Application of counseling therapy and bibliotherapy to academic librarian's job burnout

Job burnout is identified in workplace environments as an important issue directly related to the worker output and his/her physiological and mental health. Currently, there are several approaches for investigating this phenomenon among workforces. Among jobs, one most vulnerable to burnout damages is librarianship. Because of its direct relation with clients, librarianship can immensely affect health and output of organization. Therefore, this study aims at burnout examination among academic librarians. This investigation was performed using pre and posttest groups. Group counseling and bibliotherapy was implemented for librarians’ burnout treatment. 30 librarians among Tarbiat Moallem University librarians were selected and randomly were distributed into three equal groups. For two examinee groups counseling therapy and bibliotherapy was administered and third group was considered as control group. The study results showed that both methods of treatment, i.e. counseling therapy and bibliotherapy, were effective to librarians’ burnout. However, counseling therapy was more effective to librarians’ burnout.