Reference Service Delivery System in West Africa: Limitations and Prospects as Seen From Kenneth Dike Library, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Ola, C. O.

doi:10.1080/10875301003788448

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…A daily experience of Internet peak periods between 12 noon to 4 PM reported by as much as 66% of specialty doctors coupled with the limited Internet access (<24-hour Internet access) of 33% of the specialists, as well as the slow Internet connection speed could be discouraging to them or any professional in the same situation. Information in the literature indicates slow speed access and nonaccess throughout the day could be due to low bandwidth subscription or poor computing facilities, and could be appropriately addressed, with an increased bandwidth, which would enable Web sites to handle more traffic at the same time (20). Alternate sources of power especially in West Africa tertiary hospitals should be highly considered as a priority to ameliorate the poor power supply experienced by these hospitals/institutions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Building a Regional HIV/AIDS Database: Challenges Faced by West African Specialist Physicians and Health Librarians

Komolafe-Opadeji

2012

Journal of Hospital Librarianship

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The article investigates access and the use of the Internet among specialty doctors in five West African countries. It also looks at what information and communication technologies (ICT) are needed by health librarians to build a human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) database to carry out the West African regional project on HIV/AIDS information management. Two sets of questionnaireswere designed: one for specialty doctors to assess their skills and the functionality of their institutional Internet access, the other to determine health librarians' ICT skills. The findings reveal factors such as power outages, irregular and slow Internet connection, nonexistent institutional Internet subscription, or half-day Internet access that resulted in minimal use of Internet by the specialty doctors. The health librarians, though skilled with information management, needed additional ICT training in Web design, electronic classification of resources, and most importantly, database building to function optimally on their project assignment. The findings led to recommendations such as improving Internet access in the West African tertiary institutions/hospitals and continuous ICT training for the health librarians.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Building a Regional HIV/AIDS Database: Challenges Faced by West African Specialist Physicians and Health Librarians

Komolafe-Opadeji

2012

Journal of Hospital Librarianship

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“…Ola (2010) discussed the limitations faced by the University of Ibadan library in its efforts to deploy Information Communcations Technologty (ICT) to the reference services delivery system, and identified the lack of proper funding, infrastructural deficiencies, inability to retain information technology experts, and intra-local politics as the primary road blocks. Tella and Oyedokun (2014) investigated reference services via social media in selected university libraries in Nigeria.…”

Section: Reference Services In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Reference service evaluation at an African academic library: the user perspective

Buer

2015

Library Review

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Purpose: This paper provides a detailed discussion of a large-scale library reference evaluation study conducted at the University of Education, Winneba (UAE) in Ghana. The study seeks to evaluate the reference service from the user perspective, focusing on how users use and perceive the service.Design/methodology/approach: Self-administered survey was used as the data collection instrument. One thousand questionnaires were distributed to library users in a three-week period, and the response rate was 63.7%. Findings:The reference service had a high non-use rate of 42.6%, which was primarily attributed to library users' self-sufficiency and lack of awareness of the service. The top three motivations for library users to use the reference service were class assignments, personal interests, and using library facilities. Although their overall altitude was positive, users felt that reference librarians were more successful at exhibiting customer service qualities than performing tasks related to identifying users' information needs and searching/locating relevant information to fulfill the needs. Practical implications:The knowledge gained from this study will deepen the understanding of how the reference service is utilized and perceived by library users and offer insights on how to enhance the services to optimize the user experience.Originality/value: This study yields an enriched view of reference service provision in the African context. Its findings will help other academic libraries in Africa successfully plan and implement their own reference evaluation efforts and ultimately encourage more evidence-based library practices in the developing world.

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Reference Service Delivery System in West Africa: Limitations and Prospects as Seen From Kenneth Dike Library, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Cited by 2 publications

References 5 publications

Building a Regional HIV/AIDS Database: Challenges Faced by West African Specialist Physicians and Health Librarians

Building a Regional HIV/AIDS Database: Challenges Faced by West African Specialist Physicians and Health Librarians

Reference service evaluation at an African academic library: the user perspective

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