APPLICATION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN SELECTED ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN WESTERN PART OF NIGERIA

This study examined the application of artificial intelligence in selected academic libraries in western part of Nigeria. The research design adopted for this study was survey research. The instruments used for data collection was questionnaires. The data gathered from the questionnaire were analysed and discussed using frequency tables and percentage. The findings revealed that chatbox, robotics, HAMLET, Natural language processing, among others were the major components of artificial intelligence. Findings also revealed that collection development services, indexing and abstracting, reference services, cataloguing and classification services, among others were the major application of artificial intelligence on information and communication technology towards service delivery in academic library. Findings showed that artificial intelligence helps to improve search and research discovery, increase user engagement and satisfaction, assist in identification and restoration of damage materials among others. Lack of qualified materials and human equipment, scarcity of artificial intelligence professional technical issue, among others were the major challenges facing integration of artificial intelligence and ICT service delivery in the library. The study concluded that if libraries are to thrive in the new knowledge economy, they must innovate their services and re-examine their practices, a veritable means to achieve this is the application of artificial intelligence in libraries. Researcher recommends that library staff should be subjected to ongoing training and retraining programs in the application of artificial intelligence. Nigerian higher education libraries should focus their efforts on determining how artificial intelligence may be used to give services to library customers, resulting in high levels of satisfaction and efficiency.