RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LIBRARY PROFESSIONALS’ SOCIAL MEDIA LITERACY AND THEIR USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SERVICE DELIVERY IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

Despite the benefits that are accruable from the use of social media for the delivery of library services, it is rather challenged by the unwillingness of the librarians to adopt Information Communication Technology arising from lack of skills for implementation. Thus, the purpose of the study was to ascertain the relationship between library professionals’ social media literacy and their use of social media for service delivery in public university in Anambra State. Three research questions were raised for the study while three hypotheses were tested. Correlational research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of 104 library professionals in the 11 public libraries in Anambra State. The sample for the study comprised 52 (30 young and 22 old) library professionals in the six public libraries obtained through simple random sampling and disproportionate sampling techniques. Two sets of questionnaire entitled ‘Library Professionals’ Social Media Literacy Questionnaire (LPSMLQ) and Use of Social Media for Delivery of Library Services Questionnaire (USMDLSQ) were used for data collection. LPSMLQ and USMDLSQ were used to collect data. LPSMLQ and USMDLSQ were validated by three expert at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The reliabilities of LPSMLQ and USMDLSQ were established using Cronbach alpha statistics to obtain coefficients of 0.82 and 0.80 respectively obtained for LPSMLQ and USMDLSQ. Data collected were analyzed using Pearson product moment correlation was used to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance by comparing the computed correlation index against the critical values for appropriate decision. The findings of the study revealed that a high positive and significant relationship existed between library professionals’ social media literacy and their use of social media for delivery of library services in university libraries. It was recommended among others that University authorities should ensure that old library professionals acquire the requisite social media literacy skills. This is with a view to bridging the social media literacy gap between old and young library professionals in the use of social media for delivery of library services.