Emerging Artificial Intelligence Tools and Librarians’ Readiness for Information Service Delivery at Public University Libraries in South-South, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined emerging Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and librarians’ readiness for information services provision in public university libraries in South-South, Nigeria. It adopted a descriptive research design, with a population of one hundred and thirty-eight (138) professional librarians from ten (10) public university libraries. The total enumeration sampling technique was used. Data were collected using the researchers’ structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was pilot-tested using Cronbach alpha formula, which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.82. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts, mean and standard deviation. The study revealed that the overall level of librarians’ knowledge of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for information services provision in the public university libraries was low with a grand mean of 2.45. It indicated a moderate level of librarians’ readiness for adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools for information services provision with a grand mean of 2.57, and attributed it to the librarians’ inadequate skills in technical areas of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. It identified lack of institutional policy to regulate AI tools’ integration by librarians, absence of consistent high-speed internet connectivity, lack of AI support infrastructural facilities, etc., as the major challenges to librarians’ readiness for adoption of AI tools in information services provision. The study recommended that management of public universities should re-align their investments on AI tools and training of librarians in line with emerging needs of the university libraries to enhance librarians’ capacities for effective information services provision in the public university libraries.