The self-awareness of reference librarians in relation to the interpersonal skills in reference interview

Abstract

In general, this study aimed to investigate the reference librarians’ self-awareness and the interpersonal skills in reference interview. Specifically, this study aimed to determine: the profile of librarians in terms of age, work status in library, length of service in library, LIS academic background; the self-awareness of librarians in terms of self-analysis, self-disclosure, diverse experiences, and others’ perception; the interpersonal skills of librarians in term of visibility/approachability, interest, listening/inquiring, searching, and follow up; determine whether there is variation in the self-awareness of librarian when they are grouped according to age, work status in library, length of services, LIS academic background; determine whether there is variation in the interpersonal skills of librarians when they are grouped according to age, work status in library, length of services, and LIS academic background, and to determine if there is a relationship between the self-awareness and the interpersonal skills of librarians. This study is descriptive correlational study. Purposive sampling was used to select the respondents of the study, composed of librarian clerks who were LIS students and librarians from four universities. The data revealed that less than two-fifths of respondents were the young adult with age 21-40 years old, and nearly two-fifths of them were teenagers under 20 years old. Respondents were “LIS Student” and “Librarian” with the same proportion. About academic background, a half proportion were the respondents still studying LIS at bachelor level, meanwhile, nearly to two-fifths proportion were at master level, and only about one-tenth that have bachelor degree. About two-fifths of respondents have been working at library 6 years up, and about one-three of them have been working less than one year length of services and 1-5 years. It was found that more than half of respondents had high self-awareness, while less than half had moderate level of self-awareness, and no one had low level of self- awareness. Majority of respondents had very good interpersonal skills while less than one-fifth who had good level of interpersonal skills, and there is none of them had low interpersonal skills. About relation to age, work status, length of services, and academic background to self-awareness and interpersonal skills, the data revealed, that an improvement program of self-awareness is needed for all stage of respondent’s age, work status, length of services, and academic background. The improvement should as an ongoing activity or holistic program. It was also founded that self-awareness and interpersonal had moderate positive correlation. The improvement in the interpersonal skills of librarians and LIS students in reference services, should be supported by improvement of their self-awareness level.