Abstract:
Demographic Variables as Correlates of Librarians’ Research Productivity in Federal and State Polytechnic Libraries in South East Nigeria
Chinwe. N. Ezeani& Grace Akubueze
This study examined the demographic variables as correlates of librarians’ research productivity in federal and state polytechnic libraries in the South East Nigeria. The study was guided by nine research questions. The correlational research design was adopted. The population of the study was made up of 56 academic librarians from the federal and state polytechnic libraries in South East Nigeria. There was no sampling technique since the whole population was used. Data relevant for the study was collected using questionnaire and interview. A total of 45 out of 56 questionnaires distributed were returned and used for the study. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages and mean) and correlational statistics (Pearson moment correlation coefficient statistics package for social science (SPSS). The findings revealed that librarians in polytechnic libraries publish more of journals than other publications, there was a positive relationship between demographic variables such as designation, years of experience, educational qualification and age and research productivity; it was only gender that has inverse/negative relationship with research productivity. It was also revealed that lack of sponsorship, time constraint, lack of fund to carryout research, excessive cost of publishing by journal outfits, lack of motivation to publish, lack of mentor and mentorship, lack of collaboration with colleagues, rejection of manuscripts by journal management, lack of internet and poor internet connectivity, inadequate ICT facilities in our institutions, and poor electricity supply, are some of the challenges faced by the librarians in the course of research. It was equally revealed that sponsoring librarians to carry out research, provision of research grants to librarians, incentives such as allowances, scholarship, funding, opportunities for academic advancement, and post-doctoral programmes, involving in collaborative research with other researchers within and outside their institutions, availability of ICT facilities, mentorship by senior librarians, librarians being encouraged by giving them research leave, librarians subjecting their research reports and findings to in-house peer review before submitting them for publication, offering staff awards on research, research leave, sabbatical leave, staff/librarians’ training on research and proposal writing, training on how to use modern technologies in sourcing information for research and librarians/researchers should choose researchable topics are the measures in enhancing librarians’ research productivity. To this extent, recommendations such as encouraging and supporting librarians to publish more textbooks and monographs, training librarians on general issues on successful research activities, provision of infrastructural facilities such as ICT facilities and internet connectivity and increasing bandwidth where Internet access is slow were made in the course of the findings
