Knowledge Sharing Among School Library Personnel in Nigeria: How Do Digital and Media Literacies Interfere?

1. Introduction

The school library is an essential component of the school system as it provides the required facilities to complement and supplement the process of teaching and learning as well as other activities geared towards the achievements of the educational objectives and goals of any nation. Therefore, the school library is described as the library established within the school environment and a type of library with the sole commitment to the provision of learning and information resources for the implementation of a basic and post-basic education curriculum. Markless and Streatifield cited in Sote, Aramide, and Gbotosho (2011) emphasized that school libraries are established to support the educational curriculum of schools, which could only be achieved through various means such as the provision of relevant library resources relevant to the school curricula, provision of various information services ranging from technical to readers services as well as provision of qualified personnel to coordinate the operations and activities of the library. It is, therefore, suffice to say that the functionality of the school library is dependent on the availability of school library personnel. The school library personnel within the context of this study includes all the staff working in the library irrespective of whether the staff has qualifications in librarianship or not. This fact was established during the preliminary investigation carried out on this study.

Moreover, it has also been established in the literature that competent and effective library staff is the cornerstone of any good SLMC. In other words, it is not the extensiveness of the collection or the amount of budget or the spacious building fitted with modern amenities of a library but the qualified trained librarian supported by other staff members who make the library truly functional. If the number of school library staff is inadequate, or if the librarian lacks the qualification which his/her work requires, it is certain that the SLMC will not function as an educational force. Hence, the provision of adequate supporting staff is very much essential in achieving excellence in library and information services (Kolade, 1998). Also, IFLA/UNESCO (2002) emphasized the importance of well-trained and highly motivated staff made up of a sufficient number of members according to the size of the school and its special needs for library services. This is because the richness and quality of the library provision depend upon staffing resources available within and beyond the school library. The Federal Republic of Nigeria minimum standard for school libraries (1992) stressed that every school library should be equipped with a school librarian, library assistant, typist, technician, cleaner as well as security and that these personnel should possess requisite qualifications, skills and abilities to enable them to perform adequately on their jobs. Some of the skills necessary for school library personnel include ICT skills, media and digital literacies.

2. Background to the Study

School library personnel are witnessing changes in methods of discharging their professional and administrative duties as well as other services. This is mostly due to technological advancement which has resulted in the emergence of several web-based platforms as well as the availability of an avalanche of knowledge-based information. The sharing of relevant, work-related, and important knowledge among school library personnel is a signal of teamwork in the profession, and which might be considered as the key ingredient for school libraries that seek to remain competitive in information management. Knowledge sharing within the context of this study is the exchange of knowledge acquired among school library personnel and other designated staff in charge of school libraries in order to boost the effective and efficient library service delivery to school library users which include, students, teachers and others within the school community. The sharing of knowledge among school library personnel could be done electronically, interpersonally, at workshops, conferences, seminars, and meetings. This is done in order to improve the quality, safety and effectiveness of library service delivery. Knowledge sharing is a vital component of information management practice that also takes various forms such as interactions, brainstorming, personal relationship, exchanges and dialogue, social networks, meetings and workshops.

Knowledge is a critical organizational resource that provides a sustainable competitive advantage in a dynamic and competitive economy (Aliakbar, Yusoff, & Mahmood, 2012), hence organizations must know how to transfer knowledge and expertise from experts to people who need to it. Consequently, knowledge sharing among individuals has become one of the most important elements of effective knowledge processing. Also, because of the potential benefits of knowledge sharing, many organizations have invested remarkable time and money into the knowledge management system to capture, store, create, and distribute knowledge. According to Cumming (2004) knowledge sharing is strongly related to performance, reduction in production costs, firm innovation capacities, faster completion of new product development projects, and firm performance, including revenue and sales growth from new services and products. The importance of knowledge sharing to business leads to obtain ownership, high commitment, job satisfaction, competitive advantages (Razak et al., 2016). In addition, with successful knowledge sharing practices, it is expected that businesses would be able to respond to a changing environment for improving business performance through innovative capacity and faster completion of jobs. Furthermore, effective practice of knowledge sharing could contribute to increased productivity and profitability including revenue and sales growth through sharing of ideas, knowledge and experience for making decisions and solving problems. Peng (2017) highlighted the basic characteristics of knowledge sharing to include major individual behavior; voluntary, proactive, behavioral awareness; controlled by environmental systems or procedures, such as legal, ethical standards and code of conduct, habits; and jointly occupied by two or more parties.

Knowledge sharing enables subordinates to regulate their efforts to the organization’s prospects, as much as their self-development. It could, therefore, be inferred that a knowledgeable school library personnel would be equipped to use the shared knowledge to have a significant competitive advantage to improve self in decision-making, communication, cost reduction and coordination, among other benefits, and could as well be able to deliver on his/her mandate through the use of appropriate knowledge and skills. In the knowledge-based society, knowledge is a critical organizational resource that provides a sustainable competitive advantage such that knowledge about activities, services, customers/users is an increasingly valuable resource that needs to be shared broadly throughout an organization (Grant, 2008). Organizations must consider how to transfer knowledge from experts who have it to novices who need to know. The basic goal of knowledge sharing within and outside libraries is to leverage the available knowledge that may help information professionals to carry out their tasks more effectively. As a part of knowledge management (KM), knowledge sharing is believed to be a panacea for knowledge creation, and important activity to boost innovation, improve productivity, and increase understanding among information professionals.

As a newly emerging business approach, Knowledge Management has been working to address today’s organizational challenges to increase efficiency and effectiveness by applying various strategies, techniques and tools in their existing business processes. The key steps in the Knowledge Management process in an organization are often represented in the form of a Knowledge Management cycle. Dalkir’s (2013) integrated Knowledge Management Cycle covers 3 overarching phases which include; knowledge capture and/or creation; knowledge sharing and dissemination and knowledge acquisition and application. With the advancement in technology, knowledge sharing among school library personnel have evolved from the use of traditional method to the use of digital information, hence the need for school library personnel to possess the necessary digital and media literacy skills. With adequate digital and media literacy skill, they should be able create online content, share and distribute contents.

Research on digital literacy often focuses not only on what it means to be digitally literate but also on the impact on human beings of not being digitally literate. Concerns about the lack of digital access have given way to concerns about being ‘digitally illiterate’, i.e., lacking the skills, understandings and practices required to successfully navigate the ever-changing digital landscape. The evolving and expanding potential of new and emerging information, instructional, and communication technologies and digital tools demand that any defination of digital literacy must be fluid and organic in nature. Furthermore, what was once perceived as ‘the school’s responsibility’ to prepare students to be digitally literate citizens is now the acknowledged responsibility of all learning spaces, formal and informal (including the home and the workplace), to ensure both preparation and continuous updating of digital literacy skills, understandings and practices for everyone from toddlers to seniors. Digital literacy has been described as a constellation of life skills that are necessary for full participation in our media saturated information-rich society (Hobbs, 2010). It includes those capabilities that mean an individual is fit for living, learning and working in a digital society: the ability to locate, organize, understand, evaluate, analyze and present digital information, but also to appraise the impact of new technologies and manage digital identities (BCS The Chartered Institute for IT, 2013). Therefore, it goes beyond the development of functional IT skills to describe a richer set of digital behaviours, practices and identities” involving critical thinking, reflection and life-long learning, communication, collaboration, and social engagement (JISC, 2014).

Media literacy is the ability to understand how media works and is important for students’ success in school and other endeavours. Media literacy as a concept has been defined in different ways by different scholars. The Centre for Media Literacy (2009), defined media literacy as a framework to access, analyze, evaluate, and create messages in variety of forms. Thus, media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages across a variety of contexts. A media literate student should be able to decode, evaluate, analyze and produce both print (posters, charts, books, magazines, maps) and electronic media (emails, SMS, CDs, VCDs, Instagram, etc.). The importance of media literacy skills in the life of secondary school students cannot be over-emphasized as it would give room for competitiveness and choice by supporting innovative creativities and lifelong learning. In other words, media literacy is becoming increasingly popular in contemporary learning environment because of rapid technological changes which also requires secondary school students to acquire the necessary media literacy skills.

As a modern librarian’s task is to be able to use and distribute information in many formats other than print, he or she must be able to use all media, including digital media and social media. Technologies are changing and there is a need for library personnel to embrace them. School library personnel need much more in this digital age to embrace digital literacy skills on their work than ever before. Digital and media literacy helps professionals at all level to develop skills that can add to their economic status and improve their overall job performance and standard of living. There is a need for library personnel to have digital and media literacy skills so that they can use them to progress on their jobs and on their careers. With these skills, library personnel will be more equipped for resource sharing, social networking, surfing the net, instant messaging and blogging and a host of other digital and media-oriented activities. These skills can also help them on their jobs to assist users get desired information and education. Since these are skills that can be learnt, school library personnel should thrive to possess these digital and media literacy skills.

With the advancement in technology, school library personnels’ role in this digital age should have evolved from the traditional reading promotion, guidance, curriculum support services to the use of digital and media information to advance learning and research and serve as the best resource for student to learn information literacy. School library personnel should be able to create, search, evaluate, use, and disseminate electronic information on the various social media platform. With adequate digital and media literacy skills, they should be able to create online content, share and distribute useful educational content on social media platforms to the students and among teachers. School library personnel should be competent in creating social media profiles for the school to share useful media content to students and teachers, link the school with knowledgeable resources from their peers in other climes.

School library personnel would experience professional growth and benefit a great deal when they share knowledge among themselves (Beattie, 2011). This can easily be achieved through platforms such as workshops, seminars, conferences, meetings, among others. Coupled with the growing intrusion of digital and media technologies in libraries, school library personnel can utilize various digital platforms such as Wikis, Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. for knowledge-sharing purposes. The reality, however, is that it seems as if most school library personnel do not possess the digital and media literacy skills that would help them create, use, access, produce, evaluate, analyze, and share digital and media information. The level of participation of school library personnel in the digital environment for content creation and knowledge sharing is largely affected by their inadequate digital and media competencies. Therefore, this study investigated how digital and media literacies interfere with knowledge sharing among school libraries in Nigeria using private secondary schools in Ibadan Township as a case study. The decision to focus on private secondary schools is borne out of the fact that private schools are the only category of schools with a semblance of functional school libraries as revealed by the preliminary investigation carried out by the researcher at the study location. The majority of the public or government owned schools lack funtional libraries while the few with library buildings have no personnel. The scope of this study covers private secondary schools in Ibadan Township which comprises of Ibadan South-West, Ibadan South-East, Ibadan North-East, Ibadan North-West and Ibadan North Local Government Areas of Oyo State. Ibadan is a metropolitan city in Oyo State, Nigeria. The city of Ibadan is urban, has heterogeneous population and other characteristics that make it a suitable representation of other cities across Nigeria. In other words, Ibadan as a city typifies every other urban cities across Nigeria. For the variable scope, the digital literacy skills focussed on (ability to find, create, use and evaluate digital information) while media literacy skills focussed on (ability to access, analyze and produce media information). The scope of knowledge sharing covers available knowledge, types of knowledge being shared, people with whom knowledge is being shared, platform for sharing knowledge and interference. Also, the study considered three digital platforms which include; Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter while the respondents’ scope focussed on all categories of school library personnel working within the school libraries in private secondary schools in Ibadan Township, Oyo State, Nigeria.

The research questions that guided the study were as follows:

• ㆍWhat is the level of digital literacy possessed by school library personnel in Ibadan Township, Oyo State, Nigeria?
• ㆍWhat is the level of media literacy possessed by school library personnel in Ibadan Township, Oyo State, Nigeria?
• ㆍWhat is the level of knowledge sharing among school library personnel in Ibadan Township, Oyo State, Nigeria?
• ㆍTo what extent do digital and media literacies jointly contributed to knowledge sharing among school library personnel in Ibadan Township, Oyo State, Nigeria?
• ㆍWhat is the extent of relative contributions of digital and media literacies to knowledge sharing among school library personnel in Ibadan Township, Oyo State, Nigeria?

3. Theoretical background

Several theories and models have been propounded and developed in relation to knowledge sharing. Some of these theories and models include, Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Theory of Planned Behaviour (TBP), System Exchange Theory (SET), and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) are explained. Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) developed by Azjen and Fishbein in 1980 is a social psychology theory which focuses on the elements that determine the intention behaviour reasons. Studies (Azjen, 1980; Lin & Lee, 2004) have shown that TRA is successful in forecasting intention to knowledge sharing behaviour. Based on TRA, an individual performance of a specific behaviour is defined by her or his behavioural tendency to fulfil the behaviour, and behavioural intention is determined by the individual’s attitude and subjective norms. Some studies have been done by using TRA to explore the role of different variables in knowledge sharing. One of such studies is that of Zheng (2017) which explained that attitude toward knowledge sharing and subjective norms, as well as organizational climate, have positive effect on knowledge sharing behaviour. The study also highlighted that anticipated reciprocal relationships influence attitude and both sense of self-worth and organizational climate influence subjective norms, while anticipated extrinsic rewards are in negative relation to an individual’s knowledge sharing attitude.

Another theory relating to knowledge sharing is the Social Exchange Theory (SET). Social Exchange Theory (SET) is one of the most important theories for understanding organisational behaviour and knowledge sharing. Although various approaches of social exchange are being involved in a set of interactions, which produce obligations. These interactions within SET are often looked at as interdependent actions and, in this regard, several studies have been done based on SET to explore the relationship between individual’s communication and knowledge sharing behaviour. Wu and Lin (2006) in a study about knowledge sharing in virtual communities based on SET found that three factors have an indirect effects on knowledge sharing including, mutual communication, understanding, and trust while, factors including, mutual influence, commitment, and conflict have a direct effect on knowledge sharing. In another research Hall and Widén-Wulff (2008) in a survey to find about motivational knowledge sharing factors in an online environment reported that the extent to which information may be exchanged in an online environment depends on the degree to which actors are integrated with other actors.

Furthermore, the New Media Literacy Theory propounded by Lin et al. in 2013 presents a two-dimensional framework consisting of functional consuming vs. critical consuming, and functional prosuming vs. critical prosuming literacies. Consuming skill has indicators such as critical consuming skills and functional consuming skills. The critical consuming skill involves evaluation, synthesis and analysis while functional consuming skill involves understanding and consuming skills. Generally, the consuming skills refer to a series of technical skills necessary for an individual when an individual consumes media content. For example, it requires an individual to know how to operate a computer, how to search/locate information, how to use information technology (e.g. Internet), and so on. This indicator bears some resemblance with Buckingham (2015) access, which focuses on the ability to manipulate hardware and software and to gather information. Besides, the indicator also encompasses Chen and Wu’s (2011) access, which addresses the ability to use different format/modality of media. The presuming skills have indicators such as critical presuming which involves creation and participation as well as functional prosuming skill which involves production, distribution and presuming skill. In general, the presuming skill refers to a set of technical skills necessary for an individual to produce/create media content. For example, it involves individuals’ ability to set up an online communicative account (e.g. MSN, Skype, Blog, Gmail, and Facebook), to use software to generate various digital artifacts (e.g. picture, video clip, and flash), and to do programming (e.g. for computer or handphone devices).

4. Methodology

The study adopted a survey research design of the correlational type. The population of the study consists of all the 193 school library personnel spread across the 190 private secondary schools in the five local government areas in Ibadan Township, Oyo State, Nigeria. The total enumeration was adopted for the study. Therefore, all the 193 school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria were considered for this study. The instrument for data collection for this study was adapted from Osinulu (2019), for this study and tagged “Digital and Media Literacies on Knowledge Sharing Questionnaire”. The original questionnaire has original reliability is 0.88. The questionnaire is divided into 3 sections with each section designed to elicit information from respondents. The instrument was vetted by experts in librarianship and media technology and administered to 20 school library personnel of private secondary schools in Ibadan Less City, Oyo State, Nigeria which were not part of the respondents for the original study. The reliability coefficients for each of the section of the instrument were as follows: Digital literacy skills= 0.92, Media literacy skills= 0.85 and knowledge sharing= 0.75. Also, the overall reliability coefficient was 0.90

5. Data Analysis and Discussion of Findings

A total of 193 copies of questionnaire were administered to the respondents out of which only 180 copies were returned with useful and useable data. This represents a response rate of 93.3% which was considered adequate for the study.

RQ 1: What is the level of digital literacy possessed by school library personnel in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria?

Digital literacy was considered using 4 indicators of finding information, creating information, using information and evaluating information. Results of the skills relating to finding information possessed by the respondents revealed that the ability to determine the information they need, ability to integrate information into new knowledge when using social media tools/sites and ability to bookmark a web page topped the list of skills for finding information possessed by the majority of the respondents with response rates of 126(70.0%), 135(75.0%) and 118(65.6%) respectively. This implies that abilities to; determine the information needed, integrate information into new knowledge when using social media tools/sites and bookmark a web page are major skills of finding information possessed by school library personnel in private secondary schools surveyed in Ibadan Township. In determining the level of skill for finding information possessed by the respondents the weighted mean was set against the criterion mean and it was discovered that the weighted mean of 2.97 is greater than the criterion means of 2.50 set for a high level of information finding skills. It can therefore be deduced that school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan Township possessed a high level of information finding skills. The table further present the result of skills in creating information possessed by the respondents as shown in Table 1. The result revealed that the majority of the respondents affirmed that they can share audio and or video online(115, 63.8%)and that they can start and manage online discussion (120, 66.7%) as well as add comments to a web, forum or blog (104, 57.8%). This implies that abilities to; share audio and or video online, start and manage online discussion and add comments to a web, forum or blog are major skills of creating information possessed by school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan Township. Also, since the weighted mean of 2.77 calculated for creating information skill is higher than the criterion mean of 2.50 set for high level of information creation skills, it can be deduced that the school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria possessed a high level of information creation skill. Result on the use of information by the respondents as shown in Table 1 revealed the ability to use computer/communication device using office application, ability to communicate through e-mail using smart phones, IPad and tablet and ability to use common mobile communication devices easily a stopping the list of information use skills possessed by the respondents with response rates of 174(96.6%), 175(97.3%) and 170(94.4%) respectively. It can thus be deduced that abilities to; use computer/communication device using office application, communicate through email using smart phones, IPad and tablet and use common mobile communication devices easily are the major information use skills possessed by school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. In determining the level of information use skill possessed by the respondents, the weighted mean calculated was set against the criterion mean of 2.50 set as benchmark for high level of information use skills. Therefore, since the weighted mean of 3.27 is greater than the criterion mean of 2.50, it can be deduced that the school library personnel in the private secondary schools in Ibadan Township have high level of information use skill. The result on the evaluation of information skills possessed by the respondents revealed that majority of the respondents affirmed ability to share files legally with others with response rate of 166(92.3%),awareness of issues on cyber safety with response rate of 152(84.4%) and ability to apply all skills for internet surfing, searching webpage with response rate of 139(77.2%) as topping the list of information evaluation skills possessed by them. This implies that abilities to; share files legally with others, awareness of issues on cyber safety and apply all skills for internet surfing, searching webpage are major skills possessed by school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan Township. Also, a high level of information evaluation skills possession was established since the weighted mean calculated is greater than the criterion mean of 2.50 set as benchmark for high level of information evaluation skills possession by the respondents.

Table 1.

Digital Literacy Skills Possessed by School Library Personnel in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria Township

RQ 2: What is the level of media literacy possessed by school library personnel in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria?

Media literacy was considered using 3 indicators of accessing information, analyzing information and producing information. The result on accessing media information revealed the ability to access genuine media information, familiarity with the operational functions of media and ability to determine the genuine source of information as topping the list of accessing media information skills possessed by the respondents with response rates of 160(88.9%), 166(92.3%) and 151(83.9%) as affirmed by the majority of the respondents. This revealed ability to access genuine media information, familiarity with the operational functions of media and ability to determine the genuine source of information as major information accessing skills possessed by school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan Township. Also, a high level of accessing information skills was established among the respondents since the weighted mean of 3.39 is greater than the criterion mean of 2.50 set for high level of accessing information skills. Therefore, it can be deduced that school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria possessed high level skill of accessing media information.

On the possession of analyzing media information skills, results showed that the majority of the respondents affirmed that they can analyze information in a non-print format, understand how to operate media devices and can analyze information in print format with 169(93.9%), 165(91.6%) and 162(90.0%) response rates respectively. It can be deduced from the results that abilities to; analyze information in non-print format, understand how to operate media devices and analyze information in print format are the major skills possessed by school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. The researcher went ahead to determine the level of anaysing media access skills possessed by the respondents and established a high level of analysisng media information media skills among the respondents since the weighted mean of 3.35 calculated was greater than the criterion mean of 2.50 set for high level skills. This implies that school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan Township possessed high level skills of analyzing media information. Moreover, on the production media skills possessed by the respondents, the results revealed that majority of the respondents affirmed that they are able to; utilized media for their job(156, 86.7%), produce information in digital format(151, 83.9%) and cite sources from non-print (15, 83.9%). The implication to be drawn from this is that ability to utilize media for their job, ability to produce information in digital format and ability to cite sources from non-print are major skills possessed by school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. The result further revealed a high level of media production skills among the respondents since the weighted mean of 3.26 calculated is greater than the criterion mean of 2.50. Therefore, it can be deduced that school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria possess high level of media production skills.

Table 2.

Media Literacy Skills Possessed by School Library Personnel in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

RQ 3: What is the level of knowledge sharing among school library personnel in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria?

The result on the level of knowledge sharing among the respondents showed that the majority of the respondents attested to sharing of manuals and other job-related information (145, 80.6%), knowledge relevant to their field (142, 78.9%), Professional training, workshop, conferences and other professional events (141, 78.3%) and sharing manuals and other information about job schedules (140, 77.8%) by them. The implication to be drawn from this is that school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria share knowledge about manuals and other information about their job, knowledge relevant to their field, Professional training, workshop, conferences and other events in their profession and sharing manuals and other information about their job among themselves. On the level of knowledge sharing the result established a high level of knowledge sharing among the respondents since the weighted mean of 1.75 is higher than the criterion mean of 1.50 set as a threshold for a high level of knowledge sharing. This implies that there is the high level of knowledge sharing among school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.

Table 3.

Knowledge Sharing Among School Library Personnel in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

RQ 4: To what extent do digital and media literacies jointly contributed to knowledge sharing among school library personnel in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria?

The joint contribution of digital literacy skills (finding digital information, create digital information, use of digital information and evaluate digital information) and media literacy skills (access to media information, analyze media information and produce media information) to knowledge sharing was significant (F(7,173)= 26.187; p<0.05). Results further revealed a multiple regression coefficients (R= 0.588) and multiple regression adjusted (R2= 0.333). This implies that digital and media literacy skills accounted for 33.3% of the variation in knowledge sharing among school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.

Table 4.

Summary of Multiple regression analysis on joint contribution of digital and media literacy skills to knowledge sharing among school library personnel in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

RQ 5: What is the extent of relative contributions of digital and media literacies to knowledge sharing among school library personnel in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

Results on the relative contributions of digital literacy and media literacy skills to the knowledge sharing as expressed as beta weights among school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria revealed that finding digital information (β= 0.145; t= 2.834; p<0.05), evaluating digital information (β= 0.319; t= 5.291; p<0.05) and producing media information (β= 0.506; t= 8.587; p<0.05) have significant relative contributions to knowledge sharing among school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. The extent of contributions of digital and media literacy skills to knowledge sharing among school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan metropolis revealed producing information as the leading contributor with 50.6%, followed by evaluating digital information with 31.9% and finding digital information with a contribution of 14.5%.

Table 5.

Summary of Multiple Regression showing relative contribution of digital literacy and media literacy skills to knowledge sharing among school library personnel in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

6. Discussion of findings

The interpretation of the results and inferences drawn brought out some findings. Findings from the study revealed abilities to; determine the information needed, integrate information into new knowledge when using social media tools/sites and bookmarking a web page as major skills of finding information possessed by school library personnel in the private secondary schools surveyed in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Furthermore, abilities to; share audio and or video online, start and manage online discussion and add comments to a web, forum or blog are major skills of creating information possessed by school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Furthermore, abilities to; use computer/communication device using office application, communicate through email using smart phones, IPad and tablet and use common mobile communication devices easily are the major information use skills while abilities to use computer/communication device using office application, communicate through email using smartphones, IPad and tablet and use common mobile communication devices easily as information use skills possessed by the respondents possessed by the school library personnel surveyed. It can therefore be deduced that school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan Township possessed a high level of information finding skills. Also, abilities to; share files legally with others, awareness of issues on cyber safety and apply all skills for internet surfing, searching webpage are major skills possessed by school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan Township. Findings from the study established high levels of information finding skills, information creation skills, information use skills and information evaluation skills possession by school library personnel in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.

Moreover, the study investigated media literacy skills possessed by the school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Findings from the study revealed, ability to access genuine media information, familiarity with the operational functions of media and ability to determine the genuine sources of information as major “information accessing skills” while abilities to; analyze information in a non-print format, understand how to operate media devices and analyze information in print format are established as major “media information analysis skills” possessed by the school library personnel. This finding corroborates the results of Hobbs (2010) and Elegbede (2015) that to participate effectively in the media-saturated environment a digitally literate employee should be able to analyze information in both print and non-print formats. Also, findings from the study revealed abilities to; utilize media for their job, produce information in digital format and cite sources from non-print as major “production media skills” possessed by the school library personnel. This finding supported the result from Martinson (2009) study which established that media literate people should be able to utilize media for their jobs and produce information in digital format and also substantiated the position of OFCOM (2010) that media literacy empowers people to understand and actively participate in discussions using media to make their voice heard. Governments and individuals across the world have taken cognizance of the fact that media literacy is a prerequisite for effective participation in technological societies and in the 21st century. Abubakar and Adetimirin (2015) corroborated that the use of media depends largely on skills. Also, the finding is in support of Tomaszewicz’s (2015) assertion that media literacy skills allow individuals to use, compose and share information and supports the claim that media literacy skill is essential for modern citizens in all fields of human endeavors. On the other hand, the finding of this study is at variance with the position of Chang et al. (2011) that individuals have lived long with media but are not conscious of the relevance of media to their tasks though Abioye (2015) pointed out that there is no star kill iterate individual as far as media literacy skills are concerned because literacy level is in stages. Park (2012) asserted that media users must be able to determine the geniuses and validity of media information available to them. Also, high levels of information accessing skills, media information analysis skills and media production skills were established among the school library personnel.

Findings on the types of knowledge being shared among the school library personnel revealed that knowledge about manuals and other information about their job, knowledge relevant to their field, Professional training, workshop, conferences and other events in their profession and sharing manuals and other information about their job among themselves are the most common knowledge shared among the school library personnel in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria just as a high level of knowledge sharing was established. A significant joint contribution of digital literacy skills (finding digital information, create digital information, use of digital information and evaluate digital information) and media literacy skill (access of media information, analyze media information and produce media information) to knowledge sharing was established. This finding negates the result of Helsper and Gerner (2009) study which reported that a combination of digital and media literacy skills does not have a significant contribution to knowledge sharing among school librarians. On the other hand, the result of this study is consistent with the assertion of Ward (2006) that digital and media literacy skills are an inseparable and powerful combination that enhances the quality and efficiency of communication and collaboration and the result of MacArthur Foundation (2010) that reported digital and media literacy as fundamental for understanding information communicated through the social media. Findings on the relative contributions of digital literacy and media literacy skills to knowledge sharing among school library personnel in private secondary schools in the Ibadan Township, Oyo State, Nigeria revealed that finding digital information, evaluating digital information, and producing media information as having significant relative contributions to knowledge sharing among school library personnel in private secondary schools in Oyo State, Nigeria. The extent of contributions of digital and media literacy skills to knowledge sharing among school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan metropolis revealed producing information as the leading contributor, followed by evaluating digital information and finding digital information. The finding supports the position of Panahi, Watson, and Soffer (2012) ability to create media information and handling digital information are competencies required by students for effective knowledge sharing among students. This suggests that the more digital literate the greater the ability to use and share online service and resources.

7. Conclusion

This study was carried out to investigate how digital and media literacy skills interfere with knowledge sharing among school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. School library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria possessed a high level of digital literacy skills. Abilities to find, create, use and evaluate information were the major digital literacy skills possessed by the school library personnel. Possession of a high level of media literacy skills was also established among the school library personnel while abilities to access, analyze and produce media information were found to be the major media literacy skills possessed by the school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. School library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria have a high level of knowledge sharing. Knowledge about manuals and other information about their job, knowledge relevant to their field, professional training, workshop, conferences and other events in their profession and sharing manuals and other information about their job are major knowledge being shared among the school library personnel. Digital and media literacy skills jointly contributed to knowledge sharing among school library personnel in private secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria while production of media information, finding digital information and evaluating digital information were the only digital and media literacy skills that relatively contributed significantly to knowledge sharing among school library personnel in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Therefore, an increase in the level of digital and media literacy skills possessed by school library personnel would lead to effective knowledge sharing which in turn would improve call for meetings within and outside the school environment, updating knowledge on recent information, supporting project research, disseminate reports, and communicate with school library users. It is pertinent to add that the digital and media literate school library personnel would thrive well in the digital age if the necessary machinery is put in place to support the development of digital and media skills and use social media innovation to reach out to students and staff, disseminating information and receiving feedbacks

8. Recommendations

This study recommended that training and retraining of school library personnel on digital and media literacy skills should be given adequate attention to enable them to function effectively in the digital environment. Specific efforts should be made to ensure the acquisition of relevant media literacy skills by the school library personnel to enable them to produce and make use of appropriate media in providing qualitative service to the library users. Management of schools should develop institutional ICT policy needed to upgrade digital and media literacy skills of staff.

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