Service Quality and User Satisfaction as Determinants of Perceived Image of Librarians in Selected Private Universities in South-West Nigeria

Abstract

The professional image of librarians gives a vivid description of the library profession and the services offered by professionals are fundamental to the thoughtfulness of what a profession means. Library users who are the major determinants of librarians’ image have divergent views of librarians’ image which leads to a professional identity crisis. Therefore, the study examined service quality and user satisfaction as determinants of perceived librarians’ image in selected private universities in South-west, Nigeria. This study adopted a descriptive survey design of the correlational type. The population of this study comprised 31,342 undergraduates in six purposively selected private universities in South-west Nigeria. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 1152 and a questionnaire was used to collect data. The study revealed that librarians provide quality services to library users and that the majority of the undergraduates in private universities in the South-west are satisfied with the services offered by librarians. The study further revealed that there exists a positive significant relationship among service quality, users’ satisfaction and perceived librarians’ image (p= 0.01