Demographic Variables and Academic Librarians’ Service Delivery in Selected Federal Universities and Polytechnics in Southwest, Nigeria

Academic libraries are important institutional organs because they provide users with high-quality, reliable, and timely information services. Effective service delivery in academic libraries is dependent on several salient factors including those associated with librarians’ personal characteristics. Thus, the study looks into the relationship between academic librarians' demographic factors and their service delivery in a number of federal polytechnics and universities in Southwest Nigeria. A descriptive survey design was used on 79 academic librarians from four (4) randomly selected academic libraries (two federal polytechnics and two federal universities) using total enumeration sampling. Data was collected using a self-structured questionnaire, and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics via SPSS version 22.0. Major findings of the study revealed that academic librarians' demographic factors had little correlation with their service delivery, except for their educational qualification which did so at [r = 0.829]. This essentially means that academic librarians perform their tasks as expected, regardless of their demographic considerations. As a result, the study suggests that academic librarians should participate in additional activities like seminars, workshops, and other in-service training, as well as seek out opportunities to improve their education background. Such efforts would assist them in improving their service delivery without segregation, as their demographic characteristics (with the exception of their educational qualifications) failed to show considerable variance in their service delivery among others for which recommendations were made.

Keywords: Demographic variables, Service Delivery, Academic Librarians, Libraries, Polytechnics and universities.