Awareness as Determinant of Choice of Law Librarianship as a Career Among Law Students in South-West Nigeria

Abstract

Several career paths are open to law graduates. Many of them pursue careers in other fields without giving a thought to law librarianship. The fact that majority of law students do not consider law librarianship as a career option is undesirable for the future of law librarianship. The future of law librarianship profession may depend on awareness. The study therefore examined the influence of awareness on the career choice of law librarianship among law students in South-West, Nigeria. The study employed the survey research design. The population for the study was 2,945 undergraduate law students in the in the 12 purposively selected universities that run the approved undergraduate law program up to 500 level in South-West, Nigeria. Krejcie and Morgan’s formula was used to select the sample size of 597. The instrument for data collection was a validated questionnaire. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the constructs ranged from .80 to .89. The return rate was 94%. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The result showed that awareness of law librarianship significantly influenced law students’ choice of law librarianship as a career. The study also revealed that law students were slightly aware of law librarianship as a choice of career. Results indicated that the inclination to pursue a career in law librarianship was based on altruistic consideration.