Abstract:

Cataloguing, the systematic description of library information resources is the cornerstone of librarianship and hence, compulsory for all students in Library and Information Science (LIS) schools in Nigeria, including master degree students who are the future managers of the activity in libraries. Academic achievement of LIS students in cataloguing is known to be poor relative to other librarianship courses. However, previous studies in cataloguing academic achievement have focused on undergraduates and not on master degree students. There is dearth of studies on relationship between lecturer immediacy and academic achievement in cataloguing of master degree students in LIS schools. The study, therefore, investigated the link between lecturer immediacy and academic achievement in cataloguing among master degree students in LIS schools in Southern Nigeria where there is a preponderance of the schools. Descriptive survey design of correlational type was used and total enumeration was adopted to include all the 420 master degree students with 360 valid response rates for the study. The result reveals that the academic achievement of master degree students in LIS schools was good (test of norm of 66.47% against the threshold where 1-20 is poor, 21-40 is fair, 41-60 is Average, 61-80 is good and 81-100 is excellent). Lecturers teaching cataloguing and classification in LIS schools frequently used verbal and non- verbal immediacy while teaching. There is a remarkable positive link between lecturer immediacy and master degree students’ academic achievement in cataloguing in LIS schools in Southern Nigeria. The study concludes that master degree students in library schools have good mastery of cataloguing and classification at knowledge, comprehension and evaluation levels but deficient in application, analysis, and creative aspects. Master degree students in LIS schools in Southern Nigeria should improve their academic performance at application, analysis and creative aspects in cataloguing and classification in order to have adequate knowledge of cataloguing and classification courses.