EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AS CORRELATE OF MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION RESOURCES IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN NORTH-CENTRAL, NIGERIA

Effective management of information resources in university libraries is essential. Despite the recognisedd importance of emotional intelligence in organisational settings, its specific impact on resource management in libraries remains underexplored. This study examined emotional intelligence as correlates of management of information resources in university libraries in North-central Nigeria Four null hypotheses were formulated. A correlational survey research design was adopted. The population of the study consisted of 254 professional librarians in the six Federal universities in North-central, Nigeria. The population was used as the sampling size since the population is manageable, there is no sampling for the study. Data for this study was collected by means of structured questionnaire titled “Emotional Intelligence Scale Self-Assessment (EISA) and “Management of Information Resources Questionnaire” (MIRQ). CronbachAlpha Method was used to check the internal consistency of EISA and MIRQ and their respective reliability values obtained were 0.81 and 0.79. Linear regression analysis was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level. It was found that while self-awareness and self-regulation had moderate positive relationships with resource management, social awareness and relationship management exhibited strong positive correlations. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that since social awareness demonstrated a strong positive relationship with resource management, university libraries should encourage librarians to develop user-centered service approaches. Training programmes should emphasize active listening, empathy, and user engagement strategies to ensure that librarians understand and respond effectively to users’ needs.