Adoption of a quadratic usage framework for predicting blockchain use intention from the perspective of librarians in Southwest Nigerian universities

Abstract

This study examined the quadratic usage framework for predicting the blockchain use intention of librarians in Southwest Nigerian universities. A pure quantitative method was adopted using a survey research design and a questionnaire as an instrument for data collection from 169 librarians who were drawn through a total enumeration from fifteen university libraries in Southwest Nigeria. A Quadratic Usage Framework (QUF) which is rarely used in Information System research has used a lens to predict the intention of librarians to use blockchain technology for library services. The findings revealed that the four factors of the model, access, skills, policy, and motivation are all correlated with librarians’ intention to use blockchain technology for library services in academic libraries. Also, all four QUF factors jointly predict the intention to use blockchain technology by librarians for library services in academic libraries and are also good individual predictors of intention to use blockchain. The analysis of variance performed on multiple regression yielded an F-ratio value of 80.69. This was found to be significant at 0.05 levels. These results suggest that all four determinants/factors together made up 78% of librarians’ intention to use blockchain technology for library services in academic libraries. The most significant challenges to librarians’ intention to use blockchain technology reported are limited budget available to libraries and inadequate supply of electricity, limited skills possessed by the librarians, slow internet connections, and attitudinal change/mindset of the librarians.