An x-ray of the challenges of accessing the resources and facilities for administering university libraries in Nigeria

Abstract

This study, simply, is an x-ray of the challenges of accessing the resources and facilities for administering university libraries in Nigeria. The total population for the study comprised of fifty (50) university libraries, namely federal, state and private universities, spread across Nigeria. Forty-one (41) responses were received, duly completed and found useable for the study, representing 82%. The entire population of this study was sampled using total enumeration sampling technique. Questionnaire was used to elicit data from the respondents, mainly university librarians, and the deputy university librarians, in some cases. Findings from the study revealed that the major challenges of administering university libraries in Nigeria are staffing, especially, the academic librarians, prompt acquisition of current and relevant books/journals, subscription to relevant databases among others. The study also revealed that some libraries have clearly written acquisition policy, thus, library users: viz, lecturers, students and non-teaching staff, are free to recommend titles for acquisition. The study also revealed that most libraries do not form a consortium with other libraries, for ease of subscription to databases and some libraries depend mainly on trial version of databases in rendering services.