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Chapter 12
Abdulwahab Olanrewaju Issa
University of Ilorin, Nigeria
An Assessment of the
Perception of Library School
Students towards Librarianship
at the University of Ilorin:
A Pilot Study
ABSTRACT
This is a pilot study, which investigated the perception of the University of Ilorin library school students
towards librarianship. It was aimed at examining the characteristics of the students and how they got
admitted into the Department. It adopted the survey research design where the entire 90 students (100
and 200 levels) constituted its population, while the 74 that were available during the data collec-
tion exercise represented the sample. Questionnaire and structured interview were employed for data
collection. The results revealed that 75.7% in 100 and 24.3% of 200 levels came in through the Joint
Admissions and Matriculations Examinations and direct admission/transfer, respectively. Their subject
backgrounds include Arts (36.5%), Science (28.4%), and Commercial (23.0%); a majority had a SSSC
(45.9%) result with the mean scores of 219 from JAMB and 59.69% from post-JAMB, respectively. The
majority (87.8%) did not choose LIS originally, and 67.6% claimed to be initially uninterested, against
the current positive perception (66.2%). Hypotheses tests showed no signifcant difference in subject
background and current perception of students who chose and those who did not choose LIS as a frst
choice. It concluded that the peculiar situation under which many of the pioneering students came into
the Department (i.e. transfer), was undesirable given the prevalent negative perception of librarianship.
Appropriate recommendations were made.
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-335-5.ch012