Academic Library Leadership in South West Nigeria and Recession: An Exploratory Study

Academic libraries in developing countries are underfunded and require transformational leadership to manage the resultant changes and ensure organizational effectiveness. This study attempts to identify the prevalent leadership styles in academic libraries in South West Nigeria using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. The study reflected that the library managers portrayed mostly a mix of transformational and transactional leadership styles. The library budget, equipment, and acquisition were most affected by recession. The library leaders preferred a mixture of investment and retrenchment (cost controlling) strategies to cope with recession. Leadership assessment using transformational model for coaching and recruitment is recommended for libraries.