Librarians’ awareness, acceptability, and application of artificial intelligence in academic research libraries. Multigroup analysis via PLS‒SEM

Previous studies have examined the application of AI in education. However, specific studies that looks at how these tools are used in the Nigeria context were mostly on teaching, research, and administration, thereby failing to address issues of AI in modern library service delivery. This study fills a research gap by exploring the librarian awareness, acceptability, and application of AI tools in Nigerian libraries, as well as probing further the impact of gender and school ownership on this nexus. A cross sectional survey involving a total of 3783 librarians was carried out. Structural equation modelling with multi group analysis performed to determine the dimensionality of the scale and factor structures as well test the conceptual model using SmartPLS 3. The result indicated that librarian's level of levels of awareness, acceptability, and application of AI in research library service delivery is high, with significant disparity based on gender and school ownership. Females' librarians and private institutions ownership exhibited a stronger application of AI in library service delivery. Additionally, acceptance was found to mediate the relationship between awareness and AI application effectively, but this difference was stronger in female librarian. Awareness has a positive impact on acceptability but negative impact on application of AI. Acceptability also impacted application positively. These insights underscore the importance of considering demographic factors when implementing AI in library services in Nigeria.