Influence of Demographic Factors on Research Productivity of Academic Librarians in Universities in North Central Nigeria.

Abstract

The study investigated influence of demographic factors on research productivity of academic librarians in universities in North-Central Nigeria. Three research questions were raised. Two null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive research design was used and population of 207 academic librarians in 24 Universities in North Central Nigeria.Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 157 academic librarians in 13 randomly selected universities in North-central Nigeria. Structured questionnaire was adopted. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data collected. Result showed the response rate of 112 respondents and that males, MLS degree holders and assistant librarians dominated the respondents. Theses/dissertations were the major research output and that respondents published few articles in various outlets. Null hypotheses tested showed that neither the existence of significant contribution of demographic factors to research productivity of academic librarians nor significant difference between publication output by authorship and frequency range. The study concluded that the association of demographic variables with research output of academic librarians will in no doubt enhance the ranking of universities and creation of the Institutional Digital Repositories (IDR). The study recommended among others; the university managements in the North-Central Nigeria should encourage research and publication collaboration among academic librarians.