Abstract

The study was carried out to examine the Skills Acquisition and Job Requirements of Library and Information ~tuden~s m the 2 ~ st century Job market. Specifically the study identified the Library and Information Science Curriculum relevant lo the contemporary job requirements, the extent to which the present Library and Information Science Curriculum conforms with the contemporary job requirements, and the challenges students face in the process of acquiring skills relevant to the contemporary job requirements. Descriptive survey design was used for the study. The population of the study consisted of 219 final year students of library and Information Science in two universities used for the study Stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 44 students among the final year class from the institutions under study This is derived from the use of 20% of the entire population as stated by Nworgu (2014).Structured open ended questionnaire which was in two parts was used to elicit information from respondents. The data collected were analyzed using simple percentages, frequency tables. Findings show that there are variations in the curriculum of the two universities used; some of the most relevant courses are reflected in the curriculum oft he final year students but not thoroughly taught. Students are not adequately exposed to the practical aspect of the Information Communication Technology (ICT), Indexing, Abstracting, Bindery Practice, Classification and other practically oriented courses. This may be attributed to explosion in the number of students admitted for the LIS programs and this has posed problems/or lecturers to manage the large number of students for effective practical lessons. Also some of the 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 qualified and manageable number of students. In addition. the department could hire the services of private entrepreneurs for regular training of lecturers and students in the skills required for 2 I" century job demand so as to acquire the necessary skills required of them to be relevant for thel!SI century job market.