Project – The impact of staff training on library education development

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the Study

         Training started as early as 2100 B.C when there were apprenticeship training which is the transference of skills and knowledge to the people to form group and work together towards a common purpose. It is widely believed therefore that effective training influence individual or group to achieve state objectives. Human resources training and development has come to be universally accepted as a vital input in management, aimed at improving and development has come to be universally enhancing the output of an organization (Akinyele, 2005). In essence, training is the vital means of bringing desirable change in employee’s job behaviour and their production outcome. Training in an organization help employee to develop basic skill, improve existing skills and help to keep pace with the organization (Apple By 1991).

Training is a learning process in which employees acquire skills, experience and attitudes that they need in order to perform their job better for the achievement of their organizational goals. According to Amoah-Mensah (2016), training is the formal and modification of behaviour through learning which occurs as a result of education, instruction and planned experience. Training involves the acquisition and changing skills, knowledge, attitude and social behaviour for the purpose of an occupation or work (Aroge, 2012).

Training is the preparation for specific skills which is job or task-oriented, rather than personal. Staff training is a programme that helps employees to learn specific knowledge or skills to improve performance in their current job. A training programme allows an employee to strengthen those skills he needs to improve on his job. Training results are specific. The basic idea behind training is to give the employee the skills required for him to accomplish the requirements of his job. Training is increasingly considered to be a key function in helping university libraries achieve their goals through its staff as it is becoming more generally accepted that there is a correlation between organizational success and investment in training and development.

Man is dynamic in nature, the need to be current and relevant in all sphere of humans endeavours make staff development a necessary to keep track at current event and method (Griffin 1978, Ajibade 1993, Adeniyi 1995, Arikewuyo 1999) have drawn the attention of the entire world of the inestimable value of training and development and it is an avenue to acquire more and new knowledge and develop further skills and techniques to function effectively.

Scholars, experts, social, scientist and school administrator now recognize the fact that training is obviously indispensable not only in the development of the individual but also facilities the productive capacity of the worker. Training is not coaxing a persuading people to do what is wanted but rather a process creating organization condition that will cause personnel to strive for better performance.

Libraries are established either by the government, individuals or corporate organizations for the use of the populace. According to the International Federation of Library Association and Institution, IFLA (2001), the public library is an organization established, supported and funded by the community, either through local, regional or national government or through some other form of community organization. It provides access to knowledge, information and works of imagination through a range of resources (financial, human and material resources) and services. Library users are usually made of people of different age range and educational qualifications – men, women, young adults and children. Staffing in a library system is made up of the director of library services, followed by the assistant chief librarian or deputy director.

Their subordinates include all categories of librarians, library officers, library assistants, attendants, technicians and gardeners. These fall under the professionals, para-professionals and non-professionals all of whom should be qualified in terms of training and certification according to their levels. Training is a very important device in personnel management.

Worker training and development as Adeniji (2011) said is an important programme that promotes the worker in an industrial set up. Considering the fact that information provision to every user is the mission of libraries, the need for training in this regard cannot be over emphasized. Just as Achebe (2005) said that libraries are local centres for information, a library worker whose work is to provide information for users in any way needs to be competent enough in any area he finds himself in the library. Tella and Popoola (2007) asserted that training is an essential strategy for motivating workers in the library as a service organization.

For the librarians or information professionals as well as other workers develop themselves to serve the public efficiently, there is dire need for them to acquire the needed skills suitable for the work at hand.

In the words of Chadan (2000), training is a short term process utilizing a systematic and organized procedure by which non-managerial personnel learn technical knowledge and skills for a definite process. This definition is found lacking because training should be for managerial and nonmanagerial staff. A personnel training scheme, (PTS) as Abba & Dawha (2009) called it is one that seeks to improve work performance. Slee (1997) who saw this as a systematic approach to staff development and continuing education that is usually in form of a programme of learning opportunities aimed at ensuring that workers continue to acquire and adapt their skills and knowledge to a changing environment.

They stressed that a well-trained worker knows the scope and expectations of their jobs and will be able to add building blocks to his/her expertise as he/she progresses. Everybody needs self-development professionally. By attending seminars and conferences, the managerial staff can improve professionally. Training is a public or private education programmes directly applicable to work situation. When there are lapses or loopholes in work efficiency and expected productivity, it means that the workers involved need more and better skills and knowledge to be gained through training. According to the report of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries Staff Development working group (1998), libraries need a staff that is well versed in all facets of work in order to provide their users with excellent services.

Current advances in information and communication technology which has led to the creation of knowledge based economy and market globalization has consequently made the development of human resources in academic libraries a burning issue. Human resource development is a set of systematic and planned activities designed by an organization to provide its members with the opportunities to learn the necessary skills to meet current and future job performance (Desler& Cole, 2013).

Librarians acquire, organize, evaluate and disseminate information, providing support to members of the university community including students, researchers and teaching staff. According to Sambe, Esohe and Gomina (2015), a professional librarian applies theory and technology to creation, selection, organization, management, preservation, dissemination and utilization of collections of all formats in the library. Their main role involves facilitating and supporting learning by teaching information retrieval skills to students and staff within classrooms or virtual learning environment.

Saka, Abubakar and Abubakar (2014) stated that librarians in Nigerian universities enjoy equal academic status/benefits like their counterparts (faculty members) undertaking teaching and research functions as well as scholarly contributing to knowledge. Librarianship is a user centred profession requiring their practitioners to manage learning resources while keeping the library users’ needs in mind.

The duty of a librarian in a university library includes selecting, developing, cataloguing and classifying library resources. Others include answering researchers’ enquiries, management of staff, (including recruitment, training) and/ or playing supervisory role. Other duties performed by librarians include supporting independent research and learning, assisting readers to use computer equipment, conducting literature search, and providing library resources to users. In Nigeria, one is qualified to become a librarian when he has obtained a degree in Library and Information Science in a recognised university (The Librarian Registration Council of Nigeria, 2010).

Librarians are expected to possess strong IT skills, team work and managerial skills, verbal communication skills and familiarity with the use of databases and the Internet. However, these skills can only be well displayed if librarians are exposed to efficient training and development programmes.

This study therefore seeks to find out the impact of staff training on library development in Saadatu Rimi College of Education, Kumbotso, Kano state.

1.1.1 Historical Background Of Sa’adatu Rimi College Of Education, Kumbotso Library

The college library was established in 1981 as the academic library of the college located in Kano state and fully approved by the National Commission for College of Education (NCCE). The College has a standard Library that open 7 days a week. The Library is fully stocked with current and up-to-date textbooks, journals, periodicals and other reference materials, similarly, we offers e-library services which includes Institutional Repository, online public access catalogue (OPAC) and Library Management software (KOHA). The library has a enough seating capacity and more than 47,128 physical collections. Equally the library has an extensive collections of e-resources that were subscribed via database (online and offline). The College Library complex is made up of two (2) major academic libraries

1. Musa Babayo Library
2. Yunusa Yusuf Library

 

1.1.2 Classification Schemes Use in The Library

The Dewey Decimal Classification Schemes popularly use for the classification of materials in school libraries, colleges libraries as well as public libraries. One of the principles of DDC is the arrangement of subjects by disciples. The Dewey decimal classification scheme divided knowledge into ten (10) broad headings or main classes using Arabic numerals. Each broad heading called a class (which represents a broad subject area) comprises three-digit number. The ten classes start from 000-999.

The general layout of the scheme is as follows:

000 — General work

100 — Philosophy

200 — Religion

300 — Social sciences

400 — Languages

500 — Pure science  (Natural science)

600 — Technology

700 — Art

800 — Literature

900 — History and geography

1.1.3 The Goals Of The College Library

The goals of the College Library Are As Follows;

1. To select acquire and maintain library resources in all formats for supporting teaching, learning, research and community services of the college.
2. To participate in resource sharing programmes at local, state and national levels in order to facilitate access to information resources not available in college library.
3. To assist library users to identify, locate and retrieve needed information and instruct them on how to use them for resource management and service provision.
4. To provide appropriate infrastructure and personnel.
5. To participate actively in teaching, learning, research and dissemination of information.

The Sa’adatu Rimi College of education complex has a number of Schools/Departments libraries each with its own functional units for which policies are required. College library, the main library of the college has the following functional section namely:

• Technical services section
• Readers services section
• Reference section Serials section
• Administrative section
• Information Communication Technology (ICT)

1.1.4 Services Provided by the Library

1. Circulation Services
2. Inter-Library Loan
3. Reference and information Services
4. Current Awareness Services (CAS)
5. Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI)
6. User Education
7. Compilation of Bibliographies
8. Indexing and Abstracting Services
9. Publishing of Guides to the Library
10. Compilation and maintenance of Statistics of Services
11. Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)
12. Internet/CD Rom search assistance
13. E-Resources (online)
14. Offline Resources

1.2 Statement of the General Problem

Training has been observed to be a very important device in personnel management in public as well as other libraries. In spite of the fact that no organization can grow in its services without continuous training of their staff, it has been observed that most workers of this library as well as other public libraries around them may not have been adequately exposed to training programmes. This probably affects workers’ efficiency adversely and as such it is certain that the public/users’ needs are not always satisfied.

• Objectives of the study

The following will serve as the aims and objectives in venturing into this study

1. To examine the impact of staff training on library development in Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, Kumbotso Kano State.

1. To know is a relationship exists between staff training and library development in Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, Kumbotso Kano State.
2. To examine the status of library in Kano state.
3. To know if Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education, Kumbotso library staff are adequately trained.

1.4 Research Questions

1. Does staff training impact on library development in Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education Kumbotso?

1. Is there a relationship between staff training and library development in Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education Kumbotso?
2. What is the true status of library in Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education Kumbotso?
3. Are library in Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education Kumbotso well equipped?
4. How adequately trained are library staff in Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education Kumbotso?

1.5. Significance of the study

The findings and outcome of this study will always help in sensitizing the management board of this and other libraries on the training programmes that should be provided for their workers.

It will also help researchers in librarianship, planners of library training programmes and the workers themselves by providing them with useful information.

1.6. Scope of the study

This study is restricted to the impact of staff training on library development having a case study of Sa’adatu Rimi College of Education Kumbotso Library.

 1.7. Limitation to the study

Financial Constraint– Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time Constraint– The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

1.8. Operational Definition of Key Terms

Library: A building or room containing collections of books, periodicals, and sometimes films and recorded music for use or borrowing by the public or the members of an institution.

Staff: All the people employed by a particular organization.

Training: The action of teaching a person or animal a particular skill or type of behaviour.

Staff Training: Staff training is a programme implemented by a manager or person of authority to provide specific staff members with the necessary skills and knowledge for their current role.

Project – The impact of staff training on library education development