Librarians Use of Social Media in Promoting Effective Library Service Delivery in University Libraries in Edo and Delta States

The paper examined librarian’s use of social media platforms in promoting effective library service delivery in Edo and Delta States. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The population of the study comprised of 71librarians from twelve university libraries. Three (3) research questions guided this study. Data was collected using online questionnaire. The total enumerative sampling technique was used for this study. The validity of the instrument was determined by checking the face and content validity and the instrument proved valid because the items in the instrument are appropriate in terms of subject contents. Cronbach Alpha technique was used to determine the reliability coefficient of the instrument and an index of 0.87 was obtained. This shows that the internal consistency of the instrument is high and good. Data was analyzed with descriptive statistics such as frequency count and simple percentage. The findings revealed that majority of the librarians mostly use Facebook and Whatsapp platforms in providing library services. On the library services that are performed using social media, it was discovered that most of the respondents use the social media platforms to create awareness about library resources and services and also to share library news and events. Majority of the respondents indicated that poor internet connection and lack of constant power supply were the two major challenges to the effective use of social media platforms. Based on the findings, the researchers wish to recommend that the library management should provide opportunities for training and retraining of librarians on social media skills and emerging technologies. The school management should also provide adequate internet facilities and improve on electricity supply so that the library staff can enjoy more access to the internet in order to provide effective and efficient services to their users