The Use of Social Intelligence as a Tool for Improving the Relevance of Libraries in the Society

The roles libraries play in contributing to the progress of the society cannot be overemphasized because libraries are one of the institutions needed for the over-all attainment of 21st-century goals. This paper argues that the use of Social Intelligence in the library services would aid the creation of new experience for library users and other stakeholders, which will result in increasing the credibility and recognition of libraries across various societies. Its main objective is to create awareness for the potential benefits of Social Intelligence to the library practices in the society. It uses the Social Intelligence Model of Daniel Goleman 2006. The components of the Model Social Awareness – primal empathy, attunement, empathetic accuracy, social recognition - and Social Facilities – synchrony, self-presentation, influence and concern – are used to describe the applicability of the Model to improving library relevance in the society. It concludes that Social Intelligence can be efficiently deployed in the context of Librarianship because it exposes an emerging new science with startling implications for the interpersonal world of library personnel and library users and recommends that library personnel should be exposed to and trained Social Intelligence because doing so will equip them in acquiring the requisite abilities needed to play their part in positioning libraries for relevance in the society they are established