INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN LIBRARIES: A NEW DIMENSION IN LIBRARIANSHIP

¹Madalla Ajemasu; ²Yusuf Mohammed Inuwa; ³Yusuf Saad & ⁴Abdullshi Adamu Jumba

¹Muhammadu Wabi Library, Federal Polytechnic Bauchi

^{2 & 3}Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic, Bauchi

⁴Bauchi State Library Board

Email: madallajemasu@gmail.com; Yunuwa80@gmail.com yusufsaadazare@yahoo.com; abdullahiadamujumba@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

Library is a knowledge store that is indispensable to the success of any functional education. Education without the services of a library is half-baked and can only produce narrow minded individuals who would not be productive to their communities. The literatures on library and information science indicates that Libraries started off as store houses, where books were more preserved than utilized and librarians acted like custodians and their interaction with users were minimal. Later on there was a shift in all components of library system, especially the users, the services and the staff as a result of information communication technology. Effectiveness of library services now largely depends upon the Information and Communication Technology (ICT).The advent of digital computer, telecommunication and audiovisual technologies has opened up new ways of collecting, organizing and disseminating scientific and technical information. Therefore, in a bit to justify that ICTs plays a central and critical role in library operation, this paper attempts to give reasons for libraries using ICTs, highlight the impacts of ICT on librarianship as well as identify the modern technologies used in the libraries. Problems inhibiting the deployment of ICT infrastructure and facilities in Nigerian libraries and the way forward were identified and discussed.

Keywords: Information Communication Technology (ICT); Libraries; Librarianship