CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Public libraries refer to libraries that are established and maintained by the government, and its use is to all citizen and non-citizen of the country or state where it is situated. In this regard, Oyedum (2006) asserts that public library is that library that is managed or run by a state government or a board set up by the state government. It is a library where not only books are stocked but also other information materials. IFLA/UNESCO (2004) further defined the public library as a library where information items are stored, organized and disseminated to the users without any form of discrimination. It is an institution established, supported and funded by the community either through local, state or federal government, or through other forms of community organization.
Public libraries are service oriented libraries with set goals and services made available to all. Its services are geared towards the provision of the intellectual, moral and general information needs of its patrons by the provision of both print and non print materials. Munchen (2001) states that public libraries are store house for the dissemination of information to the community and are widely used for political awareness, culture, research, information and educational purpose. Public libraries provide access to knowledge, information and other works of imagination through a range of resources and services made available to the community free of charge. The information gap between the urban and rural areas is bridged by effective library services. The federal, state and local government can better the lives of the citizens through effective library services.
The public library is established with the aim of meeting the following objectives:
- To provide informal educational opportunities for the citizens in the community.
- To provide avenues to meet the information needs of people.
- To help and encourage the substantial number of individuals who are improving themselves by private study.
- To encourage and sustain individuals who wish to read for any useful purpose, and
- To provide recreational opportunities and encourage constructive use of leisure time. (United Nations Education Scientific Cultural Organization. UNESCO Public library Manifesto 2000).
Public library services are essential to the educational, political, and social development of the entire society. Aboyade cited in Iwhiwhu (2012), posits that public library services are equally made available to all members of the community regardless of race, nationality, age, gender, religion, language, disability, employment status and educational attainment. The public library policy ensures that its services cater for all the people and interest represented in the community where the library is situated. This is in order to meet the educational, cultural and recreational needs of the community. Continuing education is focused upon by the public library in order to sustain the new literate adults and improve upon their education throughout life. They are designed to provide the informational, educational and recreational needs of the people in the community regardless of age, sex, language, religion, nationality, status, political inclination and educational attainment. However the level of services provided by the library depends, to a large extent, on the resources made available by the government, and this either directly or indirectly affects the services rendered by its personnel.
Considering the meaning and purpose of public libraries, one can confidently say that it is the most important type of library. A veritable tool in societal development because, they provide information resources to all categories of people, irrespective of professional background, race, educational background, physical ability etc. Public libraries provide for undergraduates, secondary school students, artisans, farmers. It serves the general public. That is why it is often referred to as the “People University” . It provide for the wide range reading interest of a wide range of users, such as lawyers, doctors, teachers, nurses, school children and students, physically challenged, old and young people. People in all works of life use the library resources, facilities and services. The fact remains that the establishment of public libraries is premised on the need to cater for the information needs of the wide population of the public library users, this explains why the job performance of personnel in this library is pertinent to this discuss.
The word “job” in this study is used to describe the duties or responsibilities expected to be performed by library staff. While Performance is defined as behaviour that is exerted towards the achievement of the library goal and objectives. It is something done by the library staff to produce needed results. Performance is most commonly used to refer to whether a person performs their job well.
Job Performance is an extremely important criterion that is used to measure organizational outcome or success. This criterion measurement indicates whether a library staff is doing what is expected of him. Some authors describe job performance as an individual level variable or varying behaviour. That is performance is something a single person does. Saka and Haruna (2012) views job performance as the ability to execute fundamental functions which is based on the field of specialization or areas of development as well as an organization’s objectives. The job expected to be performed by library staff in public library includes rendering the following services to its users, circulation services, reference and retrieval services, current awareness services, extension services (community information services), research advisory services, indexing and abstracting services, reprographic services. International Federation of Library Association IFLA (2001) also stated that the services expected by the public libraries should include community information services, recreational activities, reference services, storytelling, reading competition, career information, customer care, adult literacy education, mobile library services, and services to prisoners, online internet search, among others.
As a result of the unique nature of the services expected of the public library, it therefore requires good personnel to render these services efficiently. Personnel in this context refers to the staff employed to undertake the activities of the library to ensure the functionality of the library. Edoka (2000) posits that the library as any other organization is managed by a group of people whose jobs is to utilize both the human and material resources of the organization and other sources to achieve organizational objectives. The management team may exist in three categories namely; senior management level, middle management level and junior management level. The functions of management include thinking and decision making, planning, organizing, staffing and funding, directing, (leadership), communicating, and controlling. This corroborates with Edibo (2008), who stated that, the staffing of the public library can be categorized into three groups namely; professional librarians (senior staff), para-professional librarians (middle cadre), corporate services staff, (administrative, inclusive of technical and accounting).
At the top management there is the director who controls the overall affairs of the library. The directors are answerable to the library board that is set up by the ministry of Education. Under the directors are the subordinates such as the deputy director and the unit heads who are answerable to the director. There are various departments units headed by the units heads. In each unit, there are staffs that are usually in charge of the work in the units. These units include: Reference and Reserve Units, Serial Unit, Children Unit, Extension Services Unit and Adult Lending Unit. According to Edoka (2000), these units are popularly regarded as the Readers’ Services Division. At the same time, there are also the cataloguing and classification unit and the acquisition or collection development unit that made up the technical services division.
The staff required in public libraries need to have different competencies to ensure effective service delivery. There are the professional librarians assisted by para-professionals and other support staff, most of these are administrative staff. The professional librarians are expected to perform the leadership role. The duties of professional librarians are normally intellectual and non-routine tasks. The professional librarians are expected to manage the library as an organization. The heads of libraries are assisted by other professional librarians who are in charge of divisions, departments and sections. Para- professionals assist the professional librarians and their jobs may not be intellectual, but they are involved in non-routine tasks. This cadre of library staff usually heads the smallest units of the library. The support staff constitutes the largest force of the library tasks and such tasks may not be directly related to the library activities. Such activities include the administrative officer, accounting officer, computer operator/programmers, clerical officers/typists, binders, cleaners/ messengers.
The motivation of the public library personnel is crucial in determining the quality of information services offered and hence how they meet the objectives of the library. Personnel motivation is concerned with defining the required needs of particular personal capabilities. Personnel motivation has to do with the entire scope of management policies and program, allocation, leadership and direction of manpower. According to Storey (2001), it is human capability and commitment which ultimately differentiate successful organizations from those that fail. So, if the public libraries must survive in this trend of information society, there is need for personnel commitment to work which can only be achieved through effective personnel motivation.
The public library as an information service oriented organization is complex and technologically sophisticated, library managers need to keep pace with innovations and thinking in the field to offer the most professional service with available resources. Being aware of developments in this fast changing field, there is need for professionals to put human, material and financial resources to effective use to achieve their maximum advantage. These can only be achieved through effective personnel motivation. There is a strong indication that librarians in the public libraries would have proven themselves equal to the task of meeting the challenges posed by a changing society if only there is adequate motivation.
Personnel motivation is a key factor in getting personnel to increase performance. Some library staff do not produce the quality of work or maintain the level of productivity which they are capable of producing. To some extent this may be attributed to laziness on the part of the staff but, according to Grant (1990) the major cause of this attitude however can be likened to lack of motivational measures by management. Library staff most times are bored, uninvolved and not performing to expectation, and this may result to their level of productivity falling below their real potentials. Management often times fails to present its staff with the necessary challenges and opportunities for achievement or the type of leadership that will motivate them and direct their behaviour towards increased performance. The public library as any other organization cannot achieve its aims and objectives without personnel motivation. Mathew, Ojeamiren and Adeniji (2012) state that motivation is the only reason why personnel in any organization will perform or put in their best. Job performance by personnel at lower and higher cadre in any establishment is largely dependent on the workers willingness, level of morale and the satisfaction derived while performing the job. Organizations that motivate their employees are likely to obtain a better performance which results in effective service delivery.
Generally it is widely recognized in human resource literature that promotion of the motivation of workers leads to a higher quality of human resources and optimum performance. Motivation has been variously defined by different authors and scholars from different perspectives. Motivation is a stimulated instinct that drives an individual to want to do a thing. It means a determinant of a persons’ chosen behaviour. This is because motivation spurs up action in an individual either positively or negatively. Maund (2001) defined motivation as the process by which an individual wants and chooses to act in a particular way. This agrees with Hodgins (2006) who asserts that motivation means a willful act on the part of an individual to try hard and exert a lot of effort or choose to just get by. From Maund and Hodgins’s definition, motivation is seen as the force within a person that account in part for the willful direction, intensity and persistence of person’s efforts towards achieving specific goals that are not due to ability or to environmental demands.
Motivation is also a process that starts with psychological deficiency that activates a behaviour or a need that is aimed at a good incentive. Armstrong (2001) sees motivation as behavior directed towards achieving a goal. Personnel are motivated when they know that a course of action is expected to lead to the attainment of a set goal, or valued reward. Armstrongs’ view corroborates that of Cole (2002) who opines that motivation is a process in which people choose between behaviour in order to achieve personal goals. In other words personnel motivation means getting people to do what you want them to do in order to achieve organizational goals.
Motivation can also be viewed as the analysis of the various factors that ignite and direct an individual’s action. Motivational strategies involve use of incentives such as good and regular pay, bonuses, promotional prospects, allowances good relationship and recognition by boss and colleagues, good and conducive working environment, freedom to take part in decision making at work, provision of training, autonomy in duties etc. some managers employ the oldest and probably the most widely used philosophy of management referred to as “coercion” which uses threat of punishment such as loss of job, dismissal, reduction in pay, suspension and strict compliance with rules and regulations to motivate personnel that are lazy and uncommitted to their work so that they can perform their jobs better.
Several theories have been propounded that elaborates on motivational measures, and their usefulness to increase motivation and how they can result in improving workers performance. Human resource management literature has emphasized on human resource performance management approaches to improve performance. According to Opu (2008), the presence of appropriate motivational measures and good management approaches will increase workers performance considerably and consequently the entire organization.
The salient question however is why are library staff not performing as expected? It is assumed that qualified and skilled workers have been employed based on job description and specification but their performance is not satisfactory. Based on this factor, it is pertinent to investigate how motivation affects personnel job performance.
Meanwhile historically, the growth and development of public library in Nigeria reflected to a large extent, the existing state structures. The history of public library in South-South Nigeria is traceable to both the defunct Mid-west region and the Eastern region of Nigeria.
The Mid-western region was created out of the old western region in 1963. The name was later changed to Bendel. The Bendel Library Board was established by the Mid-West Library Board Edict of 1971. The Board at first established a library in Benin City and later established branches in all the local government area in the state. Five mobile library vans were purchased to serve the remote areas of the state. The library has twenty-one branches located at Benin City, Afuze, Agbor, Asaba, Bomadi, Ekpoma, Ibilo, Igarra, Igbanke, Issele-Uku, Kwale, Ogwasshi-Uku, Oleh, Orerokpe, Ozoro, Ughelli, Uromi and Warri. By 1986, the library system had over 500,000 volumes and serves a large reading population and had a total of 467 staff. The library vote for the state was N1,440,500. The Bendel Library system was one of the most developed in the country with its range of library services both for children and adults. There were mobile library services, Hospital trolley services, Prison and Remand Home Library Services, which the Boards activities quite impressive.
Rivers State Library Board was established in 1971. The Board inherited the branch of the Eastern Regional Library Service. The Board had over 69,000 volumes over the years. There is a children library and one of the activities include the story hours. The library also provides extension services for Prisons and Remand Homes as well as mobile library services operated in a boat. The boat library attracted visitors from all corners of the country apart from users in River State who were the primary users. The boat has a capacity for 2000 volumes.
Cross River State Library Board was established under the South-Eastern State Library Act, 1973 Act, No. 16 of 1973. There are seven branches in Ogoja, Ikom, Uyo,Ekpeme, Eket, Abak and Etiman with Calabar as the headquarters. By early 1988, the Library Board was dissolved and the state library service was put under the Ministry of Education. The creation of Akwa-Ibom State has affected the library services as assets and liabilities had to be shared including staff. Mobile library services was suspended, however the library still provides children services as well as other regular services. (Olanlokun and Salisu 2000)
Statement of the problem
Public libraries are established to provide for the information need of the citizenries by acquiring, organizing and disseminating information materials, which communicate ideas and experiences from one person to another and make them easily available to all users. The fundamental aim of the library is to provide timely, accurate, pertinent, and reliable information for its users.
