Influence of Librarians’ Attitudes on Users’ Patronage in Private University Libraries in Lagos State, Nigeria

: The study investigated the influence of librarians' attitudes on users' patronage in private university libraries in Lagos State, Nigeria. Survey design was used for the study. The study population comprised 5,616 undergraduates in five selected private university libraries in Lagos State, Nigeria. The sample size of 365 was determined using Research Advisor’s Table. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the participants and questionnaire was used to collect data. The collected data was analyzed using frequency, percentages, mean, standard deviation, and simple linear regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis. The findings of the study revealed that three dimensions of librarians’ job attitude measured; interpersonal relationship (M=3.28), professionalism (M=3.16), and perception and image (M=2.97) were all highly rated by the respondents. The study further revealed that the librarians’ attitudes significantly influenced library patronage of undergraduates in private university libraries in Lagos State, Nigeria ( R 2 = 0.034, β = 0.185, t( 300) = 3.263, p < 0.05). The study concluded that librarians’ attitudes had a significant influence on library patronage in private university libraries in Lagos State. Based on the outcome of the study, it is recommended that the librarians should increase their self-confidence by being proactive and strive to be in the forefront of university activities in order to gain more visibility and launder the image of their profession.


INTRODUCTION
University libraries play a critical role in teaching, learning and research by providing a wide range of information resources and services to its users in various formats to meet the information needs of the academic community.Aside stocking the university libraries with appropriate information resources and providing conducive environment, the librarian's attitude toward users is critical to their patronage.In fact, patronage remains essential in ensuring the positive strength of the library because without patronage, the library cannot rate its performance.The frequency of users' patronage, the types of materials consulted by the users during visits, and their purpose of patronage are all indicators of library utilization and the library effectiveness (Abdulsalami & Efosa, 2020).As such, librarians' attitudes is a vital element that contributes to the welcoming atmosphere in a library.Librarians' attitudes differ from person to person, which are often based on individual background, level of education, environment, skills and experience amongst other factors (Tella & Odunola 2020;Omehia, 2018).Ard et al. (2006) noted some factors that could affect the health of a library; quantity and quality of the staff.Staff here represent the librarian and other people working in the library who create the level of morale and the caliber of service.Their attitudes determine whether the library will be advancing or conservative, dynamic or static, user friendly or otherwise.
Attitude has been a subject in relation to library usage and influential to great patronage of the library.In other words, whether the library will be an information livewire or a boring storeroom depends on the attitude of the workers.Attitude may influence greatly the degree to which the library is used.It can either lead to lower patronage / poor output turn out or enhance the patronage.To this effect, Gojeh, Dutse and Daudu (2013) noted the library staff cooperation or attitude is an important aspect which could be favorable or unfavorable to the users.The librarian's attitude therefore is one of the significant determinants in relation to library patronage.Oyewumi, Oladapo and Adigun (2014) also stated that the best impact of library resources and services are felt when the array of expertise could only be of benefit to the patrons through the adequacy and relevance of the librarian to accomplish a mission.Thus, the role of librarians' attitudes in the accomplishment of library goals cannot be over-emphasized.
Amongst the most treasured resources in academic library is its workforce.Without welltrained, and motivated librarians and library staff, an academic library program is ill prepared to meet the needs of its user (Connor, 2009).Therefore, librarians need to enhance their personal attitude and competence to cope with global challenges.Hence, the librarian is expected to improve and expand their knowledge, abilities and professionalism so as to be thoroughly acquainted with major library functions.Amongst the competency standard proposed by American Library Association (ALA), is professional competency that has to be maintained and improved.This is important because a poor enterprising spirit and unfriendly service ethics, breeds poor relation which can deter the users and as well worsen an already poor image (ALA, 2007).
Perception and image, interpersonal relationship, and professionalism are all important factors in defining librarians' attitudes.Perception and image of the librarian is a strong determinants of library patronage.Perceptions that users have on the library and its staff is a factor identified to influence library use.This is because perception is a strong feeling that affects virtually everything in life.Mohanty (2002) observed that the level of comfort in the library may impact student perceptions of the library, and their willingness to view the library as more than a quiet place to study.As a result, users' perception on the library tends to influence the patronage greatly.In validating this fact, Wolf (2005) established that the possibility of library patronage is often influenced by a student's perception.This arises from the reasoning that students with negative or neutral perceptions of the library are less likely to utilize it compared to those with positive outlooks.To improve users' perception of the uniqueness of the library and increase patronage, Wilcox and Chia (2013) suggested engagement in creating connections with users, so as to build up the image, which can be attained through: orientation, in-depth subject workshops, and information literacy workshops or classes.
One of the major gaps in library patronage is the lack of interaction between the library staff and the users.The facial expression and unfriendly attitude of a librarian has been the target of critic of many library visitors for long.Librarian cold faces when interacting with visitors remains a sensitive issue (Suwarno, 2016).Lack of long-term interpersonal relationship/ communication skills among librarians has resulted in a large gap between users and staff, which creates lack of confidence and feelings of inadequacy among librarians.These are some of the major hurdles faced by many university students (Kiilu & Otike, 2016).Professionalism demonstrated by library staff also has a significant role on how the users perceived the library and the profession.This is typically exhibited by their level of competence, skills and experience with the users.
Quality of services rendered to users or readers in any library is closely related with the professional skills of staffs.If the library is managed by qualified, experienced and cultured staff, users will always be encouraged to make use of the library.As a result, professionalism of library staff at work should promote the image of the profession in the best possible manner on all occasions.Consequently, library staff will need to move quickly and expand their knowledge through continuing education programs, professional trainings that will enable them to fit, as they project positive image to users through their attitude and services rendered or else the library will face a continual decline in patronage particularly with the use of information communication technology (ICT) which has not only changed the role of libraries but also the users' access (Udem, Ikenwe & Ugwuamoke, 2020).

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Library patronage by undergraduates is essential for their academic development.There is no institution that can boast of providing quality education for its users outside the services of a good library resources and qualified professionals.However, Mohammed, Abduallahi and Abubakar (2017) reported the diminishing nature of patronage with the provision of digital information resources and services in the university library.The study of Odu (2017) identified the attitude of library staff towards users amongst other factors as reasons for the state of apathy towards the library.Similarly, Abdulsalami and Efosa (2020) study on the non-patronage of library information resources and services by students at federal universities library, revealed that patronage was low.This has become a source of concern to librarians as low library patronage is likely to cause inadequate study time and bad study habit, which is a common occurrence among students today, that often breed poor academic performance and if not dealt with, can results in outright failure which undoubtedly can underrate the standard of higher education.

OBJECTIVES
The main objective of this study is to find out influence of librarians' attitudes on users' patronage in private university libraries in Lagos State, Nigeria.The specific objectives are to find out attitudes of the librarians toward users of private university libraries in Lagos State, Nigeria; and to determine the influence of librarians' attitudes on library patronage in private university libraries in Lagos State.

Librarians' Attitudes
Attitudes are the tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain idea, object, person, or situation.Attitude influences an individual's choice of action and responses to challenges, incentives, and rewards.Velnampy (2008) defines attitude as the feelings and belief that largely determines the perception of employees and their environment, commit themselves to intended actions and untimely act as accordingly as expected.An attitude in this study is defined as the beliefs, opinion and perception of the profession, interpersonal relationship and image of librarian.Therefore, it is used to represent the users' perceptions on the value attached to library services rendered to enhance patronage in libraries.It represents the conceptual value of library patronage and potentials of professional maturity that ensures growth.
Librarians' attitudes refer to the behavior demonstrated by library personnel to its users towards meeting their information.The success of a library in achieving its target in terms of vision and mission is closely linked to how its users perceive the services offered as well as their attitudes towards the same (Kiriri, 2019).Library staff are key factors in library operations.Users rely greatly on their expertise to feel at home within the premise of the library, to improve their perception of the unique value of the library, and to intensify constant use.Therefore, their attitudes are major determinant of library patronage.Librarians' attitudes in the academic library environment are considered a reliable criterion in determining library effectiveness (Oden & Owolabi, 2021).Users of library have varying needs, and it is the duty of the library staff to make every concerted effort to meet these needs.Meeting the information needs of users require the provision of the actual information resources and services that will satisfy their needs.Meanwhile, Gwang (2011) identified challenges associated with the provision of library and information services to Nigerians in the 21st Century, which included the nature of professional practice described as passive, reactive, and assertive.Similarly, the best impact of the library resources and services are felt when the array of expertise could only be of benefit to the patrons through the adequacy and relevance of the librarian to accomplish a mission.In the light of the above, he urged librarians to maximize resources in order to serve the library patrons effectively (Ibidapo, 2001).
On the other hand, librarians too will need to acquire new knowledge and skills that facilitate effective service delivery so as to portray their competence to their users.An investigation on librarians' attitudes toward information technology revealed that librarians' level of knowledge in technology is a good predictor of their attitude toward application of information technology in libraries (Ramzan, 2004).The role and attitudes of librarians in this change process has been central as they are the agents of introducing new technology-based library resources, services, and systems.Successful implementation of information and other technologies can be linked with enhancement of librarians' own knowledge and skills in the areas of information resource, tools, access modes, management, and their ability to integrate them to provide efficient library services.
Alternative services and sources can be offered to improve the users' perception of the value of the library and thereby increase sustained use of the library.Engaging users by creating connections with them becomes necessary in order to create awareness of library resources and services.This may be virtual or face to face interactions by subject librarians to provide support in terms of subject and e-resource expertise.Engagement with users can also be attained through orientation, in-depth subject workshops, and information literacy workshops or classes (Wilcox & Chia, 2013).At this point, the ability of library staff to perform as tutors or facilitators will greatly enhance the value of libraries and improve their image in a positive direction.This is solely because the level of satisfaction users derived from academic libraries is pertinent to its existence, continuity and the relevance placed on it by student-users (Ikenwe & Iwari-Idowu, 2014).

Influence of Librarians' Attitudes on Library Patronage
Many studies have actually examined the librarian's view of their users, but few have actually studied users view about the librarian's attitude in the course of their service provision in the library, especially in private universities.Motiang, Wallis and Karodia (2014) evaluated user satisfaction with library services at the University of Limpopo, Medunsa campus.The results indicated that majority of the respondents are satisfied with the library staff, their availability and happy with the information supplied.Sivathaasan (2013) investigated the satisfactory level of undergraduates of faculty of management studies and commerce with the facilities offered by the main library, University of Jaffna, Sri-Lanka, with a sample size of 202 students through a selfdeveloped questionnaire.The result revealed among others that students were relatively most satisfied with competence of the library staff.On the contrary, Ali, Yu, and Amran (2018) investigated library users' perceptions towards librarians in a public library in Selangor, Malaysia.The findings of the study show that the library users do have negative perception towards librarians.Adam (2017) studied undergraduate students' perception on library service quality from three dimensions which are library information resources, services and facilities that are available for use in Yusuf Maitama Sule University Library, Kano.The findings revealed that the students agreed that the library provides them with information that are current and relevant.The findings also revealed that majority of the undergraduates were appreciable of the services of the library staff.Oden and Owolabi (2021) investigated the influence of staff attitude on service delivery in university libraries in Ogun State, Nigeria.The findings of the study showed that respondents affirmed that the library staff delivered quality services and their staff attitude was positive.The study also found out that the staff attitude had a significant influence on service delivery.Similarly, Adeniran (2011) evaluated user satisfaction of academic library services based on students' perspectives and determine the relationship between user satisfaction and the overall library service quality.The results of the study indicate that users are satisfied with both library's support for learning and research, and the library's treatment of users and students rated the overall quality of services provided by the library as good.However, a few users were dissatisfied with the library's support for learning and research, and the library's treatment of users.
Tella and Odunola (2020) examined the influence of demographic variables on library patronage by the undergraduate students at universities in South West Nigeria.The findings revealed that negative attitudes of some of the librarians were identified as one of the prominent hindrances to library patronage by the undergraduates.Udem, Ikenwe, and Ugwuamoke (2020) explored the undergraduates' perception of the quality and value of library services offered to them in the 21 st century in federal universities in Southeast Nigeria.According to the findings, the main barriers to a high perception of library services' quality and value were a lack of current information resources and an unfriendly staff.In the same vein, Idowu and Oso (2022) investigated the influence of library service quality on the perceived librarians' image in selected private universities in South-West, Nigeria.The outcome of the study revealed that majority of the undergraduate students have negative perception of librarians' image because they disagree with many of the items related to the librarians' image.The findings of the study also revealed that perception of undergraduates about library service quality and satisfaction with services offered by librarians had relationship with librarians' image.The study concluded that quality of services offered by librarians determine the perception and image that library users have about librarians.Abdulsalami and Efosa (2020) examined the non-patronage of library resources and services by students at Federal University Lafia.The findings of the study revealed that there is low patronage of library resources and services by respondents of the study, which has a significant effect on the students themselves.Poor staff / user relationship was one of the factors responsible for the non-patronage.

METHODOLOGY
Survey design was used for the study.The target population comprised 5,616 undergraduates in five selected private universities in Lagos State, Nigeria.The universities studied are: Anchor University Ayobo, Caleb University, Eko University of Health Medical Sciences, Ijanikin; Pan Atlantic University, Lekki-Epe, and St. Augustine University, Epe.These private universities were selected because they have been existing for quite some time with a reasonable number of undergraduates.Likewise, they are well-known.The sample size was determined using Research Advisor Table and the result gives 365.Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the participants.In the first stage, stratified proportionate sampling technique was applied to select the undergraduates from each of the institution understudy according to their respective representation in the population.In the second stage, convenience sampling was also employed in administering the research instrument to the participants of the study.Questionnaire was used for the data collection.The questionnaire provided questions on the influence of librarian's attitude in the university library, and it comprised three subsections.The first subsection consists of (6) six items that was used to measure professionalism, the second consists of five (5) items that measured interpersonal relation, and the third consists of (6) six items to measure perception and image.The dependent variable -library patronage was measured using frequency of library visit, types of materials consulted during visit, and purpose of library visit.The response format was four-point Likert scale.The items were developed by the researcher based on the related literature reviewed.The Cronbach Alpha scale for the instrument was 0.75, signifying that the research instrument had an acceptable level of internal consistency and reliability.Data collected from the administered copies of questionnaire were analysed using frequency counts, percentage, mean and standard deviation which were used to get answers to the research questions.Simple linear regression was used to test the hypothesis.The analyses were done with the aid of the Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS), version 23.Out of the 365 copies of questionnaire handed out to the study participants, 303 were returned while 62 were unreturned.All the 303 returned copies of questionnaire were rightly filled by the participants and suitable for use.This resulted in a total of 303 useable responses, or 83.0%usable response rate.

RESULTS
Research Question One: What is the attitude of the librarian towards users of private university libraries in Lagos state, Nigeria?The result in Table 1 shows that undergraduates rated highly (agreed) the general attitude of librarians in private university libraries in Lagos State (Average weighted mean = 3.14).Further analysis revealed that the three dimensions of librarians' attitudes namely interpersonal relationship had the highest mean score (M=3.28),followed by professionalism (M=3.16) and lastly perception and image (M=2.97) were also highly rated (agreed) by undergraduates of private university libraries in Lagos State on a 4-point Likert-type rating scale.This finding suggests that undergraduates are more inclined to the interpersonal relationship and professionalism than the perception and image of librarians in private university libraries in Lagos State.The findings also suggest that the job attitude of librarians in private university libraries in Lagos State, Nigeria received positive remarks from library users.This can motivate users to further patronize the libraries and make use of the information resources.
Hypothesis one: Librarians' attitudes will not significantly influence library patronage of undergraduates in private university libraries in Lagos State, Nigeria.
Hypothesis one was tested with simple linear regression analysis.The results of the regression analysis are presented in Table 2.

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
The result of this study revealed that the three dimensions of librarians' job attitude namely interpersonal relationship, professionalism, and perception and image were all highly rated by the undergraduates in private university libraries in Lagos State.This suggested that the undergraduates have positive attitude towards the library staff.This finding is in line with earlier study by Oden and Owolabi (2021) who examined the influence of staff attitude on service delivery in university libraries in Ogun State, Nigeria.Their findings revealed that the respondents affirmed that the library staff delivered quality services and their staff attitude was positive.This outcome further corroborates the study of Adam (2017) that revealed that majority of the undergraduates perceived the services of the library staff were appreciable.
Another significant finding of this study was that, of the three dimensions of librarians' job attitudes examined interpersonal relationship and professionalism were all rated high, while perception and image was ranked lowest by the undergraduates.The outcome suggested that the librarian do have a good interpersonal interaction with the library users as well as demonstrating relevant professional competencies.This finding agrees with that of Motiang, Wallis and Karodia (2014) who found out that majority of their respondents were satisfied with the library staff, their availability and happy with the information supplied.This outcome also supported the findings of Sivathaasan (2013) that revealed that students were relatively most satisfied with competence of the library staff.
The discovery of the present study suggest that the undergraduates seem not to have negative view of the library staff.This finding supports Wilcox and Chia (2013) assertion who suggested engagement in creating connections with users, so as to build up the image of the profession.Image has also been identified as a direct motivator in the use or non-use of the library.It has a significant impact on how users will respond to the services and use of library (Kiilu & Otike, 2016).However, the finding of the present study sharply contrasted with the outcome of some previous studies.Tella and Odunola (2020) found out that negative attitudes of some librarians were identified as one of the prominent hindrances to library patronage by the undergraduates.The findings of Abdulsalami and Efosa (2020) also identified poor staff user relationship as one of the factors responsible for the non-library patronage.
Another notable finding of the study regarding the image and perception shows that "the appearance of librarians makes them approachable" received the lowest score.This suggests that the respondents were not completely satisfied with the appearance of the librarians.Librarian's physical appearance, comeliness, and approach are all important factors in forming general impressions and opinions about them.This is because perceptions and image constitute a value assessment of an individual and, as such, may impact how other members of the broader public perceive them.This finding supported Idowu and Oso (2022), who found out that the majority of the undergraduate students have negative perception of librarians' image because they disagree with many of the items related to the librarians' image.
The result of the hypothesis revealed that librarians' attitudes significantly influence library patronage of undergraduates in private university libraries in Lagos State.This suggests that an improvement in librarians' attitudes will improve library patronage.Regardless of the quality of library collections or its environment, if librarian attitudes toward the users are unfriendly, such library will undoubtedly have poor patronage.This further indicates that positive librarians' attitudes toward library users could also be a panacea for low library patronage.Therefore, the importance of librarians' attitudes on library patronage cannot be overemphasized.This finding agrees with Oden and Owolabi (2021) who found out that staff attitude had a significant influence on service delivery.In the same vein, Idowu and Oso (2022) findings also revealed that perception of undergraduates about library service quality and satisfaction with services offered by librarians had relationship with librarians' image.The study suggests that library user' perception and image of librarians are influenced by the quality of the services they provide.Based on these findings, librarians would need to constantly acquire new knowledge and skills in order to be aware of new opportunities and possibilities for improving their userrelationship and services.

CONCLUSION
Every established university library expects that students patronize and make optimal use of its information resources and facilities through regular visits.Meanwhile, the quality of service delivered by the librarian generally could have a significant impact on users' patronage.As such, librarians' attitudes toward users are expected to be empathic, supportive, and professional enough.This study concluded that librarians' attitudes influence library patronage of undergraduates in private university libraries in Lagos State, Nigeria.This means that librarians' attitudes contribute to the degree to which the library is used.Based on the outcome of this study, it is recommended that the librarians should increase their self-confidence by being proactive and strive to be in the forefront of university activities in order to gain more visibility and launder the image of their profession.The librarians also need to be more innovate and provide value-added services as well as improve their physical appearance so as to make them more approachable to their users.Finally, the management of university libraries understudy should further commend the librarians for their fair display of interpersonal relationship, and professionalism.This can further motivate librarians to sustain their professional attitude.By implication, findings of this study would create awareness into existing librarians' attitudes in private universities.One glaring limitation of the study is a dearth of current literature on librarians' attitudes especially with regards to its influence on library patronage.Thus, this study would help to further bridge this gap.

Table 2
Simple linear regression analysis of librarians' attitudes and library patronage of undergraduates in private university libraries undergraduates in the private university libraries.This implies that library patronage depends on librarians' attitudes of private university libraries in Lagos State.Hence, the null hypothesis which states that librarians' attitudes will not significantly influence library patronage of undergraduates in private university libraries in Lagos State, was rejected.The regression model also shows that when librarians' attitudes is enhanced by one unit on a measurement scale, there will be corresponding 18.4% (0.184) increase in the library patronage of undergraduates in the private university libraries.Therefore, librarians' attitudes are vital to enhancing the library patronage of undergraduate students in private university libraries in Lagos State.