Influence of user education and library staff attitude on students’ behaviour in academic libraries in Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to determine the influence of user education and library staff attitude on students‟ behaviour in academic libraries in Imo State, Nigeria. Three research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The descriptive survey design and simple linear correlational research design were adopted for the study. A sample of 379 students was drawn from a population of 31,302 users of the five academic libraries studied. A rating scale was used to collect data for the study. Data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to identify the level of relationships and the test of significance for the hypotheses was done at 0.05 alpha level using t-test. The results revealed that: students behave in manners consistent with the norms and values of the library; the level of exposure to user education is to a high extent but a negative and very low level of correlation exists between students' exposure to user education and their compliance with expected behaviours, most of the students are satisfied with the attitude of staff towards them and the correlation between staff attitude and students' behaviour in the library is significant. The researchers recommended that: library management should create an enabling environment for students to continue to exhibit positive behaviours, library staff should maintain their friendly disposition toward students and library staff should be motivated to discharge their duties effectively, so that they do not deliberately create a loophole for delinquent users to act, among others.

Keywords: Students, Behaviour, Users Education, Staff, Attitude, Academic, Libraries