Motivation for Doing Scholarly Publications Among Professional Librarians in Ghanaian Public Universities

Abstract

The study investigated the factors that motivated professional librarians to
engage in scholarly publication and the type of support provided to facilitate
scholarly publication in four public university libraries in Ghana. The study also
sought the views of the professional librarians as to whether scholarly
publications should be required for their promotion. The research design was a
mixed methods approach. The questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data
from 47 professional librarians while four university librarians were also
interviewed for qualitative data. The quantitative data were analysed by using the
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20 software while content
analysis was employed to analyze the qualitative data. The findings revealed that
the respondents engaged in scholarly publication to contribute to research in the
profession, professional advancement and personal growth, to earn
promotion/career advancement, to earn recognition among professional
colleagues/peers and visibility. The respondents also affirmed that scholarly
publications should be among the requirements for their promotion. The study
also identified training, workshops, seminars, conferences and informal
mentoring as the major institutional support for scholarly publication. It is
recommended that the library management should establish formal mentoring
programmes and other sources of funding should be solicited by the professional
librarians to facilitate scholarly publication scholarly activities in the libraries