Library School Curriculum relevance to skills required by undergraduates in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2023-11-30
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Nigerian Library Association
Abstract
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) dispensation is evolving, and gradually the human workforce is being replaced with Automation, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotics among others. It is pertinent for undergraduates, especially Library and Information Science students to be adequately prepared for the world of work in this new dispensation through the curriculum of study they are exposed to enable them meet up with the needs of professional librarians for academic, government, private and public libraries upon graduation. Therefore, this study examined the relevance of the Library School curriculum to the skills required by graduates in the 4IR era in Kwara State, Nigeria. Survey design guided the study, and a questionnaire was used to collect data from 201 respondents. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics. Findings showed that the Library school undergraduates in Kwara State, Nigeria exhibits a high knowledge of the 4IR technologies and are knowledgeable in some of the skills required to function in the workplace in the 4IR era. The study recommended that the Library School undergraduates should be exposed to academic programs and training courses that address the 4IR peculiarities. This would lead to gaining creativity, complex problem-solving, collaboration, critical thinking, digital capabilities, and verbal communication skills among other skills. In addition, the Library School curriculum should be reviewed regularly to accommodate latest development as it affects the information profession through the hosting of new programmes, addition of new courses and review of current ones to suit the requirements of the workplace in the 4IR dispensation.
Description
Keywords
Curriculum, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Library School, Sklills, Undergraduates, Kwara State
Citation
Fagbola, O.O. & Tella, A. (2023). Library School Curriculum relevance to skills required by undergraduates in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Proceedings 61st Annual Conference of Nigerian Library Association (N.L.A), A.N. Uhegbu, Etim, F., Aboyade, M.A., Kamba, M.A., Tella, A., & Nwosu, C.(Eds.).126 – 140. Published by Nigerian Library Association (NLA).