Emotional Intelligence of Libranian in the Information Service

Abstract

This paper may be a focus on Emotional Intelligence of library and knowledge service businesses. It discussed the philosophy of librarianship and the laws that are prevalent in the library and information science. The essence of those laws is to make sure that the proper services are provided for users while a decent philosophy is predicted to facilitate the event of the library profession. It highlighted the objectives of the Emotional Intelligence of libranian and information profession. It additionally disclosed the freelance businesses available to library and knowledge science professionals and also the competencies, ethics, and skills required for the successful operation of these self-employed businesses. The paper equally mentioned the foundation for a successful business and challenges to enterprise entrepreneurial opportunities by library and knowledge science professionals.

Introduction

Emotion of employees plays a significant role in organizational life and it needs to be well managed in order to enhance information service in library. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is one of the most important concepts introduced to psychology and management in the last century.Hence in this study, EI can be conceptualized to mean the ability to identify, know, assess and control one’s emotion and use this knowledge to manage other people’s feelings and emotions in the organization and in the entire human society.

The position of a bibliothec is incredibly very important in data sourcing and management in any society. Graduates of library and information science (LIS) do not have to fear being thrown into the labor market. Oaikhinam (2006) expressed that LIS graduates aren’t only intelligent and extremely skilled, they are also creative. The market may be crowded but not for librarians, knowledge workers and information professionals, careers in library and information science offer opportunities in different spheres of endeavors. This is why Ekuoye (2007) opines that it is sad that there are so many earnests and hard-working librarians who think excelling in librarianship is inconceivable.

In this information age, the roles of information as a veritable economic resource cannot be overemphasized. Information is a marketable commodity and social wealth. Technological innovations and new concepts are borne out of information sourcing, processing and dissemination thereby empowering and creating wealth for the library and information professionals (Ugwu and Ezeani, 2012). Information and communication technology (ICT) has dramatically altered the structure of markets in several industries and company organizations. Onaade (2012) asserts that with the recent revolutions in ICT, knowledge societies have been expanded, modified and exemplified. Thus, ICT has changed and enhanced the LIS profession around the world.

The revolution of ICT had led to an expansion in the roles of information professionals in diverse ways with a shift from a document management perspective to an information management perspective. As a result, there is also a corresponding expansion in the employment market for library and information professionals (Ugwu and Ezeani, 2012). Hence, LIS professionals ought to equip themselves with the talents, attitudes, and values that are necessary for improved library services to cope with increasing entrepreneurial opportunities created by ICT. This is the only pathway for library and information science professionals to excel as entrepreneurs

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence as noted by Cekmecelioglu et al [8] is a “sub set of social intelligence, involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions”(p. 364). This conception of emotional intelligence addresses the four-dimensional emotional intelligence construct consisting of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and social management [Kelly &Barsade, 20; Caruso, Mayer &Salovey, 21; Salovey&Pizaro, 22; Rubin, Munz&Bommer, 23; Cote & Miners, 24]. Along with these widely accepted fourdimensional construct, there are other classifications and categorizations of emotional intelligence. For example, Reus and Liu [25] proposed two main components of emotional intelligence: emotional recognition and emotional regulation. In their view, emotional recognition refers to a person’s ability to perceive emotions and understand their potential causes and effects. On the other hand, emotional regulation is the ability of individuals to manage their own and others emotional expressions, while Goleman[26] classified it into internal and external elements. The internal elements include self-awareness, self-concept, independence, self-actualization, and decisiveness while the external factors include interpersonal relationships, empathy, and responsibility. These factors are related to the productivity of employees in any organization, especially in the university library that relate with several clienteles on a daily basis.

Moreover, emotional intelligence involves the capacity of the individual for accepting the realities of life, the ability to solve emotional problems, and the ability to cope with stress, impulses and remain committed to the organization in achieving its goals and objectives [Jorfi, Jorfi&Moghadam, 27; Johar&Shar, 28]. In most organizations, people are freely interacting with others regardless of what their position may be in order to have a high level of efficiency and job performance. Thus, to achieve one’s stated goals in life, there is need to have effective relationship with others who are adequately equipped with technical abilities along with certain characteristics which can be referred to as emotional intelligence competencies. It can be noted here that these abilities make an individual to be self-aware, composed, respectable, observant, supportive, participative, visionary, calm and receptive in confrontation with others or situations. In Goleman’s word, “emotional intelligence consists of self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills” [Goleman cited in Mousavi et al, 9, p. 782].

The first component of emotional intelligence is Emotional self-awareness. It entails knowing what one feels [Goleman, 31]. This enables an individual to know one’s internal states, preferences, resources, and intuitions. It comprises of three self-personal competencies which are briefly discussed as follows:

Emotional self-awareness- The ability to recognize and understand personal moods and emotions and drives, as well as their effect on others.It entails the skill to focus on one’s attention on his/her emotional state; knowing one’s internal states, preferences, resources and intuitions [Vyas, 33]. Also, people who are emotionally self-aware know which emotion they should experience at any given moment. They would recognize the relationship between their own thoughts and feelings and are cognizant of their beliefs, values and goals [Boyatzis, Goleman, & Rhee, 34]. Accurate self-assessment – This is also known as accurate self-evaluation. It entails an ability of knowing one’s strengths and limits [Vyas, 33]. It implies how people accurately evaluate themselves and be aware of their strengths, but also recognize and accept their weaknesses [Ziv, 32]. They are open to constant growth and development by learning from their mistakes and experiences, are introspective, and open to constructive feedback and new possibilities. Accurate Self-Assessment was the hallmark of superior performance [Boyatzis in Goleman, 31]. “Individuals with the Accurate Self-Assessment competence are aware of their abilities and limitations, seek out feedback and learn from their mistakes, and know where they need to improve and when to work with others who have complementary strengths” [Goleman, 31, p.6]. It could be noted that librarians in the university library are expected to meet the information needs of library users that seek for diverse information from the library collections.

Self-confidence – This is the third competence in the Self-Awareness cluster and it is also known as self-esteem [ZIv, 32]. It entails a strong sense of one’s self-worth and capacities [Vyas, 33]. People of this category are self-assured and know their self-worth. They present themselves and their views authentically and powerfully [Ziv, 32]. They respectfully stand up for their views even when doing so is unpopular. They make decisions and follow up with appropriate action. They are open and respectful of others’ opinions even in face of disagreement. It could be generally observed that the level of self-confidence was a stronger predictor of workers’ performance in the organization than the level of skill or previous training acquired.

Social awareness is the second component in the emotional intelligence framework. It entails reading people and groups accurately [Goleman, 31]. It comprises of five competencies such as:

Empathy – It means self-awareness, our understanding of others’ feelings and concerns flows from awareness of our own feelings [Goleman, 31]. Besides, Ziv[32] noted that the empathic people are sensitive and understanding of others. They listen effectively, respectfully and attentive to others’ emotional state. It entails the ability to identify with and understand somebody else’s feelings or difficulties. This sensitivity to others is critical for superior job performance whenever the focus is on interactions with people. Librarians, due to nature of their profession are dealing with diverse information seekers on daily basis; hence, they should be sensitive to the feelings and pains of their library clienteles. Also, they should be helpful in alleviating the sufferings of their users while accessing and retrieving the needed information in the library.

Achievement/Service orientation – This entails anticipating, recognizing and meeting customers’ needs [Goleman, 31]. It concerns with nurturing relationships with the business customers. This involves setting a positive tone of cooperation no matter how difficult the situation may appear to be and focusing on achieving goals [Stock, 35]. This implies that in the university library, library users are librarians’ customers. They are the most important components of any library especially the university library, they are the determinant factor of the library collections. That means without them library cannot operate in vacuum. All the library resources are selected, acquired and processed in relation to the information needs of its users. Hence, librarians should promote good rapport between them and the library users.

Organizational awareness – This is the ability to read the currents of emotions and political realities in groups, is a competence vital to the behind-the-scenes networking and coalition building that allows individuals to wield influence, no matter what their professional role [Ziv, 32]. Insight into group social hierarchies requires social awareness on an organizational level, not just an interpersonal one [Vyas, 33]. Goleman[36] noted that outstanding performers in most organizations share this ability among managers and executive generally, this emotional competence distinguishes star performers. Their ability to read situations objectively, without the distorting lens of their own biases and assumptions, allows them to respond effectively. This implies that in the university library, librarians are expected to be humane when relating with library users. They must have a working knowledge of the university library information policies, rules and regulations, these must not be compromised for whatever reason while relating with any library user.

Organizational commitment – This is aligning with the goals of the group or organization [Vyas, 33; Goleman, 31]. Organizational commitment can be seen as the degree to which employees believe in and accept organizational goals and desire to remain with the organization [Mathis & Jackson, 37]. It can be generally observed that at the inception of every organization, it has some set of written achievable goals and objectives which every employee of that organization must embrace and strictly adhered to all its norms. Employee’s failure to do this amounts to a serious offence in the organization. Therefore, it is expected of every librarian to be committed to his/her organization’s goals and objectives, nothing should be done to sabotage the overall goals and set objectives of his/her library or else he/she will be severely dealt with.

Leadership – It entails inspiring and guiding individuals and groups to achieve a stated goal of the organization [Vyas, 33]. Leadership is a “management function, which is mostly directed towards people and social interaction,as well as the process of influencing people so that they will achieve the goals of the organization” [Rizi et al, 38, p. 7]. According to Goleman[31], leadership style seems to drive organizational performance across a wide span of industries and sectors and appears to be a crucial link in the chain from leader to climate to business success. Leadership of any organization is an essential factor that determines the success or failure of such institution in the society. Every professional librarian in the university library is a manager and custodian of all the library collections and human resources placed at his/her disposal. Therefore, it is expect of every librarian to demonstrate some high level of leadership traits that would enable them to efficiently discharge their duties to the library clienteles.

Philosophy of Librarianship

Philosophy is the investigation of the truth concerning a specific phenomenon. It is an inquiry into knowledge. It seeks to identify the aims and objectives of events or occurrences. It aims at finding out the reason why certain incidents take place. The philosophy of library science or librarianship is aimed at identifying the origin, essence or basis of librarianship. The principle of librarianship shows the ‘fundamental principles upon which all the practice, techniques and activities of librarianship are based’ (Anyanwu, 2008). The philosophies of librarianship are those issues that will facilitate the growth and successful development of librarianship. They are all those facts that will help in identifying solutions to the problems of librarianship. Philosophy of librarianship is essential for effective decision making. It should be based on the needs of the community being served. A philosophy ‘may be changed, modified and replaced to meet the changing needs of the community being served’ (Anyanwu, 2008).

There is no agreement on accepted philosophy of librarianship, however, the following kinds of philosophy can be identified:

1. Practical philosophy
2. Deductive philosophy
3. Inductive philosophy
4. Social philosophy

A good philosophy should reflect aspects of the four philosophies stated above to achieve the desired result and to ensure that the right kinds of services are made available to the clientele. The appropriate kind of philosophy of librarianship should be in line with five laws of library science as identified by S. R. Ranganathan. These laws are:

1. Books are for use
2. Every reader his or her book
3. Every book its reader
4. Save the time of the reader
5. The library is a growing organism.

In a nutshell, these laws are saying that library materials should be made accessible to users, the needs of all the clientele should be reflected in the collection, every book in the library has a user who will find it useful and the needs of the user should be made available on record time. In 1998, Michael Gorman also recommended some laws that should be added to the five laws of Ranganathan. These laws are as follows:

1. Libraries serve humanity
2. Respect all forms in which knowledge is communicated
3. Use technology intelligently to enhance service
4. Protect free access to knowledge
5. Honour the past and create the future

Objectives of Library and Information Profession

The objectives of library and information profession are highlighted as follows:

• To unite all persons working in or interested in library work, by convening conferences and meetings for the discussions of matters affecting libraries – their regulations, management or otherwise
• To encourage the promotion, establishment and improvement of libraries and library services
• To promote and encourage bibliographic study and research
• To improve the standard of librarianship and the status of the library profession
• To collect, collate and publish information of benefit to members
• To do all such lawful things as are incidental or conducive to the fulfillment of the above objectives.

Self-employed Businesses Available to Library and Information Science Professionals

There are many self-employment options available to library and information science professionals as an entrepreneur. Among them are as follows:

1. Publishing: The publishing sector is a viable option available to graduates of library and information science. With proper entrepreneurship education, the graduates of LIS will be better disposed to undertake ventures in publishing
2. Development of Computer Software: Graduates of LIS can take the option of developing computer software that will be used specifically for specific tasks in libraries and information centres.
3. Production and sale of library equipment: Production of library equipment is another option available to graduates of LIS. They can be involved in the production of audio visual equipment, catalogue cards, metal shelf, book stands, etc used in library and information centres.
4. Information brokerage and consultancy services: Graduates in library and information science can be involved in information brokerage and consultancy services whereby they will be repackaging information for clients for a fee.
5. Book selling Business: Graduates in LIS can also be involved in book selling business. With the knowledge of librarianship, they are better disposed to serve the various libraries by supplying books to them and as well liase with management of tertiary institutions to sell books to their students.
6. Operation of business centres and cyber café business: Library and information science professionals can take the option of running a business centre where computer related activities such as typesetting, computer training, graphic designs and photocopying services amongst others can be carried out. The option of running a cyber café business is also available to him.