Factors associated with information and communication technology competence among academic library staff in Iloilo City

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the factors associated with information and communication technology competence among academic library staff in Iloilo City. Further to determine the academic library staff profile, interest in ICT and level of competence in using ICT. Descriptive design was employed and self-survey questionnaire-checklist was used to gather data. The complete enumeration of 107 academic library staff in Iloilo City was the respondents of the study. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for MS Windows Version 11.5 software were utilized to process the data collected. Statistical tools used to analyzed and interpret results were the frequency count, percentage, mean, standard deviation and cross-tabulation. Of the 107 respondents, majority were younger age, female, married and accomplished library science undergraduate degree. Most of the library staff owned mobile phones, television, CD/DVD player, cassette tape/recorder/player computer, and digital/video camera. Moreover, most of the librarians earned Php13, 000 monthly and had been employed for 10 years and below. The library staffs were usually assigned at the reader’s services or one librarian doing all the library services. Only one-third had xiv attended varied trainings and seminars in ICT. Access to ICT equipment was more frequent at home and the most accessible equipment was mobile phone with or without wifi. Most of the academic library staff was interested in ICT especially in SPSS. While more than 90 percent have the knowledge in Microsoft Excel and Power Point. On top of these findings, more than 60 percent of academic library staff were moderately competent in using ICT. Furthermore, the findings shows that majority of those interested in ICT were of older age, female, married, with Master’s degree in Library and Information Science and earns a higher salary. They were assigned as library head or librarians doing various tasks and in readers’ services. It further proved that the age, gender, civil status, salary, length of service and job assignment had no influence on the respondent’s interest in ICT as compared to educational attainment which shows a slight influence on the interests in ICT. Furthermore, numerous library personnel were interested in ICT but had less attendance to seminars/trainings in ICT. As to access, majority of those interested in ICT had access at the library and home only. Among 95 academic library staff who were interested in ICT, majority were moderately competent, They were mostly of younger age, married, graduated in library science degrees, earning about Php13,000 monthly, employed for less than 10 years and assigned at technical or readers services or as a single-head librarians. While in terms of attendance to seminars, more than half were moderately competent. As to ownership of ICT equipment, majority were moderately competent. Of the three venues of access to ICT, the library staff that had access in the library and home was found to be moderately competent in ICT. Based on the above findings, it was recommended to all library staff to enroll in Master in Library and Information Science and attend seminars/training related to library science and ICT. The school has to allocate enough budgets for the application of ICT in libraries. The curricula of the undergraduate and post graduate library science degree had to be improved.