14-Examining the Use of Mobile Technologies in Providing School Library Services in Zanzibar

Examining the Use of Mobile Technologies in Providing School Library Services in Zanzibar
Authors: Abbas M. Omar and Zuhura Haroub Ali

Abstract

This paper aims at examining the use of mobile technologies in the provision of school library services in Zanzibar. The paper seeks to address the following questions: to what extent are the teachers, students and library staff familiar with mobile technologies that support teaching, learning and library services? What are the common mobile technology services offered by libraries? How do these technologies help libraries to enhance services? and What are the challenges facing libraries in providing mobile technology-based services? The study was conducted in Zanzibar whereby 22 innovation hubs and 22 surrounding schools were involved. The study used a cross-sectional study design and a mixed-method approach was used to collect and analyse data. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 88 library staff. At the same time, a simple random technique was used to select 110 students and 88 teachers for this study. Data were collected through semi-structured questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. The results indicate that few libraries used WhatsApp groups to interact and share information with users while remarkable personal access to learning materials through educational mobile applications was found to have a positive impact among respondents. However, mobile-based library services were not provided by the hubs as well as the school libraries due to various reasons including the shortage of funds for purchasing mobile gadgets and bundles and inadequate skills for navigating mobile applications. The study recommends that school libraries need to adequately utilise emerging mobile technologies and take them as positive and useful in improving the standards of library services.

Keywords: Mobile technologies, mobile applications, innovation hubs, school library, library service, Zanzibar, Tanzania     

 Proceedings of  the 4th COTUL Scientific Conference, 7th-11th November, 2022