Librarians Perceptions on the Adoption of Digital Reference Services in University Libraries of North-West, Nigeria

Reference service is one of the library’s primary services besides acquisitions, classification, cataloguing and physical planning. Digital reference is a service by which library reference service conducted through online and the reference transaction is a computer-mediated communication. The word "reference" in this context refers to the task of assisting library users in finding information, answering questions, and otherwise fulfilling users’ information needs. This paper identifies the Librarian perception on the adoption of Digital Reference Services (DRS) in north-west Nigeria. The purpose of the study was to investigate Librarian' perceptions on the adoption of digital reference services in north-west university libraries based on their awareness, quality as well as identity librarians understanding and interest in this service. A survey method with the questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents. The questionnaire has been sent to 161 respondents of the university libraries under study. The findings of the study, however, revealed that the majority of Academic Librarians were aware of digital reference services which were already in use in their Libraries. The respondents have a positive perception of the digital reference services in their respective libraries for the information services delivery. The study, therefore, recommends that the university management should put more funds in the area of digital reference services in order to boost its services. The Libraries shou