Library Personnel Commitment on Preservation Practice of Library Resources in Academic Libraries in Niger State,

Abstract

Library personnel commitment to preservation of library resources continue to decline despite many efforts by the library management to provide effective and efficient resources to the library users. This could be attributed to the poor attitude and lack of commitment exhibited by the library personnel to preservation practice of library resources in academic libraries. Few empirical work exists to support the commitment of library personnel to the preservations of library resources but it is not apparent that a study in Niger State, Nigeria as addressed the Library personnel commitment to preservation of library resources. This study examines commitment of library personnel on preservation of information resources in academic libraries in Niger State, Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. A total enumeration technique was used for selecting 387 academic librarian as respondents for the study. Questionnaire was used for data collection and was analysed using descriptive statistics. The finding revealed that the result shows a grand mean of (𝑥 = 2.88, SD =0.772) on a scale of 4-pointLikert-type scale. This implies that the librarians in Niger State practice preservation methods. However, there is still room for improvement on the methods of preservation as the threshold has not been reached. On the other hand, the result indicates a high level of commitment of library personnel to preservation practices in academic libraries in Niger State (𝑥 = 2.95, SD = 0.634) on a scale of 4-point Likert-type. Commitment of library personnel was divided into three dimensions namely affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment. Library personnel commitment indicators: continuance commitment (β = 0.257, t(311) = 3.097, p < 0.05) positively and significantly influenced preservation practices of information resources, while affective commitment (β = 0.104, t(311)= 1.447, p > 0.05) and normative commitment (β = 0.030, t(311) = 0.361, p > 0.05).