Emotional Intelligence and Service Quality by Library Personnel in Colleges of Agriculture in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The need to increase library use through effective service quality may be achieved through
examining the interplay of emotional intelligence and service quality in libraries. It is against
this backdrop that this study investigates the influence of emotional intelligence on service
quality, especially in colleges of agriculture in Oyo State, Nigeria. The survey design of the
correlational type was adopted. The population of this study was library personnel (27) and
Higher National Diploma students (1,846) in colleges of agriculture in Oyo State. Total
enumeration was used for the library personnel while 10% proportional sample size was used
for the student (185). Questionnaire was the instrument used. The data were analyzed using
descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation and Multiple regression at 0.05 level
of significance. The study found highly positive perspectives of levels of service quality =2.4)
among the indicators. There is high level of emotional intelligence of library personnel in
colleges of agriculture in Oyo State, Nigeria and the prominent was Self-awareness ( =3.4).
The study however found that emotional intelligence (r=.028) demonstrated no significant
impact on library service quality. It was concluded that library services in education requires
some level of emotional intelligence even when this is not obvious to those concerned. Thus,
the institution and library management should develop interventions to empower library
personnel toward mastering self-awareness to enhance library service quality.