ICT-related Training and Support Programs for Information Professionals

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has made information professionals’ tasks much broader, due to the interactions with different technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, genetic engineering and quantum computing.

Having ICT-related training and support programs would help information professionals not only work better but also expand their horizons in the library environment. This has ensured that university libraries globally and especially in Africa use recent technologies and innovative strategies of service delivery to attract more users.

Through a quantitative research approach using a survey, the researcher administered a questionnaire to collect data from respondents in selected university libraries in Africa.

Findings from the study indicate that ICT-related training and support programs offered to information professionals helped to improve current practices of library operations and service delivery to users. 

Rexwhite T. Enakrire is currently on a BRICS project as a Post Doc Fellow at the Department of Informatics, University of Pretoria. He is also affiliated with the University of South Africa on existing research tasks even after completing three years of his Post-doctoral training fellowship. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Zululand, South Africa. He has published extensively in the areas of informatics, bibliometrics, ICT4D, information systems and application, information, and knowledge management, and ODEL. He has worked as a lecturer at Delta State University Nigeria and the University of Zululand, South Africa for over eleven years. He has served as an external assessor at the University of Johannesburg and the University of Limpopo, South Africa.