Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivations of Master of Library and Information Science students: A cross-cultural comparative study

Abstract

This study examined the career and learning motivation of students studying a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree programs at universities located in four different countries, namely the University of Hong Kong, National Taiwan Normal University, Peking University, and the University of Copenhagen. The MLIS students from these four universities were invited to take part in a self-completion online questionnaire survey, and 200 responses were collected in total. We discovered that their prior working experience in the library had an impact on their decision to pursue the MLIS program. We also categorized the career and learning motivation factors of MLIS learners into intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and discovered that the participants were motivated by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors to pursue their graduate studies in the Library and Information Science (LIS) field. We found that intrinsic factors influenced the students of University of Copenhagen significantly more than the other student groups, and this could be explained by Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Our findings can assist with the formulation of development strategies for MLIS programs through a review of the LIS curriculum and help MLIS programs in different countries attract more people to pursue a career in LIS.

LIS pre-professionals’ perspectives towards library user education: A comparative study between three universities in Greater China

“…As pointed out by Tracy and Searing (2014), employment-based familiarity might affect students’ knowledge of and use of library services. Findings of previous studies indicate that a majority of graduate students at both HKU and NTNU were current library paraprofessionals, and were undertaking the MLIS program in order to advance or change their careers (Ho et al, 2016; Lo et al, 2015, 2017). Furthermore, according to the findings of our previous studies, a significant percentage of LIS students at both HKU (41.7%) and NTNU (22.8%) already held graduate-level qualifications (in other non-LIS-related academic disciplines) prior to entering the MLIS program.…”

Undergraduates' Electronic Resources Diffusion at the Peking University: An Exploration on Language Impacts

“…For further research, we are planning to study more successful cases overcoming language barriers in the East, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as other countries like Taiwan and Japan, with our research partners, with whom we have done collaborative researches on mobile library services (Ko et al, 2015) and motivation of librarianship studies (Ho et al, 2016). We are also interested in the contemporary reading behavior of student on mobile devices (Wang et al, 2016), which also have impact on new acquisition policies.…”

Social justice in library science programs: A content analysis approach

“…Although prior knowledge and employment prospects feature heavily in decisions to enter the profession (Ard et al, 2006; Cherry et al, 2011), additional factors determine why people choose librarianship. The desire to build community and work with the public can also influence a librarian’s decision to enter the profession (Bello, 1996; Dali and Caidi, 2016; Ho et al, 2018; Moniarou-Papaconstantinou et al, 2015).…”