Assessment of Intervention Programmes and Technological Innovations for Library Growth in Public Universities in Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined intervention programmes and technological innovations for library growth in public universities in Nigeria. It adopted a descriptive research design, with a population of 164 librarians. For data collection, an online questionnaire using Google forms was developed and administered via Nigerian Library Association (NLA) WhatsApp platforms. The questionnaire items were vetted by experts in LIS and research methods for face and content validity and administered to a group of librarians who were not part of the main study to achieve the reliability index of .804.  From the 164 librarians, a total of 120 librarians from various public universities in Nigeria responded to the questionnaire and the data generated were analyzed using frequency counts, mean and standard deviation. The study revealed that though the librarians’ awareness level of intervention programmes such as TETFund, Needs Assessment, NCC intervention, MacArthur Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, etc., was high, the general impacts of both local and foreign intervention programmes to the public universities was low. It showed that apart from TETFund intervention, other local and foreign intervention programmes were not yielding the desired impacts in the areas of providing infrastructure and facilities, donation of physical books, subscription to real-time databases, and staff training. The study revealed difficulty in accessing funds due to cumbersome processes, lack of support by university management, overbearing interests by stakeholders, corrupt practices by contractors and unresponsive attitude of management of universities as major constraints to accessing intervention programmes in Nigeria. The study recommended, among others, that management of public universities should organize regular training programmes for librarians, allow university libraries free hand to manage funds accruable to them from intervention agencies, and motivate them to seek funding from more local and foreign donor agencies for library growth.