SOURCE:

Faculty: Education
Department: Library And Information Science

CONTRIBUTORS:

Aliyu, M.R;
Nwosu, O;

ABSTRACT:

The study investigated the status of ICT-based library consortium and determined the relationship that exists between librarians' ICT awareness, attitude, competence, library policy and the utilization of ICT-based library consortium in Universities Libraries in North Central, Nigeria. The study was guided by seven research purposes and research questions with six hypotheses. Related literature was reviewed under the conceptual framework, theoretical framework, theoretical studies and empirical studies and the study was anchored on Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DOT). The study adopted correlation research design, with a population of 210 respondents drawn from the area of the study which was the North Central Geo Political Zone of Nigeria and the zone is made up of six States with twelve public universities. The research used five points Likert scale Questionnaire, which was validated by three experts, two in Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, and one in the Faculty of Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The reliability of the instrument was established through internal consistency method of reliability. The reliability test conducted on 10 librarians at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka showed an overall co-efficient of internal consistency of r=0.96. The study adopted statistical mean and Pearson Product Moment Correlation to analyze the research questions and test the hypothesis, and findings of the study showed that there is significant relationship between librarians’ ICT awareness, attitude and competence and their utilization of ICT-based library consortium in the university libraries in North Central, Nigeria. Detail of the findings showed that the status of library consortium is positive with an overall mean score of X̄=4.27. A very strong positive relationship (r=0.61) exists between librarians’ ICT awareness and the utilization of library consortium, and the relationship between librarians’ attitude and the utilization of library consortium is a strong positive relation (r=0.48). While the relationship between librarian’s ICT competency and utilization of library consortium is a moderate positive relation (r=0.32), the relationship between library policy and librarians’ ICT awareness towards the utilization of library consortium is a very strong positive relation (r=0.68). Whereas the relationship between library policy and librarians’ attitude towards the utilization of ICT-based library consortium is a weak positive relation (r=0.26), the relationship between library policy and librarians’ ICT competence for the utilization of ICT-based library consortium is a very weak positive relation (r=0.15) and the six hypotheses tested were rejected. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that University Management should continue to promote activities that will strengthen librarians’ utilization of ICT-based library consortium in their library and to organize regular training for the librarian.