The relationship between professionalism and job satisfaction of librarians working in university libraries

This study aims to examine the relationship between occupational professionalism and job satisfaction among university librarians. In today's information society, librarianship is an important profession that provides access to information, supports information literacy, and offers technology-integrated services. In this context, occupational professionalism involves a commitment to ethical principles and an awareness of professional responsibility. It also involves specialising in a field and being open to ongoing professional development. Job satisfaction is defined as the level of satisfaction that individuals feel in their jobs. This has a significant impact on their motivation, performance and organisational commitment. The study was carried out using the descriptive method and the survey method was employed to collect primary data. The 20-item short forms of the "Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale" (Weiss ve diğerleri, 1967) and the "Teachers' Occupational Professionalism Scale", developed by Yılmaz and Altınkurt (2014) and proven to be valid and reliable, were used to prepare the questionnaire form. The study population consisted of professional librarians working in state and foundation university libraries in Ankara. A total of 140 valid survey forms were obtained through an online and face-to-face survey. The SPSS 22 programme was used to analyse the data. The study involved performing a normality test, exploratory factor analysis, a "Cronbach Alpha" reliability analysis and descriptive statistical analyses. Additionally, T-tests and ANOVA tests were applied to test for differences in job satisfaction and occupational professionalism according to socio-demographic characteristics. Pearson's correlation analysis was performed to determine the relationship between occupational professionalism and job satisfaction. The research revealed a significant positive correlation between occupational professionalism and job satisfaction.