Ajidahun Part 6: Results and discussion continued

Table 3: Source of sponsorship

Table 3 shows that sixteen (76.1 percent) of the university libraries which participated in this research indicated that most of their library staff acquire computer literacy by sponsoring themselves. The table also shows that fifteen (71.4 percent) of the university libraries sponsor their staff in order for them to be computer-literate. Out of the 15 universities that sponsor staff for training in computer technology, eleven of them are federal-owned universities while the remaining four are state-owned universities. This is understandable considering the fact that federal universities are better funded than the state universities because the funding is done by the federal government while state governments finance state universities who in most cases pay workers' salaries in arrears. Capital projects in most state universities are being stalled owing to lean financial resources of state governments. At the least, the table shows that both the universities and the individual library staff members are involved in providing training in computer and information technology for the development of the university libraries.

Conclusion

The level of professional training in information technology received by the professional and paraprofessional library staff in Nigerian university libraries is generally inadequate as shown by the results of this research. Greater efforts must be made therefore by university libraries in Nigeria to provide adequate training programmes in information technology and other related subjects for library staff, especially professional staff, in order to make them relevant and adequate to face the technological challenges of the twenty-first century. Each university library should therefore begin to initiate its own staff development process which will involve among other things, a definition of goals and objectives, an assessment of staff strengths and weaknesses, a development of long- and short-range training programmes, the implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of the programme. This is the hallmark of strategic management, which is one of the pillars of success of any enterprise. If the staff development process is well implemented, the issue of lack of resources to sponsor staff to attend professional workshops, conferences and seminars on information technology may no longer arise. This is because priority attention will be put on the development of human resources; consequently, the right funds will be provided.

As well, every department and unit in all the university libraries in Nigeria should be furnished with at least a computer system. With the use of teach-yourself packages, everybody will have access to these systems. This will enhance their knowledge of the computer. The thinking now in the academic and government circles is that all Senior Lecturers in Nigerian universities should have computers in their offices. There is no reason why every Principal Librarian and above in every Nigerian university library should not be accorded the same treatment.

Moreover, the point has already been made that the library schools should overhaul their curricula to accommodate the recent advances in information and computer technologies in order to make their products relevant to society. The African Regional Centre for Information Science, Ibadan should give a good lead to other similar institutions in Nigeria. One wonders if it is not absurd and embarrassing for products of a department of library and information studies in a Nigerian university to be destitute of knowledge in computer and information technology skills. Unless these library schools move with the times, we will continue to produce inadequate, uninformed computer-illiterate graduates and professionally passive librarians.

Lastly, the individual employee has the responsibility to assess his own training needs, and initiate ways by which these needs could be met. The employee must have the right perception and develop positive self-concept of his or her career and show readiness to develop accordingly. This person can begin by acquainting himself or herself with the recent development in information technology by reading current professional and relevant journals. It is also the employee's duty to identify relevant and appropriate professional workshops, conferences, seminars and formal educational programmes where he can receive such training. He can then apply for sponsorship and his supervisor, the University Librarian, should support the application of such an employee within the available resources for conference and training votes. When such application fails, the applicant should be ready to sponsor himself when necessary; after all, the overall gains of the training are entirely the employee's. The importance of training and development for library manpower cannot be easily over-emphasized. Government, university libraries, and library staff must perform their roles adequately in order to make the task a fait accompli.

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