Use of Mobile Technologies for Accessing Health-Related Information among Librarians in Osun State, Nigeria

Objectives: This is an exploratory study that focused on identifying the contemporary health related information needs of librarians in Osun State; types of mobile technology used for accessing health related information as well as identifying challenges experienced in using mobile technology for accessing health related information. Methodology: This study adopted a survey research design. The population of the study consisted of 133 librarians in Osun State. Total enumeration of all the population was adopted. From the total 133 questionnaire that were administered, 126 (representing 94.74%) were duly completed and used for analysis. Frequency counts and percentage calculation were used to analyse the quantitative data, while thematic description was used in analyzing the qualitative data collected. Findings: The study discovered that information on COVID-19 (77.8%); nutrition (66.7%); and physical fitness (66.7%) were the most sought information by the respondents. Majority (94.4%) of the respondents accessed health-related information using their smart phones. Also, majority of the respondents mostly seek for health related information through Whatsapp (83.3%) and Facebook (61.1%). Poor internet service and difficulty in trusting the credibility of the online sources (83.3% each) were the two major barriers faced by the librarians in using mobile technology for accessing health related information. Recommendations: Librarians need to explore other electronic health information sources rather than concentrating on social media; there is the need for increased knowledge of librarians on online information searching strategies and also, there is need for improved internet services provision by the operators. Originality: This study identified contemporary health related information needs of librarians in Osun Stat, Nigeria and electronic information sources frequently used and preferred. These findings will be instrumental in meeting the health information needs of the librarians by the concerned and relevant stakeholders. This study is also an additional contribution to existing literature in the area of health related information seeking among librarian