Availability and Utilization of Information and Communication Technology and Job Performance of Academic LibrariAvailability and Utilization of Information and Communication Technology and Job Performance of Academic Librarians in Southwestern Nigeria

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) enhance service provision to library clientele. Librarians use ICTs to perform functions like cataloguing and classification, serials management, collection management, budgeting, circulation management, referencing, indexing and abstracting in order to improve information services to library users. However, it has been observed that most academic librarians in Nigeria still struggle with manual library operation method. Consequently, library users show dissatisfaction and complain of poor information services delivery by the academic librarians. It is in the light of this that the present study investigated availability and utilization of information and communication technologies as they relate to job performance of the academic librarians in Southwestern Nigeria. The study was an ex-post facto type and adopted the descriptive research design. Only institutions that have made ICTs available to their personnel were selected for the study. The study population consisted of 195 academic librarians in 25 higher institutions in Southwestern Nigeria. The total enumeration technique was adopted. The major instrument used for this study was the “Availability, Utilization and Job Performance Questionnaire (AUJPQ).This was complemented with structured interview tagged Availability, Utilization and Job Performance Interview (AUJPI)” and an observation schedule. The questionnaire was validated. The reliability coefficient for ICTs availability scale was α=0.92; while ICTs utilization and Job performance scale were α=0.96 and α=0.97 respectively using the Cronbach alpha. The test- re-test reliability coefficient for interview checklist was 0.75 and 0.72 for observation schedule. Data were collected from 153 academic librarians which translate to a response rate of 78.5%. Data collected were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment correlation and Multiple Regression analysis. The results revealed that there was a joint effect of availability and utilization of ICTs on job performance (P<0.05). The study also found that availability and utilization of ICTs
accounted for (R2 adjusted = 0.353), that is, 35.3% of the total variance in job performance of the academic librarians in Southwestern Nigeria. The results further showed that there were significant separate contributions of availability of ICTs (β=0.204; t=3.317, p<0.05) and utilization of ICTs (β=0.390; t=6.163, p<0.05) to job performance of the academic librarians in the southwestern Nigeria. The study also showed that there were significant relationships between: the availability of ICTs and job performance of the academic librarians (r = 0.435, P<0.05); utilization of ICTs and job performance of the academic librarians (r = 0.542, P<0.05); the availability and utilization of ICTs and job performance (r = 0.594, P<0.05). Availability and utilization of ICTs contributed significantly to the job performance of the academic librarians collectively and individually. As the academic librarians continually use the available ICTs, the job performance of the librarians keep on improving. It is recommended therefore that university administration should make funds available for the ICTs project in academic libraries and a proper ICTs training policy be put in place.