AWARENESS AND USE OF EMERGING TOOLS FOR KNOWLEDGE SHARING AS PERCEIVED BY LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE EDUCATORS IN SELECTED LIBRARY SCHOOLS IN SOUTH-WEST, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated awareness and use of emerging tools for knowledge sharing as perceived by Library and Information Science (LIS) Educators in selected library schools in South-West Nigeria. Total enumeration technique was adopted to capture library educators in the selected library schools. Thirty-five (35) copies of the questionnaire were administered, out of this, a total of 30 (75%) copies were returned and analysed using simple percentages, frequency counts, mean and Standard Deviation. The findings revealed that LIS educators were moderately aware of emerging tools such as blogs, videoconferencing, Google drive, Research Gate, Academia and skype for knowledge sharing. The frequency of use of the emerging tools for knowledge sharing is often while perception of the respondents towards the use of emerging tools for knowledge sharing is positive (  =3.11). Major challenges facing the use of emerging tools for knowledge sharing as perceived by the LIS educators were inadequate communication tools like internet and intranet technologies (  =2.90), inadequate infrastructure that support the use of emerging tool for knowledge sharing (  =2.70) Recommendations proffered to enhance the use of emerging tools for knowledge sharing among LIS educators are provision of adequate internet technology on university campuses, adequate provision of infrastructure and an enabling environment to support knowledge sharing and training and retraining of library educators in the use of emerging tools for knowledge sharing.