Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to find out the evolving roles of library personnel in the digital
age with emphasis on the needed skills required fit into the information age. The objectives of
the study were to find out the skills needed by personnel to identify and analyze user
information needs, skills required for the evaluation of available information resources, to
ascertain the level of personnel ICT skills among others. The Balme Library, University of
Ghana, Legon was used as the study setting. The case study methodology was adopted. The
study used both primary and secondary sources of data. The questionnaire was the main data
collection instrument and data collected was analyzed using SPSS. The findings pointed out
that, 81.8% of the library personnel had the requisite skills to identify and analyze user
information needs. It was also evident that the majority of the library staff had the needed
skills in information resource evaluation (92.7%) and also considered information literacy
skills (94.5%) as relevant to their work and as such were highly skilled in it. Again, the
findings revealed that most (50.9%) of the library personnel were not skilled in the value
addition process, but the majority (61.8%) were found to be adequately skilled in ICT.
Concerning management skills, it was revealed that quite appreciable number of the
personnel (41.8%) were more skilled in planning. The study concluded that even though
personnel at the Balme library possessed some of the skills needed to meet the emerging
challenges of providing effective and efficient services as a result of digital age, it cannot be
conclusive that they possessed all the skills as conceptualised within the framework.
Recommendations were also made in the area of training library personnel, collaboration
with the Department of Information Studies, University of Ghana, formation of partnership
with other institutions, and job rotation of library personnel to increase versatility.
