Mobile Information Services Delivery by Librarians in University Libraries in Nigeria: Some Observations

Chukwuemeka Ogbonnaya Azubuike^1, and Uwaebuka Wisdom Madu²

¹Department of Library, Archival and Information Studies, University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

²Department of Library and Information Science, Federal Polytechnic Ede, Osun State, Nigeria

Cite this paper:
Chukwuemeka Ogbonnaya Azubuike and Uwaebuka Wisdom Madu. Mobile Information Services Delivery by Librarians in University Libraries in Nigeria: Some Observations. Automatic Control and Information Sciences. 2017; 3(1):5-7. doi: 10.12691/acis-3-1-2

Abstract

This work focused on Mobile Information Services delivery by Librarians in University Libraries in Nigeria. The Nigerian populace have overwhelmingly embraced the use of mobile devices as an integral part of their everyday lives. As at 2015, Nigeria ranks 7^th in the world list of mobile phone users and 1^st in Africa. On the world list of internet users, Nigeria is also 7^th with 86,436,611 internet users. Also, in a 2015 profiling of countries that love smartphones by e-marketers, Nigeria was ranked 17^th in the world. The need for this study was prompted after observing that most categories of people in the University communities rely much on Mobile technologies such as smart phones, cell phones, iPods, MP3 players and tablets as some of the mobile devices used in academic libraries, to locate, retrieve, evaluate and use information and the need for librarians in the University Libraries in Nigeria to assist these Information users with the use of Mobile technologies to professionally meet their Information needs. This therefore raises a question of what could be done to assist these information users in these University communities. The Study reveals that electricity failure; too many mobile devices to learn; lack of knowledge; slow speed of the internet; inadequate funds, staff and training opportunities in using mobile devices for marketing library and information products and services have been identified as some of the constraints to mobile information services delivery. Because of the mentioned problems, necessary measures should be taken as recommended by the researcher in the concluding part of this research work.

Keywords:
mobile information services mobile devices academic librarians Nigeria

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