An Assessment of the Perception of Library School Students towards Librarianship at the University of Ilorin

Abstract

This is a pilot study, which investigated the perception of the University of Ilorin library school students towards librarianship. It was aimed at examining the characteristics of the students and how they got admitted into the Department. It adopted the survey research design where the entire 90 students (100 and 200 levels) constituted its population, while the 74 that were available during the data collection exercise represented the sample. Questionnaire and structured interview were employed for data collection. The results revealed that 75.7% in 100 and 24.3% of 200 levels came in through the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Examinations and direct admission/transfer, respectively. Their subject backgrounds include Arts (36.5%), Science (28.4%), and Commercial (23.0%); a majority had a SSSC (45.9%) result with the mean scores of 219 from JAMB and 59.69% from post-JAMB, respectively. The majority (87.8%) did not choose LIS originally, and 67.6% claimed to be initially uninterested, against the current positive perception (66.2%). Hypotheses tests showed no significant difference in subject background and current perception of students who chose and those who did not choose LIS as a first choice. It concluded that the peculiar situation under which many of the pioneering students came into the Department (i.e. transfer), was undesirable given the prevalent negative perception of librarianship. Appropriate recommendations were made.