Technological skills in the digital era of school librarians in Iloilo City: Basis for a proposed training design

Abstract

The descriptive study aims to determine the level of technological skills in the digital era of school librarians in Iloilo City as basis for a proposed training design. The respondents of the study were the school librarians in Iloilo City. This study both employed descriptive and inferential statistics to measure the variables under study. Frequency distribution, mean and rank were utilized as descriptive statistics. T-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were also utilized as inferential statistics using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) Software version 20. Results of the study found out that the school librarians in Iloilo demonstrate a “high” level of perceived technological skills with an average mean score of 4.04. However, there is a notable result found in the area of core applications of information tools and technologies which the school librarian responded a “moderate” result in demonstrating expertise in databases, metadata, information analysis and synthesis to improve retrieval and use in the organization. Additionally, in the area of core web tools, a “moderate” response was associated with the usage of web conferencing programs for synchronous, online meeting or learning and identifying and utilization of help menus, tutorials and support communities to acquire the necessary skills. The study inferred that it is a valid cognition of the rapid changing world of information, and the core web tools as product of emerging technologies and are seldom practiced or utilized by school librarians in the performance of their duties. Further, the results reveals that there were no significant differences noted on the level of technological skills when the respondents were classified according to age, educational attainment, length of experience, type of school library and number of ICT seminars/training attended for the last three years while sex and professional (librarian) eligibility status had a significant difference with their level of technological skills. This study concludes that school librarians in Iloilo City are skillful and technologically efficient.