Abstract

The study was carried out to examine the Skills Acquisition and Job Requirements ofLibrary and Information Students'in the 21st century Job market. Specifically the study identified the Library and Information Science Curriculum relevant to the contemporaryjob requirements, the extent to which thepresentLibrary andInformation Science Curriculum conformswith the contemporaryjob requirements, and the challenges studentsface in the process ofacquiring skills relevant to the contemporaryjob requirements. Descriptive survey designwas usedforthe study. Thepopulation of the study consisted of219finalyearstudents oflibrary andInformation Science in two universities usedfor the study. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of44 students among thefinalyear classfrom the institutions under study. This is derivedfrom the use of 20% ofthe entire population as stated by Nworgu (2014).Structured open ended questionnaire which was in two parts was used to elicit informationfrom respondents. The data collected were analyzed using simplepercentages,frequency tables. Findingsshow that there are variations in the curriculum of the two universities used; some ofthe most relevant courses are reflected in the curriculum ofthefinalyearstudents but not thoroughly taught. Students are not adequately exposed to thepractical aspectofthe Information Communication Technology (ICT), Indexing, Abstracting, Bindery Practice, Classification and otherpractically oriented courses. This may be attributed to explosion in the number ofstudents admittedforthe LISprograms andthis hasposed problemsfor lecturers to manage the large number ofstudentsfor effective practical lessons. Also some ofthe lecturers involved in teaching were not taught these courses during their undergraduate studies in the university and as such, find it difficult to make effective impact on the students. It is therefore recommended that proper guidelines on how students can be admitted into the library and information science program should be produced and strictly followed, in order to admit, only qualifiedandmanageable number ofstudents. In addition, the department couldhire the services of private entrepreneursfor regular training oflecturers and students in the skills requiredfor 21 centuryjob demandso as to acquire the necessary skillsrequired ofthem to be relevantforthe21st centuryjob market.