Innovative User – Centred Library Services for the Twenty First Century Knowledge Societies in Nigeria
- October 8, 2020
- Posted by: RSIS
- Category: IJRISS
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue IX, September 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186
Ogbonnaya, Esther Abosede PhD
Facilitator with National Open University of Nigeria, Mushin Centre, Lagos, Nigeria
Abstract:
Purpose: This paper examined the concept of the knowledge society and its characteristics as well as knowledge usage in the twenty-first-century knowledge societies in Nigeria. It also highlighted the change in the role of library service providers as regards the infusion of information technology into information retrieval systems and radical referencing in libraries which gave birth to innovative user-centered library services discussed extensively in this paper. The paper also listed innovative user-centered library services(IULS) in Nigeria such as online business support services (Instagram), web design services, digital reference services amongst others. Salient issues such as the implementation of an innovative user-centered library service approach for the twenty-first-century knowledge societies and the challenges faced by libraries and librarians in Nigeria were considered. These are inadequate funding, inadequate deployment of ICT infrastructure, and resistance to change while risk-taking, collaboration, adequate funding, were considered as solutions to these fundamental challenges of library services in Nigeria.
Design/Methodology & Approach: The methodology adopted was a contextual analysis that involved the review of materials ranging from publications, textbooks, and relevant internet sources.
Implication: The neglect of the innovative user-centered library service approach by the Libraries and Library Information System (LIS) professionals would render their functions ineffective and become irrelevant in the present-day digital and information explosion age. Thus, entrepreneurial librarianship in an imperative for the libraries to meet their information need of the twenty-first-century knowledge societies in Nigeria
Originality/Value: This paper concludes that the innovative user-centered library service-approach has made library information science professionals assume the new roles such as an intermediary, facilitator, end-user training, web organizer, and designer, researcher, interface designer, knowledge manager/professional, and sifter of information resources thereby empowered to meet the information needs of the patrons.
Keywords: Knowledge, Knowledge Societies, Libraries, Entrepreneurship, Innovative User-Centred Library Services, Twenty-First Century Knowledge Societies, Information, and Communication Technology (ICT)
Paper Type: Conceptual research.
