Abstract:
The main purpose of this study is to determine the training methods of librarians in ICT use in federal universities in the south-east zone of Nigeria namely: University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, and Michael Opara University of Agriculture, Umudike. The study was conceived against the background of the importance of ICT in library services and how librarians as information practitioners are being trained to effectively apply it in their services. Five research objectives were drawn which include; identifying the ICT skills required for training librarians in federal universities in south-east; identifying the methods librarians employ to acquire ICT skills; determining the extent to which the training methods are effective in library service delivery; identifying the deficiencies in ICT training methods employed by the university librarians; proffer strategies towards effective training methods in ICT by librarians in the federal universities. The study used the survey research method. The entire population of 92 librarians was sampled for the study. The questionnaire made up of 66 items was the instrument used to collect data which were presented in tables and analyzed using frequency, percentage and the mean. Findings revealed that reading books and manuals, training in university computer centre, seminars/workshops, teaching by friends, in-house training, training in commercial cafes and self-teaching are methods employed by librarians to acquire ICT training as these have scores of between 64.5-75 percent. However, the method effective in library services are training in university computer centre, training in commercial cafes, self-teaching, teaching by friends and in-house training with means score of 3.00, 2.70, 2.78, 2.61 and 2.58 respectively. The study recommended among other things that all university librarians must obtain ICT skills using suitable training methods, internet service providers should increase the speed of server/modem, qualified system engineers should be engaged to ensure regular maintenance of ICT facilities.
