The Library: Not just about books!

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Nature of Academic Libraries

Nature of Academic Libraries

The nature of the academic library consists of the characteristics, qualities and features its components possess; each of the components making up an academic library such as collections, location and so on has certain qualities differentiating it from other type of libraries.

-High population of patrons:  The population of staff and students of a university or any other higher institution is always on the high side, this implies that patrons the academic library serves is also high; the academic library is expected to serve all individuals in its immediate institution which includes staff, students and others which is usually in thousands for a single institution.

Lecturers, undergraduates, research institute staff, postgraduate students, medical staff and many other individuals too numerous to mention form a high patron base of the academic library.

-Large size of personnel:  An academic library is characterized by a large number of staff members which range from university librarians, readers services librarians, technical services librarians, principal librarians, senior librarians to library officers and so on depending on the library’s organizational structure.  Some large academic libraries might even have more than one university librarian apart from the deputy university librarian.  So therefore, the larger the academic library the higher the number staff members.

The various department and units the academic library possesses requires the appointment of staff with varying positions, the technical services department alone for example will typically appoint technical services librarian, acquisitions librarian, serials librarian, cataloguers which will consist of chief cataloguers and junior cataloguers, and other support staff for typing and updating of catalogues, stamping of newly acquired information materials, accessioning and other “behind the scene” activities in the academic libraries.  Non academic staff such as security staff, cleaners, messengers, porters and store keepers are also not excluded which increases the number of staff the academic library employs.

-Wide and varied service provision:  Due to the numerous amounts of patrons the academic library serves, the needs of these patrons are heterogeneous, requiring varying services to satisfy these needs.  The academic library with the mandate to provide for the information needs of a wide variety of patrons has to expand and widen the scope of its services for its mandate to be achieved. 

Information materials and services required by lecturers will vary based on their field of study and interest; this is the same with students and other support staff in an institution.  Services offered by the academic library will be discussed later in this paper.

-Extensive and complex collection of information materials:  Academic libraries usually have a policy that guides the acquisition, processing and organization of information materials. This is necessary to ensure that the library does acquire information materials that are in line with all the courses and syllabuses in the institution.  The academic library in an effort to accommodate all fields of study in its parent institution acquires an extensive and complex information material collection, no wonder the Library of Congress Classification Scheme is popular known as being suitable for academic libraries.

-Complex Administration and Management:  An academic library in its organizational structure usually has administrative staff members which are usually headed by a university librarian especially for a university.  However, administration in an academic library is usually complex depending on the size of the library.  Management of an academic library sometimes goes beyond the university librarian to the administrators of the parent institution which shows some level of complexity.

-Inter-related departments and units:  The departments and units that make up an academic library are inter-related with one department and unit connecting to another in certain way.  Academic libraries consist of two major divisions which is the technical services division and readers’ services division.  Departments in the technical services division work “behind the scenes” and do activities such as acquisition, processing (stamping, accessioning and registration), cataloguing and classification and others.  Information materials from the department in the technical services division moves to the departments in the readers’ services division for shelving, use and dissemination and then back to the technical services division for preservation techniques.

From this simple explanation, it should be noted that each department cannot function alone but requires the combined effort of all departments for complete and efficient service delivery.