Abstract:
This research work was designed to examine information service delivery in Benue State library Board with the view to determine the types of information sources available, the types of information services offered; the appropriateness of information service delivery media; the problems of providing appropriate information service delivery to users and the strategies for effective service delivery. Six research questions guided this study. A descriptive survey research design was used with stratified random sampling technique to guide the study. The population of the study was 53,636 made up of library users and library staff. Out of this, 514 were sampled. 489 consisted of library users and 25 comprised of the entire library staff under study. Of the 489 copies of questionnaire distributed to library staff 341 were filled and returned, representing 70% response rate. While the 25 questionnaires administered to staff, 17 were filled and returned representing 68% response rate. Observation checklist on information service delivery was also used for data collection. Statistical tools used for the analysis were frequency counts and mean score. The major findings revealed that there are numerous and different types of information resources available in the board, that there are few information services offered, that there are few information service deliveries, that both information services and information service delivery are not appropriate. And that lack of funds, inadequate staff, lack of facilities (eg. ICT, internet etc), lack of current textbooks/lack of information sources, lack of demand for information services by users, lack of professionals and lack of policy on information service provision are problems responsible for the few appropriate information services and delivery in Benue State library board. It was based on these findings that, it was recommended that information resources in Benue State library board should be constantly updated, that information services need assessment must be a regular feature before services are rendered, that information service delivery must be appropriate to users, that Public library must be positioned like those of special and academic libraries in the provision of adequate and experienced professionals who would provide qualitative library and information services in diverse areas of interest to users, that working conditions of staff in public libraries must be made to be similar to their colleagues in the universities or research institutes. Above all, government should change it’s funding policy towards the public libraries.
