LIBRARIANS' PREPAREDNESS AND PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS ADOPTION OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES FOR INFORMATION SERVICE DELIVERY IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to investigate the level of librarians’ preparedness and perception towards adoption of emerging technologies for information service delivery in public university libraries in Nigeria. Questionnaire was used to collect data from 204 librarians from 20 public universities in Nigeria. The results show that the librarian’s readiness to adopt emerging technologies into library services is on a high level. The majority of the librarians strongly agree and agree that adopting emerging technologies will give easy access to library resources and services from anywhere with an internet connection, will take the library services to the next level, adopting emerging technologies like robotics will lead to loss of job, university management do not support the adoption because they feel finance will be involved, and one should be cautioned in replacing important people’s task with technologies because new technologies are to a large extent not dependable or reliable. The study also revealed that more than half of the university libraries have modern computers but does not have stable Internet connectivity, stable power supply in the library, and lack skilled ICT librarians. The findings can guide Nigerian libraries in strategic planning for the integration of emerging technologies to deliver library services.