Professionalism in Library and Information Science: an examination of current trends, needs and opportunities in Academic Libraries in South East Nigeria.

Abstract

The paper examined the current trends, needs and opportunities of professionalism in librarianship in Nigeria. The broad purpose of the paper was to investigate the level of professionalism in librarianship and to ascertain the current status, trends, and opportunities within the profession among academic librarians in Nigeria. Five specific research questions were formulated which are: to examine how librarians value librarianship as a profession, to elicit the efforts made by librarians with regards to professional development, to ascertain methods of acquiring current competencies within the profession, to investigate the role of professional bodies in promoting professionalism and excellence within the library and information science profession, and to proffer strategies to enhance professionalism and excellence among librarians in Nigeria. The area of study chosen for the paper was Libraries in South East Nigeria and the population comprised all sixty five academic librarians from the three Federal university libraries in South East Nigeria. The sample size was all the sixty five librarians. Analysis was done using descriptive statistics. The study revealed the challenges facing professionalism and excellence within the library and information science lie ld as lack of funding for professional development. lack of sponsorship to workshops and conferences, lack of uninterruptible internet facility, a dearth of professional mentors in the South East zone. Other problems gathered from a scheduled interview with some senior professionals in the institutions revealed that most librarians are still facing the challenge of imbibing and utilizing emerging skills in the LIS professions such as digital archiving, data mining skills for their day-to-day activities. Recommendations arising from the study were proffered such as the Creation of staff development programmes by management: collaboration and partnership by libraries within the zone;" acquisition of training through workshops and conferences irrespective of sponsorship by the institutions; teaming of Academic Librarians to enhance their visibil ity and publication output. International sta ff exchanges and opportunities for sabbatical leave which hitherto was not common in the South East Zone were recommended. Among other recommendations also were; building of consortia with libraries in ' the country; LIS professional bodies helping to create visibility and prestige of the LIS profession and finally in order to scale up the image of the profession the marketing of library products through profiling of patrons and furnishing them with required information has not only become necessary but critical.