Training of Liberians for Digital Library Projects in Schools in Nigeria

Abstract This study investigated the training needs of librarians for digital library projects in the federal university libraries in South-South zone of Nigeria. It examined the skills required by librarians for building digital libraries as well as rendering digital library services, technological skills possessed by librarians for digital library projects, available methods of training librarians for digital libraries projects, benefits of training librarians for digital library projects, challenges and strategies for enhancing the training of librarians for digital library projects. A descriptive survey research design was used for the study. 73 librarians constitute the population while the entire librarians were used as sample. 59 librarians representing (81%) constitute the final sample used for the study. The instrument for data collection was the questionnaire and interview schedule. In analysing the data, frequency table, simple percentages and mean scores were used. The findings revealed that because of the wide - ranging nature of digitization, librarians should also possess varied kinds of skills for digital library projects. It revealed also that librarians possessed some of the technological skills like word processing/typing skills, use of e-mail and search engines. It further exposed the various available methods of training librarians as well as benefits of training librarians for digital library projects. Challenges ranging from lack of funds, negative attitude of librarians towards training, low comfort level with ICT and the fact that library school’s curriculum are not updated. Finally, the following recommendations were made: Librarians should take training serious and utilize every opportunity to train and be trained, library authorities and management should include a newer and appropriate method of training librarians for digital library projects, library school’s curriculum should be modernised to reflect the new digital courses, NLA in union with the library management should organise a free and affordable regular training workshop for librarians, LIS students and librarians should utilise self-improvement training facilities online, senior librarians should be used as resource persons in libraries for training other librarians and funds should be provided for training librarians in federal university libraries in South-South zone of Nigeria.