MOBILE APPLICATION AS A PREDICTOR OF EFFECTIVE REFERENCE SERVICES DELIVERY IN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN SOUTH-SOUTH, NIGERIA.

Abstract

The study investigated mobile applications as predictors of effective reference service delivery in Federal University Libraries in South-South Nigeria. Three objectives and three research questions guided the study, and three null hypotheses were tested at a 0.05 level of significance. The research adopted a correlational research design. The population of the study comprised 115 librarians from the eight federal university libraries in South-South Nigeria. The entire population was studied, Questionnaire titled Mobile Application and Effective Reference Service Delivery Questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. Data collected was analyzed using Statistical Package for Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to test the three null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance, The. instrument was tested using pilot test using Crombach Alpha method and it yielded an average coefficient of 0.80. The findings revealed there is positive relationship between mobile applications and reference services delivery in the libraries. Conclusively, mobile application is a strong predictor for effective service delivery in the library. The study recommended among others that the universities should train and retrain the librarians on how to use short messages (SMS) in rendering reference services, there should be a workshop for librarians in the universities regularly on how to use Quick Response codes and the universities should carry out enlightenment programme to the academic community and the librarians on the importance of Libby and how it can be used to improve service delivery.