Job satisfaction and career commitment of librarians in federal university libraries in Nigeria

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the dissatisfaction of library users and the manager of each federal university library vis‐à‐vis the complaint of the librarians working in those libraries on inadequate funding, lack of promotion, poor condition of service and lack of recognition which affected their career commitment.Design/methodology/approachQuestionnaires were used to gather data from a population of 381 librarians in the 24 federal university Libraries in Nigeria. A total of 363 of them responded and their questionnaires were found to be valid for analysis. The response rate achieved was 95.3 percent.FindingsThe study found that job satisfaction has significant influence on career commitment of librarians working in the federal university libraries (F (9; 352) = 11.058, p < 0.05). The study also revealed that demographic variables and job satisfaction accounted for 20 percent (adj. R2 = 0.2000) in variability of career commitment of the respondents.Research limitations/implicationsThe study ought to have generated data on demographic variables and job satisfaction as they affect career commitment of library paraprofessionals (library officers, library attendants and assistants) since they all carry essential library function.Practical implicationsIt is recommended that the library administrators and the managers of the university libraries should consider the demographic variables and job satisfaction of librarians when planning and making decisions on their career commitment.Social implicationsThe library managers and administrators in federal university libraries in Nigeria should formulate job satisfaction policies such as adequate provision of working facilities, provision of conducive working environment, work incentives (car loan, housing loan, study leave allowance, etc) for improving career commitment of their librarians.Originality/valueThe paper provides valuable information on the career commitment of librarians in federal university libraries in Nigeria.