DIGITAL LITERACY SKILLS OF LIBRARIANS FOR COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN SOUTH-EAST

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine digital literacy skills of librarians for collection development in university libraries in South-East, Nigeria. Descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study consisted of 102 (54 experienced and 48 less experienced) librarians in 10 public university libraries in the South-East Nigeria. No sampling was done given the manageable population. Data for the study were collected using ‘‘Digital Literacy Skills of Librarians for Collection Development Test (DLSLCDT). DLSLCDT was validated by three experts. The reliability of DLSLCDT was ascertained using inter-rater/scorer reliability estimate to yield a score of 0.82. Data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test. The findings of the study revealed that librarians possessed digital literacy skills for collection development in university libraries. Furthermore, the experienced librarians were more digital literate for collection development in the university libraries than their less experienced counterparts. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that university management should organize workshops and seminars for less experienced librarians so as to bridge the digital literacy skill gap between them and their experienced counterparts.