National library

INTRODUCTION

The word Library has always been in use from our early stage of life. The library is a very important place and a building, which needs to be visited and to be in use by people always. People do visit such places to see things, both historical events, adventures of great people or heroes and as well, to see new things that are developed and how they function and can be used.

The National Library is the apex library of a country. It is the bank of information that keeps track record of information concerning the country. In Nigeria, it is called the National Library of Nigeria (NLN). National Libraries are established and maintained by the National or Federal Government to serve the need of the government bodies and citizen of the Nation as a whole.

THE EVOLUTION OF NATIONAL LIBRARY

The idea of setting up the National Library of Nigeria began with the Nigerian Division of West African Library Association (WALA) whose effort and activities were more directly connected with the realization of the dream for a National Library of Nigeria. Following the recommendations of the Nigerian Division of West African Library Association, a library advisory committee was set up in the late 50’s. This committee had the assignment of working out plans for library services in the country and to persuade the government to agree to set up a National Library. On the attainment of the independence, the Nigerian Government embraced the idea of a National Library as proposed by the association. These led to the invitation of Dr Carl White, an American librarian by the Nigerian Government. Dr  White was sent to Nigeria in 1962 by Ford Foundation to be an adviser on the development of National Library to the Nigerian Government; Dr Carl white was at that time, Dean of Library studies of Columbia University, New York, United States Of America. He was given the mandate to provide a blueprint for the establishment of the National Library. This resulted in providing an enabling legislation, developing the collection for the National Library of Nigeria and developing personnel for the Library.

          Thus, the National Library of Nigeria was formally established in September 1964 through the National Library Act which was passed by parliament. The library was opened to users on 6^th November 1964. The initial stock of the library was some book totaling seven thousand five hundred (7,500) volumes from the old Federal Government Secretariat library and a few thousand books donated by the Ford Foundation, The headquarter was moved from Lagos to Abuja in 1995

LEGAL DEPOSIT

In Nigeria, National Library Act No 29 of 1970 stipulate that a publisher should deposit three (3) copies of each publication to the National library, the law also stipulates that ten (10) copies of state publication and 25 copies of Federal Government agency’s publication should be deposited with the National Library at their own expense within one month of publishing the material.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the National library of Nigeria are as follows:

Ø To provide necessary support for the intellectual efforts in all activities directed towards progress and development.

Ø To ensure the availability of comprehensive collection both within and outside Nigeria.

Ø To generate a free flow of information between the nation and other, thereby ensuring Nigeria’s participation in the committee of Nations which depends on information for survival in a world class of information explosion, rapid advancement and competition.

Ø To ensure that the nation has a place in the community of nations which depend on knowledge and original ideas for survival.

FUNCTIONS

The following are the functions of the National Library of Nigeria:

Ø To establish in accordance with the decree of National Library of Nigeria

Ø To assemble, maintain and extend a collection of books, periodicals, pamphlets, newspaper, maps, musicals scores, files and recording as appropriate for a library of the highest standing.

Ø Serve as a depository of all copyright publication within a country.

Ø Provision of reference and document delivery services.

Ø Publication of catalogue, classification tools, indexes and seminar research aids

Ø Development, maintenance and sustenance of the Online National Union Catalogue  (ONUC) and Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)

Ø Compilation of the National bibliography of publication and also act as the last resort for items which other libraries cannot provide.

Ø To establish and maintain a branch of the National Library in each state of the Federation.

Ø Issuance of International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and International Serial Standard Number (ISSN).

CHALLENGES

The library has failed to effectively expand to the 36 state capital of the Federation as designated by Library decree of 1970. In concert with lack of facilities in the state capitals, a lack of adequate social amenities for the library staffs in some states capital is another obstacle for the library development.

There is also a lack of sufficient professional librarians. The library failed to effectively protect itself by training students in library science, today the few graduate of library science graduate towards job in the publishing business. There are insufficient storage devices for audio and visual collection.

USER

The national library serves the Federal government, ex-leader, important personalities and citizens of the country, Foreigners can also use the library based on approval by the federal government.

COLLECTIONS AND AQUISITION

The National library acquires materials in almost all the field of human endeavour and materials from foreign countries that best serve the country’s purpose and interest. They also acquire materials from local publishers according to the decree Act which stipulates that locally published books for be deposited in the National library. Materials that are written about Africa either by local or foreign author but about Africa are also acquired.

          All these materials make the National library collections and these collections are classified using Library of Congress Classification Scheme (LC)

RECOMMENDATIONS

In other to improve on the standard of services of the National Library, the following recommendations should be taken into consideration:

Ø Government should provide funds so as to finance the institution

Ø Government should enact laws that will compel the publishers to deposit their publications in the National Library

Ø The institution should establish branches all over the 36 state of the federation for publishers to deposit copies of their publications and also save the cost of travelling to the F.C.T.

Ø The National Library of Nigeria should be business oriented by acquiring database and e-resources for citizens as well as foreigners.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, national library is the apex library of a nation which coordinates all other libraries in the nation. It oversees the collection and preservation of published and unpublished work written by the citizens of a country and foreigners. As noted earlier the idea of setting up the national library of Nigeria in 1964 was to control information explosion, compile of national bibliography of publications and also act as a library of all libraries by giving out information resources to other libraries who could not afford them

REFERENCES

Okiyi, R.B. (2014), History of Libraries; Benin City, Ambik Press Ltd.

Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science (2003). Deslib. Vol. 2 edited by Mariam A. Drake, Marcel Dekker

Okebukola, P. (2002). Key Issues in the Development of the National Virtual Library. Education Today, 9(1) 3-8