Demographic variables as predictors of use of social media for service delivery by librarians in universities in south-south,Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the extent to which demographic variables predicted utilization of social media platforms for information service delivery in universities in Southern Nigeria. Correlation research design was adopted. The population of the study comprise the 174 professional librarians in Federal universities in South-South, Nigeria. That is, University of Benin, Federal university of Petroleum Resources, University of Calabar, University of Uyo, University of Port Harcourt, and Federal University, Otuoke. Total enumeration technique was used to study the entire population. The reliability test of the questionnaire which was carried out with Cronbach Alpha Coefficient rated 0.92. The four (4) null hypotheses were tested with the use of ANOVA at 0.05 level of significance. Key findings of the study were that the librarians’ age significantly predicted their use of social media (0.02 < 0.05), while gender (0.903 > 0.05), education (0.247 > 0.05), and experience (0.116 > 0.05) of the librarians did not significantly predict use of social media by the librarians. The implication of the findings is that, only the librarians’ age is significant among the demographic variables tested as predictors of social media use. Based on the findings, it was recommended as follows:that library managers should focus on employing young librarians with knowledge of ICTs, that library administrators should plan specialized programmes on the use of social media for the older librarians; that the library administrators should assign more social media related tasks to the younger librarians; that library administrators should assign social media related tasks to librarians irrespective of their gender since gender does not significantly predict social media use by librarians; and that the library administrators should be encouraged to employ librarians with the required professional qualifications.