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Annotated Bibliography Entry

John Pickens

School of Information, University of South Florida

LIS6603.002F23: Basic Information Sources and Services

Dr. Richard J. Austin

October 29, 2023

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Annotated Bibliography Entry

Source Type:
 reference book  website  popular magazine article  dissertation
 book  interview X scholarly journal article  gov’t document
 other: ___________________________

Full APA citation:

Alajmi, B., & Alasousi, H. (2019). Understanding and motivating academic library

employees: theoretical implications. [Motivating academic library

employees] Library Management, 40(3), 203-214. https://doi.org/10.1108/LM-10-

2017-0111

Brief summary & critical analysis of content:

The patron is writing a paper on ways to increase employee motivation of library

workers and has asked me to help him find a peer reviewed scholarly journal article. The

patron also asked that the article includes an analyses of a quantitative survey.

This peer reviewed study surveyed one hundred and eight library employees at

eight college libraries from Kuwait University to examine how employee need fulfilment

effects motivation. The study used Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a framework for its

findings, using the categories of; physiological needs, security needs, social needs, self-

esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. The study found that self-actualization

needs, rather than basic physical necessities are the greatest factor driving employee

motivation. The patron can cite this source to suggest that managers can increase

employee motivation by helping employees meet their self-actualization needs.

I found another article titled, “Effect of work motivation on academic library

professionals' workplace productivity” Hamid, A., & Younus, M. (2021), published by

Library Philosophy and Practice that also uses Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a
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framework for its findings. This peer reviewed study surveyed library staff of universities in

Punjab and Islamabad to understand how motivation effects productivity of library

professionals. The patron can cite this article to establish why increasing employee

motivation is important. It will be impactful because, like the Alajmi et al. study, it utilizes

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Evaluation of source using criteria & rationale for selection:

Relevance
The patron’s assignment is to write a paper on ways to increase employee

motivation of library workers. This article is relevant to the assignment because it

answers the question of “what effects employee motivation”. The article is also relevant

to the assignment because it is peer reviewed, which is a requirement of the patron.

The article’s peer reviewed status also adds to its credibility as a quality source. A study

of American academic libraries might make the article more relevant, however, the

article is not irrelevant because it studied libraries in Kuwait. No element to the study or

findings seemed to be unique to Kuwait.

Date
The journal article was published in 2019. As the article was published less than

5 years ago, it is an appropriate resource. Since it is a recent study, the findings are still

relevant.

Accuracy
The article cites 35 references from various sources. Many of the cited sources

are peer reviewed articles from scholarly journals such as The International Information

and Library Review, Library & Information Science Research, and The Journal of
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Academic Librarianship. Additionally, the data of the survey was collected and analyzed

using SPSS, which is an industry standard statistical software.

Objectivity or bias

The article publishes the results of the study in charts and tables. The findings of

the study are unbiasedly stated, referencing the raw data. Each conclusion is made with

the evidence of the study to support it.

Authority
According to LinkedIn, Dr. Bibi M. Alajmi is an Associate Professor at Kuwait

University’s Department of Information Studies since 2018. She has also served as a

Board Member and Program Director at the University. Prior to her role as Associate

Professor, Dr. Alajmi had been an Assistant Professor at Kuwait University from 2011-

2018 and a Visiting Professor at Rutgers University School of Communication and

Information from 2015-2018. Dr. Alajmi’s roles within the University give her credibility

make her an authoritative source.

Hessah Alasousi, according to LinkedIn, earned a Master of Library and

Information Science from Kuwait University in 2017 and has served at the University as

a Teaching Assistant since 2018. Prior to her role as a Teaching Assistant, Alasousi

was an Academic Advisor at the University. Alasousi’s degree as well as her nearly ten

year career at Kuwait University gives her credibility.

Reflection:
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I used the “Quicksearch” on the USF Library’s homepage to find this article. I used

this method because it searches all of the databases available to USF Library patrons. If I

were to choose a database to search in, I might have missed this article if the database I

chose did not include this article. In the future, I will use the Quicksearch method, and

also search specific databases if my general search yields too many results.

While viewing this article in Proquest, I noticed that there are “suggested sources”

listed in a widget on the right-hand side of the page. Although the suggested sources for

this article did not yield any results that the patron could use for the paper he is currently

working on, I will keep my eyes on this widget for future papers. In fact, I had success

with this method while looking for scholarly journal articles for a different assignment

today.