Emotional Intelligence Components among Librarians Working at Medical Sciences Universities in Tehran

Emotional intelligence is non-cognitive intelligence that includes recognizing emo-tions and using them correctly. The use of emotional intelligence in libraries can be vital to librar-ians’ success in dealing with users. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the com-ponents of emotional intelligence in librarians working in libraries of selected medical sciences universities in Tehran.

The study method is a survey. The study population included all 110 librarians working in 27 libraries of the faculties of Tehran, Iran, and Shahid Beheshti Universities of Medical Sci-ences. The standard questionnaire of Bradberry and Greaves emotional intelligence was used to collect the data. The mean and standard deviation were used to present the emotional intelligence score, student’s t-test was used to examine the difference in emotional intelligence between male and female. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and age.

The results revealed that the average score of self-awareness is 83.5, self-management is 69.7, social awareness is 72.1, relationship management is 67.5, and the overall emotional intel-ligence is 73.3. There was no significant difference between male and female librarians in terms of emotional intelligence, but there was a positive and significant relationship between emotional intelligence and age.

The results showed that emotional intelligence and its components in librarians work-ing in medical universities are at the favorable level, but significantly are far from the ideal score. Consequently, the use of practical methods and workshops in universities is recommended to boost librarians’ emotional intelligence.