No abstract

This study examines training and retraining: a catalyst for retooling 21 st Century librarians for effective information service deliver in academic libraries in South-south, Nigeria. The total population for this study comprises of 235 (Two hundred and thirty five) librarians working in State, Federal and Private university libraries in South-south, Nigeria. The entire population of the study was sampled using total enumeration sampling technique because of the small and manageable size of the population. Findings from this study revealed that the service rendered in full capacity to users by librarians in university libraries in South-south, Nigeria in this 21 st Century are e-library service, e-mail service, e-reference service, selective dissemination of information service via social media networks, printing and photocopying service, online referral service and Internet service among others; that the librarians working in academic libraries in the South-south, region of Nigeria needs training in librarianship in the area of e-library service, e-mail Service, e-reference service, OPAC service, selective dissemination of Information on social media networks, digitization services, that training and retraining of librarian working in university libraries in the South-south region of Nigeria will lead to effective service delivery in the library, timely service delivery in the library, error free information services for library users, user satisfaction with library services and resources, easy access to library resources for library users, development of positive attitude to work among librarians. Recommendations were made based on the findings of the study which include: University library management should support the training and retraining of their librarians through TETFUND and other sources to ensure that their libraries are equipped with capable librarians who can function effectively in the face of the 21 st Century information demands of the library users among others.

This chapter focused on sustainable reference service practices in the 21st century. The chapter discussed issues relating to overview of reference service, traditional reference services, reference resources prior ICT proliferation, reference service practices in the 21st century. Also, issues relating to 21st century reference sources/resources, advantages of electronic/virtual reference service, sustaining reference service practices in the 21st century, as well as sustainability challenges of 21st century reference service practices were all discussed. The chapter reviewed significant literature on the topic of discussion, and the researcher used Google to obtain scholarly papers from open access databases that are relevant to the study, which provided the basis for the reviewed literature.

This chapter focused on preparing academic libraries for effective service delivery in the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) era. The chapter discussed issues relating to various services rendered by academic libraries to their users and how these services are being rendered (primitively and the use of ICT facilities). The chapter also discussed various developments in 4IR era and the technologies that are associated with 4IR that are useful to libraries. The chapter also discussed how libraries can be prepared to adopt advanced technologies associated with 4IR and how they can be utilized for effective service delivery in libraries. The chapter also discussed types of training needed by academic library staff to be able to function and render effective services to their user in the 4IR. The chapter reviewed relevant literature on the topic of discussion, and the researchers utilized Google search engine to gather scholarly articles from databases that are open access and are relevant to the study, which formed the basis for all the literature that was reviewed in the study.