Management Capacity Building Practices for Librarians’ Effective Service Delivery in Federal University Libraries in South South and South East Nigeria.

Abstract

Abstract
This study examined management capacity building practices for librarians’ effective sservice
delivery in federal university libraries in South South and South East Nigeria. The study was
specifically aimed at determining existing management capacity building practices, the extent to
which the existing capacity building practices contribute to effective service delivery, challenges
associated with management capacity building practices, and strategies for enhancing
management capacity building practices in federal in federal university libraries in South East
and South South Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The total
population that was used for this study was two hundred and eighteen professional librarians
(218). Data was collected using questionnaire and interview schedule. A total number of one
hundred and seventy eight (178) copies of the questionnaire were correctly filled, returned and
used for this study. Data collected were analyzed using mean scores and standard deviation. The
results reveal that management capacity building practices exist in these libraries such as
mentoring, effective communication from top to down, giving people opportunity to contribute in
the library vision and mission, and creating opportunity to develop adequate skills. Result also
shows that challenges confronting management capacity building practices include; inadequate
funding, erratic electricity supply, poor maintenance culture, poor collaborative practices
between libraries. The researcher recommended among other things that librarians should be
willing to embrace new trends in service delivery, libraries should recruit qualified staff, libraries
need to be adequately funded, ICT skills need to be developed, modern ICT facilities should be
provided, and there should be adequate support for training, among others.