Adoption And Utilization of Social Media Platforms for Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration Among Librarians in Federal Colleges Of Education Libraries in North-West Nigeria

Social media platforms are channels for professional exchange among librarians, yet evidence from Federal Colleges of Education libraries in North-West Nigeria is scarce. This study examined the adoption and utilisation of social media platforms for knowledge sharing and collaboration among librarians in these libraries. Three objectives guided the study: to determine the extent of adoption (awareness, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and infrastructure); to ascertain the extent of utilisation (frequency, platforms, knowledge sharing and collaboration); and to examine the effect of adoption and utilisation on knowledge sharing and collaboration. A descriptive survey design was adopted. All 118 librarians and library personnel in the Federal Colleges of Education at Bichi, Gusau and Katsina were studied. A validated questionnaire (Cronbach's alpha = 0.93) was administered as a Google Form, and 107 copies (90.7%) were analysed. Means and standard deviations, with a criterion mean of 2.50, answered the research questions, while simple linear regression tested four null hypotheses at the 0.05 level. The findings showed high awareness (M = 3.27) and favourable perceptions of ease of use (M = 3.40) and usefulness (M = 3.40), but only marginal availability of infrastructure (M = 2.51), with institutional policy, technical support and training largely absent. Librarians used social media frequently (M = 2.80), mainly WhatsApp (M = 3.90) and Facebook (M = 3.52), and shared knowledge (M = 2.97) and collaborated (M = 2.58) to a high extent, although co-authoring and joint projects remained limited. Adoption and utilisation each had a significant positive effect on knowledge sharing and collaboration (R² = .300 to .472, p < .001). The study concludes that favourable attitudes among the librarians are not matched by institutional support in their colleges. It recommends institutional guidelines, improved infrastructure, regular training and structured professional groups to convert informal exchange into sustained collaboration.