Observance of COVID 19 Protocols and Effective Use of Library Resources and Services in the State Universities in North Central, Nigeria

Abstract

The emergence of COVID 19 has led to total or partial lockdown around the world, thereby restricting movements as well as physical contacts. COVID 19 could be contracted through touching infected book shelves, books, catalogue cabinet, reading carrels and tables, among others. At the same time, adequate information is required to prevent and manage the virus from spreading. The study examined the observance of COVID-19 protocols and effective use of library resources and services in State Universities in North Central, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study is 163 library staff. This comprised of the entire library staff in the six state owned universities in North Central, Nigeria. Online survey was conducted using Google form between 15th and 14th of December, 2020. The link to the Google form was shared via individual and group social media platforms of the staff so as to increase the response rate. Data collected was analyzed using frequency distribution table, chart, percentage and mean with the aid of SPSS version 23. The findings revealed among other things that; library services are poorly provided by university libraries during COVID-19 lockdown in state owned university libraries in North Central, Nigeria. Majority of the respondents agreed that their library posted updates about COVID-19 on library blog, websites, portals etc. and use of social media for library services delivery during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Other services like; Ask Librarian virtual reference service, electronic delivery service, providing access to e-books, providing access to e-journals, providing OPAC as tool for browsing and searching the library collection, providing access to students' electronic thesis and dissertation, electronic Newspaper Clipping Depository and so on were poorly provided. Also, it was revealed that the observance of COVID-19 protocols affected effective use of library resources and services. It was also revealed that; erratic power supply, lack of adequate electronic resources in the library, lack of funds to fumigate library environment, lack of internet access in the library, nonchalant attitude of staff towards observing COVID-19 protocols, lack of adequate accommodation in the library to observe social distancing, and inadequate digital skills to adopt online services and so on, as major challenges. The study however, recommended among other things that; the library management should provide adequate digital skills training to their staff so as to adopt online services in this COVID-19 period. Adequate infrastructural facilities should be made available and accessible.