WORK ENVIRONMENT AS CORRELATES OF LIBRARIANS’ JOB PERFORMANCE IN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN NORTH-CENTRAL NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated work environment as correlates of librarians’ job performance in federal university electronic libraries in North-Central Nigeria. Two research questions guided the study and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Correlational research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 175 librarians in the eight (8) Federal Universities in North-Central, Nigeria. There was no sampling since the entire population is relatively small and manageable. The researcher developed questionnaires titled ‘‘Work Environment Questionnaire (WEQ)’’ and ‘‘Librarians’ Job Performance Questionnaire (LJPQ)’’ which were used for data collection. The instruments were validated by three experts, two from the Department of Library and Information Science, and one from Measurement and Evaluation in Department of Educational Foundations, Nnamdi Azikiwe University. Cronbach alpha method was used for a test of internal consistency of the instruments which yielded coefficients of 0.81 and 0.78 for WEQ and LJPQ respectively. The researcher together with eight research assistants collected data for the study using the direct approach method and 98% return was recorded. Pearson Product Moment Correlational Coefficient was used to answer the research questions andt-test of correlation to test hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed among others that physical work environment and psychosocial work environment had strong relationship with librarians’ job performance in federal university electronic libraries in north central Nigeria. Also, physical work environment and psychosocial work environment had significant relationship with librarians’ job performance in federal university electronic libraries in north central Nigeria.Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that University management should offer annual training and development opportunities to all librarians to enable them acquire skills and knowledge of manipulating work environment to improve the job performance of librarians.