Skills requirements of academic librarians in a digital library environment in Northwestern Nigeria

This study sought to examine the required digital skills of academic librarians for the effective management of digital libraries in Northwestern Nigeria. Purposive sampling technique was adopted with a survey questionnaire as an instrument for data collection. A total of 100 participants constituted the study population. The data collected were analysed descriptively using frequencies and percentages with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26. The findings of the study revealed that most of the librarians have basic principles of computing skills, and online teaching and learning skills via Google Meet, Zoom and online book clubs for providing services in the libraries; librarians have had formal training, attended workshops and short courses, and have been placed in other libraries for skills acquisition; among the challenges that impeded the abilities of digital librarians to effectively manage the digital libraries included a lack of funds, a lack of training opportunities, poor internet connectivity, constant power failure, and a lack of physical facilities. It was concluded that skills required by academic librarians as well as funding challenges in tertiary institutions in Northwest are enumerated in this work and are enormous in the advent of information communication technology (ICT). The study recommended that university management should strengthen the skills of librarians, particularly in digital library architecture and software, technical and quality standards, web markup languages, database development, web design, telecommuting, and Cloud P.C. 2.0 for effective service delivery; that universities should equally provide adequate funds for effective management of the digital libraries in the study areas.