Abstract
The study examined the availability and use of library resources in the rehabilitation of inmates in correctional centers in Imo and Abia states,Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research design using three research questions and three hypotheses. The population of the study comprised 3,854 prisoners from the five prisons in Imo and Abia States, Nigeria. The sample size used was 713 prisoners. Purposive and proportionate random sampling techniques were used. Instruments for the study included: a checklist and a rating scale namely: Availability of Library Resources Checklist (ALRC) and Extent of Use of Library Resources Scale (EULRS). The instruments were validated and found reliable with index of 0.88 for EULRS using Cronbach Alpha Statistic. The research questions were answered using frequency count, proportion, mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested using t-test. The findings were that Owerri and Umuahia correctional centers only have two librarians each in their respective libraries. This implies that the librarians in prison libraries are not adequate. It was also revealed that a good number of resources like fiction books, textbooks, magazines, chairs and lightings were available but some materials like newspapers, newspaper racks, audio cassettes, video tapes, DVD, library software were not found at all but the ones found were utilized to a high extent. Based on these findings, the study recommended among others that the Federal Government should employ more librarians to the correctional services centers in Imo and Abia states so as to reduce job stress and bring information closer to the inmates.
 Keywords: Library Resources, Inmates, Correctional Centers, Rehabilitation
Highlights
Given the heterogeneous nature of the society, it is of utmost importance for libraries to identify the various categories of people who make up the society in order to serve their various information needs
Ho2: There is no significant difference between the proportions of available prison library material resources in Imo and Abia States, Nigeria
RQ1: What is the proportion of available librarians in each of the prison libraries in Imo and Abia States? Hypotheses 1 Ho1: There is no significant difference between the proportions of available prison librarians in Imo and Abia States, Nigeria
Summary
Given the heterogeneous nature of the society, it is of utmost importance for libraries to identify the various categories of people who make up the society in order to serve their various information needs. A holistic definition is that which instills a pragmatic approach of the library as a careful and systematic collection of sources of information, study materials and resources of similar nature, selected by trained experts who in turn are saddled with the duty of making these selected materials accessible to a given community for referencing, researching and or borrowing. A library is established to satisfy the information needs of the people and globally correctional centers are essentially meant for reformation purposes and not just for punishment and maltreatment as are obtainable in them. There are different services rendered in correctional centres in a bid to reform, rehabilitate and reintegrate inmates into the society and the libraries found in these centers help in the achievement of these purposes. With the availability of library resources and usage, inmates in correctional centres may be more useful
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