Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abstract
The study examined the entrepreneurship awareness and skills among Library and Information Science (LIS) students in two Nigerian Universities. In Nigeria, the overcrowded job market is forcing thousands of graduates into unemployment and its associated consequences of kidnapping, drug addiction, youth restiveness and general poor standard of living. This has made it imperative that graduates be equipped with skills that are required to achieve self-reliance. With appropriate skills, LIS students as information professionals will be at the vanguard of information generation and reaping its employment opportunities in libraries, companies and corporate organizations. Specifically examined in this paper were the level of entrepreneurship awareness and characteristics of an entrepreneur, LIS entrepreneurship opportunities created by information and communications technology (ICT), LIS modern and entrepreneurship skills, problems associated with entrepreneurship and skills in LIS and the strategies for enhancing entrepreneurship awareness and skills in LIS. Descriptive survey design was adopted in which one hundred and ten (110) final year and masters students of the department of library and information science in the two Universities were purposively sampled using a researcher-structured questionnaire. Frequency tables, means and simple percentages were used to analyze data. Findings showed that up to 70% of the students were not aware of entrepreneurship opportunities within LIS. Moreover these students are yet to develop the culture and mindset toward entrepreneurship, because of inadequate education and training. The paper recommends that entrepreneurship courses and practical training in various aspects of ICT be included in the LIS curriculum.