Digital librarianship practice and open access technology use for sustainable development in Nigeria

Purpose: The continuous advancement in technology has disrupted practices in many sectors, including education. Thus, this study aims to examine digital librarianship practice and open access technology use for sustainable development in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach: The survey type of descriptive research design was adopted in this study while the population of the study comprised librarians in universities in Delta State. A total of 38 randomly selected librarians from four universities in Delta State were used for this study, and the data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics. Findings: This study revealed that the level of digital librarianship practice in university libraries in Delta State for sustainable development is low; just as social media tools, open source integrated library systems and Google Cloud Platforms are the most commonly used open access technologies in the libraries. Furthermore, this study showed that perennial factors such as poor funding of education, inadequate quality educational infrastructure, mismanagement of education fund among others are hindrance to sustainable development in the country’s educational sector. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited in its use of only one state (out of 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja) in Nigeria for this research. Also, social desirability bias on the part of the respondents could have influenced the pattern in which the respondents reacted to items in section D. Practical implications: This study has practical implications for the sensitization and training of librarians towards leveraging on the various open access technologies in delivering effective library and information services required in the Fourth Industrial revolution. Originality/value: This study seeks to pioneer a new area of focus by examining digital librarianship practice and open access technology use as enablers of sustainable development. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.