The relationship between services to nontraditional students and organizational transition: Perceptions of academic librarians

The purpose of this research was to identify the opinions of academic librarians toward nontraditional students and the services provided to them by their libraries and institutions and to compare the level of library service accessibility provided nontraditional students with the perceived state of organizational transition. This research attempted to identify the perceptions of individual academic librarians as they relate to existing library services accessed by nontraditional students as well as library services which could be improved. The research methodology used by this study was the survey questionnaire. The survey questionnaire was mailed to every librarian employed by the academic library of each university within the Mid-American Conference. The questionnaire consisted of forced choice as well as written completion statements. Means were computed from the responses to the questionnaire to determine central tendency. The t statistic and chi square test were employed to test for the null hypothesis and to determine significant relationships. This research produced two major findings. According to the findings, academic librarians are satisfied, in general, with the service provided to nontraditional students by their libraries. In addition, academic librarians perceive themselves as being sensitive to the needs of nontraditional students. They also believe, for the most part, that their institutions are sensitive to nontraditional student needs. The second major finding involves the impact which the perceived state of organizational change or transition on that perception of service satisfaction and sensitivity toward nontraditional students. From the results of this research, the perceived state of organizational change or transition does affect librarians' perceived service satisfaction and sensitivity toward nontraditional students. Librarians who perceive their organizations to be in a state of transition or change are more critical and less satisfied with the service provided to nontraditional students than those librarians who perceive their organizations to be relatively stable. Also, librarians who perceive their organizations to be in a state of transition or change feel less sensitive to the needs of nontraditional students than those librarians who perceive their organizations to be relatively stable.