Institutional factors and challenges affecting library and information science schools in Northern Nigeria

The objective of this study was to ascertain the factors affecting quality education in library schools, challenges faced, and impact of those factors on employability of library school graduates in Northern Nigeria with 3 specific objectives and 3 research questions that gave direction to this work. This work adopted descriptive survey research design. The research study population was 80 academic staff from 5 library schools in the region. The data collection instrument was a self-constructed questionnaire. The data were collected by the researchers assisted by three research assistance. The collected data were collated and subjected to data analysis using frequencies, mean and standard deviation with the aid of SPSS version 25. The results indicated that inadequate infrastructure like classrooms, ICT labs, issue of institutional funding, limited access to up-to-date teaching resources, etc. were among the factors affecting quality education in library schools in Northern Nigeria. It was also found that rapid technological changes, mismatch between the library school training and industry expectations, brain drain among others were among the challenges faced by library schools in Northern Nigeria. The findings revealed that poor training facilities, curriculum gap, lack of practical training equipment, lack of skills, etc. were among the factors that hinder employability of library school graduates in Northern Nigeria. The researchers recommended among others that government should provide adequate infrastructure such as classrooms, ICT labs, updated instructional materials etc. to library schools. This would create enabling environment for teaching and learning, and boost quality education, NUC accreditation team should always ensure resources and equipment used in library schools are in line with global practices and standard, library school curriculum should be reviewed from time to time in order meet global standard staff reasonable payment should be maintained to avoid brain drain.