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Ajidahun Part 3: Literature Review continued

Training techniques

There are various training techniques that university library personnel can be exposed to on short- and long-term bases. Silver (1981) has identified ten training techniques which are listed below:

  1. On-the-job training
  2. Vestibule training
  3. Classroom/lecture method
  4. Case study, in-basket, case history methods
  5. Self-study
  6. Electronic teaching media
  7. Simulations, games and role playing
  8. T groups, encounter groups, and sensitivity training
  9. Schools and outside seminars
  10. Consultants and special training

In fact, Burton (1997) had earlier listed the following five long-term training techniques: (1) on-the-job training, (2) job rotation, (3) coaching, (4) apprenticeship, and (5) modeling. According to Burton, these management-development programmes are efforts to train and develop the manager to his or her fullest potential, and the development should be seen as a lifetime process provided for maximum managerial performance and efficiency throughout the manager’s career. Also, the three common training techniques about which researchers on management, personnel development and career development often talk and which are also considered very relevant for the development of library personnel are discussed below:

  1. Study visits: Library personnel with theoretical knowledge of library and information science may broaden and update their knowledge by understudying computer operations in other information and automated library systems.
  2. In-service training: Staff can be introduced to an automated library system and to the varieties of software that can be used for the development and management of an automated library. The training will help staff to update their knowledge for professional competence.
  3. Industrial attachments: Students of librarianship can spend between six weeks and three months on industrial attachments in automated libraries and information systems. The exposure will further prepare librarians to face challenges in the automated systems on which they may find themselves working.

    4. Similarly, Akhigbe (1997) and Ugbokwe (1998) are of the view that training should take the form of continuing education, industrial attachment, formal education programmes leading to certificates, diploma and degrees, on-the-job learning from experienced colleagues, coaching and special project and off-the-job lectures, seminars, discussions and instructions of various types. At these fora, the relationship between the computer vendors and consumers, whose majority are in the information industry, will become strengthened. If consumers are properly trained, the successful implementation of library automation and the maximum use of their systems will be guaranteed (Litchfield, 1990). Writing on the nature and the quality of formal education that should be provided in the library schools, Harvard–Williams (1981) is of the view that professional library education should not be mere training. The education imparted should be capable and adequate for effective professional performance on job postings after certification. Such effective performance on the part of the professionals must be sustained for a period of two decades before a need for retraining can arise.