Abstract
The research work focuses on combating deviant behaviours among users of Federal
University of Technology, Owerri, and Coal City University, Enugu Libraries. Three specific
objectives and three research questions were formulated to guide the study. The study
adopted a survey research design. It was carried out in the libraries of the Federal
University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), and Coal City University, Enugu. The population
of the study comprised 134 library staff, and the entire population was used as the sample.
A census sampling technique was adopted because the population was small and
manageable. The instrument used for data collection was a rating scale. The data collected
for the study were analyzed using mean scores. The findings revealed, among others, that
theft, mutilation, defacement, impersonation, vandalism, noise-making, refusal to return
overdue borrowed books, answering phone calls in the reading hall, smuggling food and
drinks into the library, and verbal and physical abuse of staff and users were the major
deviant behaviours exhibited by library users in the libraries studied. Based on the
findings, it was recommended, among other measures, that library management should
devise different strategies to ensure that these deviant behaviours among library users are
effectively curbed.
Keywords: Library, academic library, deviant behavours, library users, kinds of deviant
behaviours exhibited by library users
Publication Date: 2026-07-31