Abstract:
This study investigated the establishment of hybrid library services in federal university libraries of the North Central zone of Nigeria. It examined the need, availability, extent, problems and strategies for effective operation of hybrid library services. A descriptive survey was used for the study; the population comprises librarians and users made up of students and lecturers alike. All 102 librarians and 1,330 users comprising students and lecturers totalling 1,432 constituted the sample used for the study. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled, ‘Establishment of hybrid library services questionnaire’, that was answered by librarians, students and lecturers, users of the university libraries. In analysing the data, descriptive statistics such as mean and percentage were used. The findings revealed that there is need for hybrid library services because respondents are not satisfied with the traditional services in existence. It also shows hybrid library services available as: Internet Services, On-line Websites, CD-ROMs, e-journals, WebOPAC. It further shows that hybrid library services are not efficiently operated owing to a plethora of problems ranging from lack of skills, lack of training and development of service staff, inadequate funding. Based on the findings, the following recommendations were made: necessary user education and orientation programmes, proper training and education of library staff, necessary funding from appropriate quarters as panacea to addressing the problems of establishment of hybrid library services in federal university libraries in North-Central zone of Nigeria.
