Occupational Stress Among Library Personnel And Service Delivery At University Libraries In South-West, Nigeria

Abstract

The study adopts a correlational type of descriptive survey research design. The study population comprises 301 library personnel (library officers and librarians) from nine selected universities in South-West, Nigeria. The nine universities selected spanned across Oyo, Osun and Ogun States. Total enumeration was adopted to investigate all the population. Data were collected using standardised questionnaire while data gathered was analysed using descriptive and inferential methods. Results showed that the level of occupation stress of library personnel was moderate (overall mean = 71.2) in universities sampled in Southwestern Nigeria. The stress of meeting deadlines mostly contributes to the occupational stress of library personnel (x̄=3.71) followed by stress associated with a supervisor or senior colleague’s directive (x̄=3.69). Services that are mostly delivered by the library personnel are answering users’ queries (x̄ = 3.88), technical services, selective dissemination of information (x̄ = 2.90), and current awareness service (x̄ = 2.81). Among the services, technical services (x̄ = 3.94) and answering of users’ queries (x̄ = 3.52) are the ones that were delivered more often. Essentially services like current awareness services (x̄ = 2.15) were rendered occasionally. There was a weak negative correlation between occupation stress and service delivery by library personnel in university libraries in South-West Nigeria (r =-.262**, df=294); p < 0.05). The existence of occupational stress among library personnel is a great impediment to service delivery. University libraries should leverage technology and provide adequate skilled manpower to ease the workload and stress being experienced by library personnel in the region.