the new electronic environment.
As new roles and skills emerge, new era librarians are expected to be technology
application leaders who work with other members of the information management team.
Therefore, management and interpersonal skill (communication skills) will make them
effective manager of networks resources and services by managing the digital information
system, creation of web pages which helps to promote their services to internal customers and
choosing automated library management systems.
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
With the Current development in information communication technology generally
and the internet in particular there is need for librarians to move along with change. The
acquisition of the expected skills needed to operate in this digital environment of the present
academic libraries in Nigeria is indispensible. This is why librarians are said to be posed
with a lot of challenges which is bringing treat to the duties, services and relevance of
librarians in the digital age.

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Librarians of the 21st Century are expected to have all that will help in the redefinition
of what library and its services ought to be in this era, as this is rapidly evolving into
something that look quite different from what it was a few years ago. This seems like a
herculean task as Librarians cannot afford the technological wonders at their disposal because
the advances are made so quickly that new technologies and ideas come almost in succession.
Acquisition of these new skills are not one day affair, and due to the dynamic nature of the
information technology which requires a continuous update for the new era librarians to be
able to move with the trend of the digital age, unfortunately, the acquisition of these skills
cannot be made manifest when the management of Academic environment are not capable of
training and retraining of librarians to possess the skills and competencies expected of them
in the new era.
However the new trend in librarianship is in dire need of men and women in the
profession who are skilled in ICT operation. There is need for cross displinary knowledge
and skill to remain relevant and serve the present information users better. This is because
the new era librarians are not seen by the traditional or old librarians as people who have
come to bring change, rather they are seen as people who have come to disrupt their
seamless, dynamic, interactive job, therefore embracing the new idea is impossible.
In the light of this, the paper seeks to ascertain their awareness of the social changes
brought by ICT introduction to librarianship and how to adapt to the changes through skills
acquisition. Therefore, awareness of the skills and development of such skills among the new
era librarians is the crux of the study.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
In view of the stated problem, the paper tends to address the following issues:
1. Ascertain the extent of awareness of the emerging roles of the new era librarians.
2. Identify ways of facilitating the capacity building of the librarians in order to remain
relevant in this 21st century.
3. Identify the possible challenges likely to be encountered in achieving this manpower
development of academic librarians in this new era.
4. Find out various efforts that should be made to avert the challenges traditional librarians
encounter in acquiring the expected skill sets.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Librarians are working in a changing environment where technologies and
organizational approaches have changed the roles and functions of the library organization.
The big question are librarians aware of these emerging roles of the new era? which
involves the creation of databases, information system, digitization, creation of virtual
libraries metadata, and development of intranets, extranets and portals which will help them
in making a successful, relevant and dynamic profession in this change in paradigm. After
going through several literatures, it reveal that librarians in the new era are aware of the
emerging roles. According to Anil Kumar (2010) a librarian is a technology application
leader who works with other members of the information management team to design and
29


evaluate systems for information access that meet user need. To buttress this point,
Nageswara Rao and Babu (2001) mentioned various roles of librarians in digital
environment as search intermediary, facilitator, end-user trainer/educator, knowledge
manager/professional and website builder or publisher, interface designer, sifter of
information resources. They acknowledged that with these there are numerous opportunities
for librarians in digital environment, particularly in Internet and web environment in
providing information services easily timely and appropriately to the users.
Researchers are very much concerned over librarians of the new era, this is why Anil
Kumah (2010) went further to say that in the digital environment libraries and librarians are
needed more than ever before in other to make effective use of information that is available.
Librarians are very much aware that acquisition of knowledge and skills is very effective in
providing services that are expected of, from the clientele of the new environment. Skill in
information organization are more necessary in this age of information explosion. Librarians
and information professionals have a key role to play in this era. Librarians are well equipped
to take intranet projects through the various stage of design and maintenance as they
understand their users and their organizations information needs and have the range of skills
to manage knowledge effectively.
In preparing librarians to remain relevant in this 21st Century, the library school has a
role to play in this changing task. Hashim and Mukhtar (2005) pointed out that the faculty or
library school does not have much choice but to take account of the changes and development
while developing the program of studies and the curriculum. The curriculum has been geared
towards preparing students to become new era librarians and information professionals.
Gulati (2006) on this note acknowledged that regular LIS courses must focus on training on
IT applications in libraries. Continuing education will help to maintain job effectiveness in a
changing information environment and to meet the demands put upon them by the society.
Information professionals need to continue to learn, update and refresh their knowledge to
prevent the onset of professional alienation in performance and to adjust to the culture and
change prevalent in a new information environment (Odini ,2006). LIS professionals are to
be continuously exposed to new technologies, regular professional updating and greater
control over the information resources. Khoo (2011) in his conclusion advocates that the
library associations can help to organize conferences, continuing education programs, special
interest groups, listervs, forums (both real and virtual) and informal sharing sessions to help
professionals acquire needed competencies as well as obtain advice and assistance from
fellow professional to be effective professional in the new era.
One of these challenges is staff resistance to change.Senyah (2002) admits that many
members of staff in academic and research library tend to resist the introduction and use of
ICT’s because they have not been adequately trained to appreciate their usefulness in this
technological age. There is problem on what is to be taught Makara (2002) says, the library
association have no control on the skills that their human resources should acquire, there is
also limited opportunities. This is because training outside the country is very expensive than
training within the country. This is why there are limited number of people who are sent for
training at the same time, this may pose a problem in skills development.
To select the right ICT technologies is major management issue. It is very difficult in
a world where hardware and software changes at a phenomenal rate Hooper (2001).
Unreliable power supply is also an impediment in achieving the manpower goals of
the new era. Senyah (2002) laments that unannounced power cuts and fluctuations in supply
clearly undermine ICT management in the country.
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He went further to say that budgetary allocations of libraries suffer drastically in the
face of mounting costs of ICT equipment, training of staff. Senyah (2002 ) in his suggestion
believes that efficient and effective management of new technologies depends largely on
availability of skilled manpower and the level of literacy of the society. Therefore, academic
and research libraries must cooperate with other units of their institutions, particularly the
Computer Centres, to train personnel for ICT deployment.
Chiware (2007) believes that for African University libraries to make it in the digital
age, they must make sure that staff is adequately trained to initiate and manage the digital
resources. He further suggests that they should be addressed both through formal education in
library and information science programmes and as part of continuing education for staff.
Koo (2011) emphasized that library schools need to reconsider their curriculum and
teaching methods. Some generic skills, such as interpersonal skills, entrepreneurial skills and
leadership, and professional attitudes and personal traits are difficult to impact to students via
traditional lecture-based causes and exam-oriented learning. Group learning, project work,
open-ended learning, internships, seminar courses, e-learning etc., may be more effective.
Roggema Van Heusda (2004) reported a trend in LIS education towards
“Competence-oriented learning” which focuses not on acquiring factual knowledge but on
problem solving, responding to changing professional situations, teamwork and life-long
learning.
METHODOLOGY
Descriptive survey method was used to ascertain the opinion of the subjects on the
awareness of expected skill sets and development by new era librarians in academic libraries
in South East Nigeria. The population of the study consists of the academic librarians in four
federal governments owned universities in the South East of Nigeria. A structured
questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection. The number of the academic
librarians in the four universities is 88 out of which 74 subjects returned their questionnaire
giving a return rate of 84.09% considering the number of the librarians, there was no
sampling. Out of the 47 administered questionnaires to University of Nigeria (UNN) library
40 were returned; out of 24 questionnaires to Federal University of Technology Owerri
(FUTO), 22 were returned; 7 out of 9 were returned from Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka
(NAUA) and 5 were returned out of 8 distributed to Michael Okpara University Agriculture
Umudike (MOUA).
To facilitate the analysis of the responses, values were assigned to the responses, in a
four-point scale. A cut-off point of 2.5 was used to determine which of the items was
regarded as accepted or in agreement with the statement. Item on the questionnaire with a
score lower than 2.5 was regarded as not being accepted or not in agreement with the
statement in the questionnaire, while any item with a mean of 2.5 or above was regarded as
being accepted or in agreement with the statement in the questionnaire.

31


FINDINGS:
Table 1: mean responses on the extent of awareness of the emerging roles of the new era
librarians
S/n
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

Items
Creation of databases
Digitization
Creation of Virtual libraries
metadata
Development of intranets,
extranets and portals
Design of information
systems
Evaluation of information
systems
Search intermediary
Search facilitors
End-user trainer/educator
Knowledge
managers/professionals
Website builders or
publishers
Interface designers
Sifter of information
resources
Cluster mean

UNN
X
3.2
3.4
2.8

FUTO
X
3.2
3.1
2.5

NAUA
X
3.8
3.5
3.2

MOUA
X
2.4
1.8
2.2

A/m

DEC

3.2
3.0
2.7

Accept
Accept
Accept

3.0

2.5

3.1

2.6

2.8

Accept

2.6

2.8

3.2

2.0

2.7

Accept

2.7

2.9

3.2

2.4

2.8

Accept

2.7
2.8
3.0
3.1

2.7
3.0
2.8
3.0

3.0
3.0
3.4
3.4

2.8
2.6
2.6
2.2

2.8
2.9
3.0
2.9

Accept
Accept
Accept
Accept

2.6

2.5

3.1

2.2

2.6

Accept

2.4
2.5

2.2
2.2

3.7
3.4

1.8
2.2

2.5
2.6

Accept
Accept

2.8

2.7

3.3

2.3

Grand Accept
mean
2.8

Table 1 above shows that the items received a responses average of 3.1 and above
which is greater than the criterion mean of 2.5. It can then be deduced from the table that
most of the academic librarians are aware of the emerging roles of the new era librarians to a
very high extent and High extent. This shows that our society is information literate society
that is both information technology and media aware. The library and information
professionals (LIPs) are not equally left out. The individual cluster means and the grand mean
equally showed that most of the librarians in the universities have appreciable knowledge of
the current changes and the emerging roles of the librarians with the cluster means of 2.8 for
UNN, 2.7 for FUTO 3.3 for UNIZIK, with only MUAU having 2.3 which is below the
criterion mean of 2.5. However, the grand mean of 2.8 is above criterion mean

32


Table 2: mean responses on the ways of facilitating the capacity building of the librarians in
the 21st century
S/n

Items

UNN

X

X

X

X

1

Through training on IT
applications in libraries
Continuing education
Attending
conference/workshops
Involvement of special interest
group(both real and virtual)
Joining online-professional
forum
Through formal sharing
sessions such as blogs
Joining listerv
Formal education
Cluster mean

3.7

3.6

4.0

3.3
3.6

3.5
3.7

3.4

2
3
4
5
6
7
8

FUTO

NAUA

MOUA

A/m

DEC

4.0

3.8

Accept

4.0
3.8

3.8
3.6

3.7
3.7

Accept
Accept

3.1

3.5

3.2

3.3

Accept

3.4

3.5

3.4

3.2

3.4

Accept

3.3

3.1

3.1

3.4

3.2

Accept

3.1
3.4
3.4

3.1
3.5
3.4

2.5
3.8
3.5

3.4
3.5
3.5

3.0
3.6
Grand
mean
3.5

Accept
Accept
Accept

From table 2, it can be observed that all the items in the four universities have their
average mean rating from 3.0 and cluster mean of 3.4 for UNN, 3.4 for FUTO, 3.5 for
UNIZIK, 3.5 for MUAU and a grand mean of 3.5. This shows that all the universities agreed
with the statements on various ways of facilitating the capacity building of librarians in the
21st century.
Table 3: Mean responses on the perceived challenges to the acquisition of manpower
development by academic librarians in the new era
S/n

Items

UNN

X

X

X

X

1
2

Staff resistance to change
Lack of the knowledge of
what to teach
Limited opportunities on skill
acquisition
Selection of right ICT
technologies
Unreliable power supply
Mounting cost of ICT
equipment
High cost of training staff
Lack of ICT literacy
Constant change of software
and hardware
Cluster mean

2.4
3.1

2.1
2.1

3.5
3.4

3.4

2.8

3.3

3
4
5
6
7
8
9

FUTO

A/m

DEC

1.6
2.4

2.4
2.8

Accept
Accept

3.2

2.6

3.0

Accept

3.0

3.2

3.0

3.1

Accept

3.5
3.5

3.8
3.7

3.7
3.7

4.0
3.8

3.8
3.7

Accept
Accept

3.2
3.2
3.2

3.1
2.7
2.9

3.2
3,2
2.8

3.4
3.0
3.6

3.2
3.0
3.1

Accept
Accept
Accept

3.2

2.9

3.3

3.0

Grand
mean
3.1

Accept

33

NAUA

MOUA


The results in table 3 indicate the responses of academic librarians on the perceived
challenges to the acquisition of manpower developments by academic librarians in the new
era. From the table, it is revealed that the average mean rating for all items are greater than
the criterion mean of 2.5. The cluster mean of 3.2, 2.9, 3.3 and 3.0 with the grand mean of 3.1
indicate that the responses on the perceived challenges to the acquisition of manpower
developments are accepted.
Table 4: Mean responses on the strategies to avert the challenges faced by traditional
librarians in acquiring the expected skill sets
S/n

Items

UNN

X

X

X

1

Cooperation of academic 3.6
libraries
with
computer
centres for staff training on
ICT

3.7

3.7

4.0

3.8

Accept

2

Review of the curriculum and 3.5
teaching methods by the
library schools

3.5

3.7

3.6

3.6

Accept

3

A shift toward competence 3.3
oriented learning
The use of public awareness 3.3
platform such as newsletters,
website, poster, university fm
radio

3.4

3.5

2.8

3.3

Accept

3.2

3.4

2.8

3.2

Accept

Self-reliant training
3.3
Designing of specific training 2.5
program
ICT advocacy
3.4
Cluster mean
3.3

2.7
3.4

3.0
4.0

2.8
2.8

3.0
3.2

Accept
Accept

3.6
3.4

3.8
3.6

4.0
3.3

3.7
Grand
mean
3.4

Accept
Accept

X

4

5
6
7

FUTO

NAUA

MOUA

A/m

DEC

Table 4 revealed that the average rating for all the strategies to avert the challenges
faced by traditional librarians in acquiring the expected skll sets in the present environment
are all greater than the criterion mean value of 2-5.It can be inferred from the table that all the
items are necessary strategies to employ for the enhancement of the acquisition of the skill
sets by the academic librarians.
DISCUSSION
The result in table 1 revealed that all the items have their average mean rating from
2.5 to 3.2. It can be concluded that the librarians are aware of the emerging roles of the new
era librarians. This calls for the development of an agreed framework of skills for
professional practice to represent the existing and perceived needs of the employers of library
and information professionals. This is in line with the statements of Fisher (2004) that early
adoption and use of IT within information work, provides an excellent foundation to forge
new roles with strong emphasis on quality and accountability. Therefore, the perceived
34


awareness is related to the early adoption and use of Information and Communication
technology (ICT) within the information Work. Aligning this to diffusion of innovation
(DOI) theory of Everett Roger (1995) who theorized that innovations spread through society
based on access to knowledge. Gundu (2009), pointed out that individuals posses different
degree of willingness to adopt innovations from earliest to latest adoption. He went further to
note that diffusion research is focused on how the major elements of dissemination and
access to knowledge by individuals determines their awareness of the innovation or current
trend. In the same vein, it also indicates their degree of willingness to adopt innovation or the
new skills expected of them.
Dispersion related to facilitate or hinder embracing of new era products or practice
among social system of adopters explains the variation in acceptance and application of
emerging skills in library and information science due to the introduction of ICT.The
relevance of DOI to the variables of this study stems from the fact that expected skills
(emerging skills) are innovations necessary to remain relevant in this digital age. This study
tried to find out if the awareness of the expected or the new skills has implication to the
application of the skills by librarians
In recent times there has been tremendous developments in the information landscape
due to the information and communication technology. In other words, ICT has come as a
change agent evolving new skills for library and information professionals. Therefore, the
acceptance and development of these skills depends on the awareness created and received by
the new era librarians.
Diffusion and innovation are the two variables critical to this DOI theory of Everett
Rogger elucidated from well- established theories in sociology, psychology and mass
communication.In it, he developed a precise and comprehensive approach to consumer
acceptance of new era technologies. He pointed out that the dissemination of technology,
given its inevitable unanticipated, unintended and undesirable consequences, for some and
sometimes for all entails a strong commitment to ethical standards of professional practice.
He went on to define diffusion as a process of communication by which an innovation
is spread via certain communication channels to a specific community over time. The four
major facts of diffusion theory are innovation, communication channels, time and community
to which the innovation is introduced. Rogers (1995), emphasized that innovation is born out
of a problem arising and the realization that an innovation might provide a solution. He
noted that problem is a performance gap between the current and the expected performance
of an organization, individual or community. In this study, an innovation may not necessarily
be a new idea but may be also the continuation of an existing idea.
The emergency of new roles by the new era librarians as a result of ICT created a gap
between the current and the expected performance. This gap is a problem and it is the skill
sets required to give the expected performance in the digital library environment. Therefore,
the knowledge of the expected skills will help new era librarians to give maximum
performance in discharge of their duties as information professionals in the digital platform.
With regards to the ways of facilitating the capacity building of the librarians of the
st
21 century, the study revealed that all agreed that professional development among library
and information science professionals is indispensable as the new roles is less routine and
more innovations. Gundu (2009) stated that relative advantage is the degree to which an
innovation is perceived as being better than the preceding idea measured in economic terms,
social prestige, convenience and satisfaction.

35


The study established that there is an awareness of the new role as indicated by the
respondents. The perceived awareness is related to the early adoption and use of information
and communication technology ICT within the information work. The problem then remains
the acquisition of expected skills to perform these new roles.
The new roles and the attendant skill sets are welcomed by the respondents
irrespective of its complexity which is a degree to which an innovation is perceived as
difficult to understand and use. Therefore, there is a need for capacity building among
librarians to completely adopt the new roles by acquiring the necessary skills. With regards
to the ways of facilitating the capacity building of the librarians of the 21st century, the study
revealed that all agreed that professional development among LIPS is indispensable as the
new roles are less routine and more innovations. It is compactable with the culture of
librarianship (existing values, past experience, and needs of potential adopters. There are five
basic attributes of an innovation which affect its diffusion and adoption in society. These are
real advantage, compatibility complexity and observability of the innovation The implication
is that librarians and library and information professionals are to be encouraged through
target research and funding opportunity. This will in no doubt make them attend
conferences/Workshops, engage in continuing education (formal and informal), self
development. They should also be involved in training on ICT applications in libraries as
library is one of the highly ICT influenced service profession. This corresponds with what
Dhiman (2010) stated that empowerment of library and information professionals with IT
skills is aimed at providing services that are expected of, from the clientele in the new
environment.
The analysis of table 3 in respect of research question 3 indicates that all the items are
accepted as challenges to manpower development with the exception of staff resistance to
change which had a mean response of 2.4 which is below the criterion mean. All others are
above the criterion mean of 2.5. This implies that the librarians are open to change and not
resistance to it, though the other factors are limiting factors to their acquiring the emerging
skill sets. The implication is that more efforts should be geared towards encouraging the
librarians and information professionals to change by acquiring the new roles.
In line
with DOI, there is no resistance to change by the librarians due to earlier adoption of ICT.
However, lack of resources, ICT illiteracy and low economic status culminate to hinder skills
acquisition in line with DOI theory factor of time where there are early adopters, early
majority, late majority and the laggards. The early adopters and the early majority are those
that are not resistance to change while the late majority and the laggards are those who does
not readily acquire the skill sets due to lack of knowledge, ICT illiteracy, unreliable power
supply, high cost of ICT equipment and the cost of training. In line with DOI, there is no
resistance to change by the librarians due to earlier adoption of ICT.
It can be seen from examining table 4 that the average mean rating value for all the
items is more than the criterion mean of 2.5 suggesting that these strategies when applied
accordingly will solve the problem of non-acquisition of the perceived skill sets. As library is
one of the highly ICT influenced service profession, cooperation for staff training on ICT,
review of the library and information science curriculum to reflect the new roles, designing of
specific training programmer and ICT advocacy are regarded the most strategies to be
adopted as they tilt towards ICT. The result also suggests that public awareness platform
helps to sensitize the librarians on the emerging role of the librarians and the skill sets
required of them.
Social system is a factor in innovation according to DOI. Librarians are
social group operating a social system that engage in problem-solving to accomplish a
36


common goal of information acquisition, organization, preservation, retrieval and
dissemination. It engages in solving the problem of skill acquisition. Therefore, cooperation
for staff training, review of the curriculum by library schools towards competency-based
learning, publicity helps in encouraging continuous professional education programme by the
employer. This is immeasurably necessary to provide regularity and stability and be able to
predict others behaviors with some degree of accuracy.
The Nigerian Librarian Registration Council (NLRC) is a social structure in Nigeria
that regulates, and stabilizes the practices of librarians and predict others behavior with some
degree of accuracy. Continuous Professional Development is a structured approach to
learning to ensure competence to practice, taking in knowledge, skills and practical
experience. It includes formal, informal and self-directed means of acquisition.
RECOMMENDATIONS
•
•
•
•
•

•

Efforts should be made to accommodate known and perceived emerging roles in
modern professional practice.
There should be a development of an agreed framework of skills for professional
practice according to employers of Lips.
Collaborations, research publications and professional self development should been
encouraged among librarians through fund opportunities.
There should be total evaluation of library school curriculum to accommodate the
recent changes in information management and service delivery.
Academic librarians are advised to acquire skills and also understand their roles
within an organization if they are to meet the Challenges from knowledge managers
in the new era of ICT.
Skills development should not be only ICT skill acquisition but must include
knowledge management, project management, user focus and supports leadership
management and strategic thinking.

CONCLUSION
From the analysis and discussion of the findings, It can be said that librarians are
aware of the emerging roles of the new era librarians, that capacity building is a panacea to
professional development, that even though the academic librarians are not resistance to
change, their acquisition of the perceived skill sets is jeopardized by many other factors
including limited opportunities, lack of power supply, high cost of ICT equipment and staff
training , lack of ICT literacy and constant change of software and hardware. Various
strategies should be employed to facilitate skill development acquisition.
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