Neuroticism and its Effect on Information Seeking Behavior: A Study of Academic Librarians in Federal Universities

Abstract

Neuroticism which experts’ call one of the “Big Five” personality traits is a set of common characteristics that are found around the world most often. This study therefore investigated the impact of neuroticism as a trait on the information seeking behaviour of academic librarians in Federal universities in Nigeria. It adopted a survey research design while random sampling technique was used to obtain a sampled population of 665 academic librarians from 42 federal universities in Nigeria. The major instrument use for data collection was a self-constructed Likert type structured four point questionnaires. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics tools of mean, frequencies and percentiles while the null hypothesis was tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) analysis of the correlation coefficient at a 0.05 level of significance. The outcome of the study did reveal that there is statistical significant (P>0.5) correlation between neuroticism and information seeking behaviour of academic librarians in studied federal universities. Based on the findings, the study recommended among other things; the that management of federal university libraries should make provision for a separate section of library; equipped with state of the art facilities exclusively for academic librarians for effective research and to enhance their academic activities as well as that library management and the university should adjust the working hours of academic librarians to accommodate their personal responsibilities as a way of easing work created stress.