Effective Communication for Quality Service Delivery in Academic Libraries: An Overview of Public Academic Libraries in Ghana

Abstract

Effective communication among employees and clientele plays vital role in academic libraries as far as execution of their core mandate is concerned. This phenomenon is sometimes overlooked by Management of academic libraries leading to associated problems of low productivity. This study, therefore, seeks to find out the role of effective communication in accelerating quality service delivery in academic libraries. The descriptive survey strategy was adopted. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to sample 148 out of 150 academic library staff from three (3) public universities in Ghana. The questionnaire was deployed as the instrument for data collection, and the data gathered, mostly quantitative have been analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The findings showed that even though there has been an advancement in technology oral communication dominates the mode of information delivery in academic libraries IN Ghana. It was again found out that information flow has almost always been downward from the top hierarchy to subordinates. Various ways of improving effective communication for quality service delivery in academic libraries have also been outlined in the study.