About
the National Library of Nigeria
The National Library of
Nigeria was established by a statutory law in September, 1964 known as the
National Library Act of 1964. Going back
in history, the Nigerian division of the West African Library Association in
1962 gave birth to the Library Advisory Committee that brought up the idea to
establish a national library. This idea
was supported by the Ford Foundation and the foundation showed its support by
providing the expertise and funds for the establishment of the library, this
was done in collaboration with the federal government and Dr. Frank Rogers who
was the Director of the National Library of Medicine, USA.
One of the major
players in the establishment of the National Library is Dr. Carl White from
Columbia University, New York His major contributions include: setting up a basic collection for growing the
library, laying down a schedule of duties for the foundational staff of the
library, and getting the government to pass the first legislation enacted in
September 1964.
The partnership between
the Ford Foundation and the Federal Government of Nigeria lasted for nine (9)
years after which the National Library Board in 1996 amended the National Library
Act. The national library moved to its
current headquarters in Abuja according to Section 2(2) of the National Library
Decree No. 29 of 1970. The library has
about 26 branches across the Nigeria including the Kwara state branch.
The Kwara state branch
of the National Library of Nigeria is located beside The Herald Newspaper on
Offa Road, Ilorin. This location is however temporary as the library is yet to
finish up its branch office.
Excursion
to National Library of Nigerian (Kwara state branch)
All students converged
at the Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences, University of Ilorin
at 9am and we took off 9:30am due to a slight delay in logistics and
transportation. We arrived at 10:15am and were given a very warm reception by Mr.
Ajani, a senior staff at the library who led us to the ICT department of the
library for a lecture to be given by the director of the branch in person of
Mrs. Olani Kafayat.
Mrs. Olani Kafayat
introduced herself and gave us the opportunity to introduce ourselves
individually by our first name after which the lecture commenced. The director in an effort to start the
lecture asked if anybody noticed anything on entrance into the library, she
wanted to use to response to commence the lecture, this led to her admonishing
us to scan any environment we find ourselves whether old or new because as
librarians we should be able to provide information on any location based on
what we have learn from the environmental scan.
The director then moved
to ask what a national library is and different views and opinion about the
national library was given forming a foundation for the lecture and other
issues. The director then listed the
department of the national library and their functions which are seven (7)
departments which include the National Bibliographic Control Department having
three (3) main divisions and nine (9) sections operating under the supervision of a director, Research
and Development Department having three (3) main divisions, Virtual Library
Services Department also having three (3) main divisions, Public Services
Department, Collection Development and Processing Department having three (3)
divisions, Human Resources Department and the Finance and Accounts Department
all operating under a supervisor.
According to her, the
functions of each department are as follows:
-National
Bibliographic Control Department: A
core professional department constituted specifically for the purpose of
carrying out and implementing the following major statutory functions:
1.
To serve as the focal department for National Bibliography Control Services
aimed at Universal Bibliographic Control (UBC).
2.
To administer and mange International Standards numbers for monographs,
serials, and musical works – ISSN, ISBN and ISMN
3.
To ensure regular production of the National Bibliography of Nigeria (NBN) on
annual basis
And
so on.
-Research
and Development Department: This
department is in charge of the publications from the national library. The director mentioned Niger Biblios, NBN and
the Nominal List of Librarians as some of the publications from this
department.
-Virtual
Library Department: This
department is in charge of all computer related tasks that concern the library
which include website control, ICT services and electronic storage of
information materials.
-Collection
and Processing Department: This
department performs the technical function of the library which is similar to
the technical services department of any library. The department performs cataloguing and classification,
C.I.P, and processing of newly acquired information materials. On this topic, the director mentioned that
all technical services are done at the Abuja headquarters of the National
Library and then sent to the branches.
-Public
Services Department: The
public services is charged with the responsibility to bring library services to
the grass root and provide program me that will bring services that will serve
the masses, this helps the national library to fulfill its responsibility of
provide for the information needs of all.
-Finance
and Accounts Department: The
director said this is department is in charge of all monetary transactions the
library engages in, prepares the balance sheets, keeps track of all expenses
and income, statutory signature to the library’s account.
A question by
Abdulraheem Sodiq raised a vital topic for discussion, this was about how
materials are acquired and processed in the branches of the national library.
The director answered this question by informing us the national library has a
Central Processing Unit that processes all books acquired by the national
library before they are sent to all branches in the nation. This implies that all cataloguing and
classification and other technical activities instead of the branch.
The director mentioned
the functions of the branch which are majorly to:
-To receive applications for ISBN, ISSN and ISMN from
authors and publishers in the state, after which they are sent to the
headquarters in Abuja for approval and assigning of the number.
-To provide only reference service to all individuals in
the state as long as they are above the age of 18 years. The library doesn’t lend out materials.
-Partnering with the Kwara state public library to share
resources and meet patron needs.
-To receive legal deposits before they are sent to the
headquarters.
Mr. Ajani who is a
senior staff at the library took over from the director by mentioning the
section that is currently present in the branch. They include the reference
section, serials section, Nigerianna section that has materials about Nigeria,
written by a Nigerian and published in Nigeria, E-Library section, document
section and reading section.
The visit was concluded
with a tour to all sections of the library for us to see and touch the
materials present in the library’s holdings.
After this we were treated to a cup of orange juice each. The vote of thanks was given by the class
representative (Badaru Ayotunde) and his assistant (John Oyegunle) and we left
the library at 12:45pm.
Experiences Gained
-Knowledge about the
national library and its internal functions.
-Policies guiding the
operations of the national library.
-Arrangement of
catalogues according to author, title and subject.
