LIBRARY PROFESSIONALS’ USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES FOR PROMOTING LIBRARY SERVICES IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN NORTH EAST NIGERIA

The study determined library professionals’ use of social media technologies for promoting library services in university libraries in North East Nigeria. Three research questions guided the study. This study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprised 159 registered librarians in university libraries in North East Nigeria. The whole population was used for the study because the size is considered manageable by the researcher. The instrument for data collection is a questionnaire titled “Questionnaire on Social Media Technologies” (QSCT). The instrument was face validated by two experts and was trial tested among 10 library professionals in Ahmadu Bello University which was not part of the study but shares similar characteristics with the study area. Cronbach Alpha was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument. An overall co-efficient value of 0.72 was ascertained for the three clusters. In analyzing the data, mean standard deviation were used to answer the research questions. The findings revealed that only Facebook, Blogs and WhatsApp are the types of social media that are used by library professionals in promoting library services in university libraries in North East Nigeria. Also, the finding revealed that out of the numerous types of devices used to access social media sites, only laptop computers, mobile phones and desktop computers were utilized to access social media sites by library professionals in university libraries in North East Nigeria. Finally, the findings revealed that library professionals agreed on the benefits derived from the use of social media for promoting service delivery in university libraries in North East Nigeria. Based on this findings, it was recommended among others that all relevant stakeholders like the Nigerian Library Association, Library schools, Librarians’ Registration Council of Nigeria, libraries, etc should assist in creating more awareness on the use and benefits of social media technologies