LIBRARIANS PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES AND WORK ENGAGEMENT IN FEDERAL UNIVERSITIES IN NORTH WEST, NIGERIA

Abstract

Work engagement is critical to the actualization of the mandate of any organization. In this competitive work environment it is impossible for organisations to survive and function well without highly engaged employees. The condition in Nigerian university libraries is worrisome as the level of work engagement of librarians is believed to be low as shown by many empirical studies. This trend is also observable in federal universities in North-West, Nigeria. This study investigated the influence of Librarians professional competencies on work engagement in federal universities in North West, Nigeria.  Survey research design was adopted for the study. The target population comprised 332 librarians in federal universities in North West, Nigeria. Total enumeration was used to encompass all the librarians in federal universities in North West, Nigeria. Questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. Out of 332 copies of the questionnaire distributed to the respondents, 305 were retrieved and found useful for the study. Data collected were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics via SPSS. The results revealed that both the level of work engagement and professional competencies of librarians were high and Librarians professional competencies do significantly influence their work engagement in federal universities in North-West, Nigeria. The study concluded that librarians professional competencies can influence their work engagement in federal universities in North West, Nigeria. The study recommended that, the management of federal universities in collaboration with the federal university libraries in North-West, Nigeria should include Competency test among the criteria for testing librarians work engagement in federal university libraries in North-West, Nigeria. The management of federal universities in collaboration with the federal university libraries in North-West, Nigeria should maintain and continue to satisfy the job demands of librarians as well as to provide adequate job resources so as to sustain work engagement of librarians in their organizations.