Nigerian Library Association (NLA) Annual Conference as Avenue for Professional Development or Jamboree: A Conferees Perspective

Abstract

The study investigated the role of the Nigerian Library Association (NLA) annual conference as an avenue for professional development of librarians. The study adopted a survey research design using a structured questionnaire as an instrument for data collection. A sample of 200 conferees was randomly selected from the population of 347 conferees who attended the conference in Lagos, Nigeria. One hundred and ninety-two (96%) of the questionnaire were returned and found usable. Frequencies, descriptive statistics, population t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used in analyzing the responses all tested at 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that the benefits of the conference are significantly higher than expected but satisfaction with conference logistics was below expectations though not significantly. Also, the challenges are all significantly less than the expected level. It equally showed that the highest motivation to attend the conference was to build capacity in job specific areas or fields. Lack of opportunity to accept papers for presentation and inadequate program/activities in job-specific fields constituted the main challenges. The study recommended emphasis in more job-specific activities in the conference as well as special interest sections should be given more time for their activities and program among others