Influence of Age, Job Status, ICT Literacy Skills and ICT Use on Task Performance of Library Personnel in Public Universities

1. Introduction

University library provides support services to its parental organization through its professionals and paraprofessionals who are librarians and library officers respectively. They perform core functions (acquisition, organization, preservation, retrievals and dissemination). Some of the tasks performed by them ranges from collection development, cataloguing, classification, references, acquisition, budgeting, organization, serials controlling, online searching including the delivery of library services and dissemination of information in the right format, at the right time and in the right quantity, (Maceli & Burke, 2016; Oyedipe & Popoola, 2018). Though these functions are fundamental to the existence of a university library, the proliferation of information in this century has hindered their task performance greatly resulting in unsatisfactory services delivery.

Task performance which is the extent to which personnel performs core job responsibility is important for overall library success. Oyedipe and Popoola (2018) describe task performance as the outcome of personnel input in terms of actions and behaviours that enables the achievement of overall organization goals and objectives. Liang et al. (2011) also referred to it as work outcomes. The ability and capability of library personnel to perform functions competently is essential for the overall effectiveness of the library. Most library personnel attitude to performing duties and responsibilities leaves much to be desired and this result in unsatisfactory service delivery. Even though the library management in the public university libraries expected good task performances from their staff, nevertheless, the proliferation of information in this dispensation has made efficient task performance unattainable without the deployment of information and communication technology to carry out job functions.

Information and communication technology (ICT) can be described as the convergence of computers (equipment and software) and other micro electronics devices that are capable of capturing, processing, storing, retrieving and disseminating information to users. Such ICTs include computer, Internet, printers, CD/DVD, photocopier digital camera, projector, telephone fax and others. ICT facilities have become major tools needed by every personnel in the library to perform their core tasks. Though ICT has improved the speed of working and the delivery of accurate and timely result by information professionals nonetheless, several factors like personnel characteristics such as age, job status and the state of their ICT skills do impede on the use of ICT which have implication on personnel task performance.

The ability of library personnel to actually utilize ICT in practice requires the possession of some level ICT skills. Being competent in the use of ICT is important to task performance in the university libraries of the 21^st century. The tasks of budgeting, acquisition, online cataloguing and classification, bibliographic compilation, online information searching, and the delivery of library services would be easily attainable. In the same vein, characteristics of the library personnel which is embedded in their demographics has implications on their task performance. Though demographics encompasses age, gender, marital status, educational status, work experience and income, this study would only consider the influence of age and job status on task performance of library personnel. Library personnel’s age and job status can influence the way and manner personnel responds to duty and responsibilities in the library. Age is a demographic factor that has been found to have influence on performance of individual employee either directly or indirectly. It is the manifestation of different stages of growth in life. Human beings manifest different traits as they undergo different stages in their growth and this has some effects on their performances as well.

Job status on the other hand, is indicated by job titles which have to do with placement within a job hierarchy. Job status is the category a worker belongs to in the employment hierarchy within an organization and this could engender in individual sense of duty and responsibility which would enable personnel perform well on the job. It is associated with depth of knowledge, skills and experience expected of a person to perform a specific role.

Both age and job rank of individuals have inherent capacity to influence the way one reacts to or use information and communication technology (ICT). They have the capacity to affect personnel preferences to acquire relevant ICT skills that will culminate into ICT use. Age affects the ability to acquire new skills. Many older people feel intimidated by technology and this is why they develop phobia for it. They are reluctant to use computer and other electronic devices. This perhaps might be due to their late exposure, and their non flexibility in learning new things which sometimes results in outright reluctance to use ICT (De Koning & Gelderblom, 2006). This is most often common with older library personnel who are very close to retirement. This kind of resistance is not peculiar to technology alone but majorly to change (Kunze, Boehm, & Bruch, 2013), and can be inimical to library personnel task performance. Moreover, ICT has assumed important role in the dispensation of information in libraries and other information centres, hence this study. It has been discovered that there is a dearth of literature on demographics in relation to ICT therefore, this study is an attempt to close such gap and add to literature in the field.

2. Theoretical Background

3. Methodology

The study aimed at finding the influence of age, job status, ICT skills and use on task performance of public university library personnel. The study employed correlation design. The survey was carried out in the South-west geo-political zone in Nigeria. The population was made up of 330 library personnel (librarians and library officers) selected through total enumeration method, from 13 public university libraries. Questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents with a response rate of 76.6%. The Questionnaire was divided into 2 categories: Library Personnel Task Performance Questionnaire (LPTPQ) and Supervisors’ Ratings of Library Personnel Scale. (SRLPS). The library personnel task performance questionnaire (LPTPQ), was made up of four scales namely: demographics (DS), ICT Skills (ICTS), ICT Use (ICTU) and Self ratings of library Personnel, Scale (SRLPS). The SRLPS has 10 constructs and each of the constructs has five items each making fifty (50) items. The average of self-assessment and supervisors’ ratings of task performance traits were taken as task performance ratings of each respondent. The data was analyzed using mean standard deviation; regression and multiple regressions to answer the research questions and the null hypotheses.

4. Results

Table 1 indicates that respondents aged between 26-35 years were in the majority 125 (50.4%). This is followed by respondents aged 56 years and above constituting 36 (14.5%) while respondent within the age bracket of 36-45 years are the lowest 25 (10.1%). This indicates that young adults were in the majority which may have implication on respondents’ use of ICT for their task performance. Distribution of respondents by their gender revealed that the male gender is in the majority. According to the result analyzed 163 (65.7%) of the respondents are male while 85 (34.3%) are female. This shows that majority of the respondents that constitute the population sampled are male. This is quite unusual in the profession where females used to be dominant. The table indicates that those in Librarian 1 cadre are 35 (14.1%) respondents, Principal Librarians, 33 (13.3%); while the least are Deputy University Librarians, 11 (4.4%); Chief Library Officer II, 11 (4.4%); Chief Library Officer I, 4 (1.6%). Inference from the table indicates that majority of those sampled are in the Librarian 1 cadre.

Table 1.

Demographics Distribution of Respondents

• Research Question 1: What is the level of task performance of library personnel in public university libraries in South-west, Nigeria?

Table 2 presents the average of self-assessment and supervisor’s ratings of task performances of respondents. Test of norm of the task performance questionnaire indicated that task performance of library personnel is high in the aspect of job knowledge, task quantity, task quality and job skills, and low in terms or planning and organizing, communication and creativity. The analysis reveals that job knowledge had the highest mean score of 20.77 followed by task quantity of 20.62 and task quality with a mean score of 20.53. Since weighted mean is 20.4 it means timeliness, adaptability, supervision, planning and organizing, communication and creativity have lower mean score. It could be inferred from the table that respondents’ high job knowledge and skills could be due to the impact of seminars, workshops and conferences interventions by TETFUND.

Table 2.

Task performances of library personnel in public universities

• Research Question 2: What is the level of ICT skills of library personnel in public university libraries in the South-west, Nigeria?

Table 3 presents the descriptive analysis using frequency, percentages, mean score and standard deviation of ICT skills of respondents in university libraries in South-west. On sub items under computing skills, ability to download and save had the highest mean score ratings of X = 3.87. This is followed by formatting and document processing skills as well as word processing skills with a mean score ratings of X = 3.73 respectively. On Internet Navigation skills: The sub items information sources evaluation skills has highest mean score ratings of X = (3.93), followed by browsing and navigating skills with a X = 3.87.

Table 3.

Level of ICT skills of library personnel in public universities

On Computing Management skills: E-mail management skills, has the highest mean score ratings of X = 3.60; On Computing Application skills: the ability to use the OPAC for information retrieval, has the highest mean score rating of X = 3.92 among the sub items. This is followed by digitization skills, with a X =3.70 and library automation skills, equally has a X = 3.69; Inference from the above indicates that information sources and evaluation skills has the highest mean score rating while database creation skills has the lowest mean score ratings.

• Research Question 3: What is the level and frequency of ICT use among library personnel?

Table 4.

Level and frequency of ICT use in public university libraries

The test norm of the ICT use by the respondents indicate that a score of 1-26 implies low use of ICT, 27-52 moderate use of ICT and 53-80 high use of ICT. Since overall mean score of ICT use by the respondents is X = 47.92, SD = 14.28 and this falls within the interval 27-52. This revealed moderate use of ICT among personnel in public libraries in the South west.

Furthermore, the table presents frequency distribution of ICT tools used by library personnel. Computer daily use is 86.3%, with a mean score of (4.71, SD = 1.85). Daily use of the Internet is 67.7% with a mean score of (4.15, SD = 1.6). Daily use of the telephone/ipad phones/smart Phones is 61.7% with a mean score of (4.00, SD = 1.51). Daily use of printer is 48.8% with a mean score of (3.95, SD = 1.35). Daily use of photocopier is 46.0% with a mean score of (3.65, SD = 1.55) CD/DVD daily use is 3.33% with a mean score of (3.33, SD = 1.67).

• Research Question 4: What is the relative influence of age job status ICT skills and ICT use on task performance?

Table 5.

Relative influence of Age, Job Status, ICT Literacy Skills and ICT Use on Task Performance

The table shows that Age (β=.857, t= 4.56; P<0.05); Job status (β=.841, t= 3.12; P<.05) ICT skills (β=.501, t= 4. 68; P<.05) and ICT use (β= .775, t= 3.33; P<.05) had significant influence on task performance of respondents. The table above indicated that age of respondents were positive and significantly influence task performance of library personnel. Age has relative influence (β= 0.135), Job Status has a relative influence (β = 0.175), ICT skills has relative influence of (β = 0.217) and ICT use has relative influence (β= 0.81) on task performance of the respondents.

• Ho 1: There is no significant relationship among age, job status, ICT skills, ICT use and task performance of respondents.

Table 6.

Summary of Test of Significant Relationships among the Variables of Study

This table shows a summary of significant relationships between age, job status, ICT skills, ICT use by respondents and task performance of respondents. The result from this table indicates that a significant relationship existed between age and task performance (r= 0.377, P<0.05), job and task performance (r= 0.477, P<0.05), ICT skills and task performance (r= 336, P<0.05) and ICT use and task performance (r= 0.332, P<0.05). It can be implied from this result that age, job status, ICT skills and ICT use have significant positive relationship with task performance of library personnel in universities in the South-west.

• Ho 2: There is significant joint influence of age job status ICT skills, ICT use and task performance of respondents.

Table 7 shows the joint influence of the independent variables (Age, Status, ICT Literacy Skills and ICT Use) on the Task Performance was significant. The table shows the coefficient of multiple correlations and multiple determinations of 0.356 and 0.126 respectively. This indicated that 12.6% of the variance in task performance of the respondents was accounted for by the predictor variables when taken together. The significance of the composite contribution was tested at p<0.05. The table also shows that the analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the regression yielded a F-ratio of 8.791. This implies that the joint contribution of the independent variables to the dependent variable was significant and that other variables not included in this model may have accounted for the remaining variance.

Table 7.

The joint influence of the Age, Job Status, ICT Literacy Skills and ICT Use on Task Performance

The findings of this study revealed further that there is a joint influence of age, job status, ICT skills and use on library personnel performance of core tasks. Possession of relevant ICT skills and the ability to use ICT were found to have impacted positively on library personnel task performance. This was confirmed in study which found out that utilisation of ICT by library professionals is a factor of the level of literacy skills possessed by them. Both age and job status has consequences for possession of relevant ICT skills and its consequent use in performing job duties.

5. Discussion

The result indicated that there was significant influence between (demographics) age, job status, ICT skills and ICT use and task performance of library personnel in university libraries in South-west, Nigeria. The result is consistent with the findings by Waldman and Avolio (1986), Shaffril and Uli (2010), who affirmed the relevance of age to task performance among employees. This is because mental functionality in human beings generally has been found to increase as one ages which means both age groups can be considered as essential resource for library productivity. Okeoghene (2016) equally reported that ICT use influence job performance of librarians at the National Open Universities in Nigeria thus confirming that ICT facilities are congruent of high performance in the library.

The finding from this study showed that there is significant relationship between age and job performance. This is in consonance with Oyewole and Popoola (2014), Kahya (2007) who reported that employee job grade has relationship with his job performance. Job status was equally found to have significant relationship with the task performance of respondents. This is an indication that job status of personnel is highly relevant to effective handling of assigned tasks, duties and responsibilities. This finding is in consonance with that of Gyanti (2015) which found out that demographic characteristics influence academic employees’ performance in Kenya university. It equally affirmed the findings of Loughlin and Murray (2013) which showed that job status is a congruent of job quality, which has much to do with efficiency and effectiveness of personnel. Age, job status, ICT skills and ICT use were found to have joint influence on task performance. This is because demographics of personnel can determine their response to ICT use which can only be possible when personnel have acquired relevant ICT skills.

6. Conclusion

This study has highlighted the relevance of ICT use in library practice and the possession of ICT skills as important requisition for library personnel. It is evident in this millennium that ICT has become mandatory for personnel working in the university library. Therefore, all categories of age groups of varying professional status must strive to acquire relevant ICT skills that will empower them to use ICT to carry out their job tasks. Both should engender efficiency and effectiveness in personnel performance. Library personnel must carry out their job responsibilities with promptness, alacrity and sense of purpose in order to attain high task performance. The study recommended among others the followings:

• • Demographics of personnel should be given consideration when assessing personnel task performance and during recruitment because of its inherent capacity to influence personnel performances and productivity.
• • Library should create an enabling atmosphere for library personnel to use ICT to do their jobs while leveraging their demographics positively to bring about positive disposition to their jobs.
• • Possession of require ICT skills should be made mandatory for all categories of staff in the library. This will enable tasks to be dealt with promptly, expeditiously and thereby prevent redundancy and waste of our human resources.

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