Assessment of digital literacy skills of 21st century librarians in private university libraries in Anambra state (Published)
The purpose of this study was to assess digital literacy skills of 21st century librarians in private university libraries in Anambra State. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The area of the study was Anambra State located in the South East Geopolitical Region of Nigeria. The population of the study comprised all the 23 practicing librarians in the three private university libraries in Anambra State. The entire population was used because it was small and manageable. The questionnaire was the research instruments used for data collection. The instrument was validated by two experts from Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University library. Data collected was analyzed using mean scores. 2.50 was used as the benchmark. The major findings of the study includes that academic librarians in private universities in Anambra State possess digital literacy skills, the librarians sponsor themselves to training on digital literacy, they attend trainings twice a year and power failure and poor internet are the challenges librarians in private universities in Anambra State face. Based on the findings, the study recommends among others that academic librarians working in private universities in Anambra State should endeavor to acquire all the digital literacy skills required for perfect service delivery; the management of private university libraries in Anambra State should provide financial sponsorship to the academic librarians for digital literacy skill acquisition and professional development in general; librarians should attend trainings on digital literacy skills more often, standby power generating source and strong internet bandwidth should be provided for the libraries.
Keywords: Digital Literacy, Librarians, Library, Skills, digital resources
Digital Literacy and the Implication on Nigerian Digital Library (Published)
Digital libraries are emerging concepts in Nigeria, and digital literacy is a necessary tool or skill needed in making use of resources in the digital library. Most Nigerian libraries are faced with challenges in library usage and services due to inadequate literacy and digital skills required to make maximum use of digital library. This in turn has led to digital divide among both users and staff. Libraries owe it to their users, to make information accessible to all, irrespective of their locations, languages and literacy levels, as libraries support all forms of literacies from basic to digital. How then, can all these be made possible if users are not digitally literate?. The study hope to bring to light the essence of digital literacy in digital libraries, consequence of not being digital literate, and ways libraries can promote digital literacy. The study employed qualitative approach as research design. The researcher searched online journal articles, databases and looked at various studies carried on digital literacy, the importance, digital libraries, implication of digital literacy in libraries and ways libraries can promote digital literacies in their libraries with focus on Nigeria and proffered solutions for tackling the menace of digital divide to digital libraries and to the society generally.
Keywords: Digital Divide, Digital Library, Digital Literacy, Information Communication Technology