Use of Mobile Technology for the Provision of Reference Services in Nigeria University Libraries

Abstract This work is focus on the use of mobile technology for the provision of reference services in Nigeria universities libraries. The Nigerian populace has overwhelmingly embraced the use of mobile technologies as an integral part of their everyday lives. As at 2015, Nigeria ranks 7th in the world list of mobile phone users and 1st in Africa. On the world list of internet users, Nigeria is also 7th with 86,436,611 internet users. Also, in a 2015 profiling of countries that love smart phones by e-marketers, Nigeria was ranked 17th in the world. The need for this study was prompted after observing that most categories of people in the University communities rely much on Mobile technologies such as smart phones, cell phones, iPods, MP3 players and tablets as some of the mobile devices used in academic libraries, to locate, retrieve, evaluate and use information and the need for librarians in the university libraries in Nigeria to assist these Information users with the use of mobile technologies to professionally meet their Information needs. This therefore raises a question of what could be done to assist these information users in these university communities. The study reveals that electricity failure; too many mobile devices to learn; lack of knowledge; slow speed of the internet; inadequate funds, staff and training opportunities in using mobile devices for marketing library and information products and services have been identified as some of the constraints to mobile information services delivery. Because of the mentioned problems, necessary measures should be taken as recommended by the researcher in the concluding part of this research work