Access Skill of Librarians and Service Delivery in University Libraries in South- South Nigeria.

Abstract

The study examined the influence of librarians' access skills on service delivery in university libraries. The ex post facto research design was adopted for the study. This study was conducted in Federal university libraries in South-South Nigeria. However, the study focused on three out of six Federal University libraries, libraries in University of Uyo, University of Calabar, and the University of Benin. The region covered is part of the coastal Niger-delta oil-rich region of the country. The population of the study consisted of 327 respondents (124 professionals and 203 para-professional librarians) in the universities of Uyo, Calabar, and Benin. A census sampling technique was used to sample 327 respondents. The researcher developed an “Access Skill and Service Delivery Questionnaire (ASASDQ)” instrument for data collection. With the help of research assistants, the researcher administered copies of the questionnaire to respondents in the selected universities. However, after the administration of the instrument, only 324 copies of the questionnaire were useful for data analysis. The obtained data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer research questions and t-test to test hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the finding revealed that access skill has a significant influence on service delivery in university libraries of South-South Nigeria. It was recommended among others that librarians should access information by locating and sharing materials that meet the information needs of users.