Development and Validation of Circulation Software Package for Libraries in Federal Universities of North Central, Nigeria

In this study the development and validation of circulation software package for university libraries in Federal Universities of North Central Zone, Nigeria is investigated. Specifically, five purposes and three research questions guided the study. The study adopted descriptive survey and was carried out in North Central zone which has population of 155 comprising librarians and other library personnel who have worked in circulation department from seven federal university libraries in the study area. The study used purposive sampling technique to sample librarians and other library personnel. From the above population one hundred and eight (108) questionnaires were filled and utilized; representing a return rate of 70%.  Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency tables and mean scores and the decision rule for research questions one through three was based on whether the mean score value was lower than or equal to and above the criterion mean value of 2.50 for either rejection or acceptance. The findings of the study shows that the federal university libraries employ manual procedures in carrying out basic circulation functions such as registering users at the circulation desk, charging out items to users at circulation desk, discharging and renewing items to users at the circulation desk. The study also revealed numerous problems associated with the manual circulation procedure. Finally, the finding also shows that majority of the respondents have little or no skill in software design, software installation/operations, web design, digitization and imaging technology, online cataloguing, and classification. On the other hand, other respondents have low skill in automated circulation system and system analysis and design. However, the findings indicated that most of the respondents have a very high skill in Microsoft Office, database searching technique, and transformation of data. The researchers made appropriate recommendations which include encouraging the use of in-house library application software. Accordingly, in this study, an online application for circulation was developed.