INFLUENCE OF ACADEMIC QUALIFICATION, STAFF DEVELOPMENT AND OWNERSHIP OF INSTITUTIONS ON THE PRODUCTIVITY OF LIBRARIANS IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Issues that border on productivity is of prime concern to the librarians, the college authorities and the nation at large. Productivity of librarians in colleges of education in Nigeria could be a function of many variables such as academic qualifications, staff development and ownership of institutions in which librarians are found. Since any of these variables could exert influence on the research productivity of librarians. The study, therefore, investigated the level of research productivity of librarians and the extent to which academic qualifications, staff development and ownership (proprietorship) of institutions Influenced the research productivity of the librarians in colleges of education in Nigeria. The study adopted correlation research design because of its special advantages for a study of this nature. Census was used to cover all the 356 librarians in the 63 public colleges of education (federal and state) that existed as at 2011 in Nigeria. Private colleges of education were excluded since they do not operate a uniform policy. Two instruments – instrument 1: Librarians’ Productivity Scale (r=0.71) and instrument 2: Librarians’ Job Training Programme Scale (r=0.85) were used to collect data. These were complemented with 10 sessions of in-depth interview (IDI) from selected purposively chief librarians. Findings of the study indicated that most librarians are not so productive in terms of research productivity. Moreover, academic qualifications, staff development programme and ownership of institution had significant influence on the research productivity of librarians. To enhance the research productivity of librarians, librarians with minimum academic qualifications should be encouraged to go for further study while staff development should be made seamless to daily office schedule