Knowledge Sharing Practices and Library Usage as Concomitant Variables among Registered Library Users in Anambra State, Nigeria

The researcher examined knowledge sharing practices and library usage as concomitant variables in Anambra State. Two research questions and two hypotheses were involved in the study. Correlation research design was adopted for this study which involved the explanatory method and simple linear approach. The population of this study is made up of all the registered library visitors in public libraries in Anambra State. A sample of 163 people was involved in the study using incidental sampling technique. Two instruments were used for data collection; Knowledge Sharing Practice Scale (KSPS) with a total of 20 items and Library Usage Scale (LUS) with 10 items in four point rating format. The face and content validities were established by subjecting the instruments to a critical assessment by specialists in measurement and evaluation as well as library and information science. The reliability of the instruments was ensured using Cronbach alpha statistics which gave an index of 0.81. Pearson r statistic was used to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested with t-test of significance of simple linear correlation statistic at 0.05 level of significance. It was found in this study that; explicit and implicit knowledge sharing practices are both related with library usage. Thus, explicit and implicit knowledge sharing practices are all significantly related to library usage. This implies that knowledge sharing practices and library usage are concomitant variables. The researcher recommended among others that: users of public libraries in Anambra and the populace at large should continue to do so since it is related to knowledge sharing practices for development of knowledge.

Keywords: Knowledge, Knowledge Sharing, Library Usage.