University Library Staff Research Articles

Women Librarians and the Challenges of Information Technology in Nigerian University Libraries

Edited version of a paper presented at the 2nd International Conference of the National Association of Women Academics (NAWACS) Abuja, Nigeria, 5–10 September, 2000. Women librarians form a considerable proportion of the academic staff of university libraries in Nigeria. Focuses on their status, role and position in the university library from the perspective of information technology in the new millennium, identifying the challenges of the future and offering trends towards their solution. Advances in information technology have made a lot of impact on information processing, storage and dissemination in the developed countries. Nigeria, as a developing country, has accepted the principle that better information management lies in the use of technology. This principle must be put into practice if the country is to achieve the maximum efficiency in information delivery and communication. Women librarians in university libraries are well-equipped to contribute towards this.

Change in university libraries: don’t forget the people

Highlights the increasing importance of university library staff in an age of continuous (mainly) technological change. Explains that their interpersonal skills will be crucial in providing the added value in support of students using library technology. Suggests a greater involvement of staff in the change process including the use of management‐related skills by all staff (rather than exclusively by managers), wider participation in decision‐making and a greater degree of strategic awareness.

Library‐faculty collaboration: surveying a commuter population

College library staff must work to bring students and information technology together, especially where college‐wide computer literacy courses are not required. Teaching students to use constantly changing computer technology should start from an assessment of their skills, needs, and preferred training methods. However, surveying a student population with a high percentage of commuters risks inaccuracy; if surveys are distributed by mail or in libraries, the survey‐takers are often self‐selected and thus not representative. One solution is to administer the surveys in the classroom, using a course that most students are required to take. The results of such a survey, conducted at the College of Charleston, reveal a surprising variety of needs and preferences.

Motivating staff in Nigerian university libraries

Reports on a survey conducted to investigate the level of motivation among librarians and para‐professional staff in Nigerian university libraries using the questionnaire method to elicit the necessary data. Major variables considered are: training opportunities, frequency of development, work environment, promotion prospects, sabbatical leave, communication and management style. Also attempts a brief definition of motivation and examines the views of a few classical writers on the subject. Reveals a general dissatisfaction with all the variables but one, i.e. frequency of development. All the respondents agreed with the frequency of development of staff in their respective libraries. Suggests some practical ways of motivating staff. Chief among these is the management style of university librarians going out to see for themselves what is going on in the various sections of the libraries. By this, university librarians will be able to observe their staff at work, talk to them in their various offices on a regular basis and be able to carry out on‐the‐spot assessment, listen and praise staff as the case may be.

Evaluating Students' Serials Needs:

Even with the coming of the virtual library, selecting and deselecting serials remains a critical task. College librarians are in a particulary favorable position to evaluate students' serials needs. To help decide what methods work best and to help college library staff assume a leadership role in serials collection management, the authors compared four different methods for gauging need for titles. If defining need broadly, then bibliographies of students' projects or student surveys, not collection use studies, provide the most comprehensive evaluation.

University library and faculty staff : a survey for the library evalution measurement.

University library and faculty staff : a survey for the library evalution measurement.

Information Access: A Project to Promote Interlibrary Information

Library media specialists, teachers, students, university librarians, public librarians, and administrators have worked together resulting in the establishment of an information network linking major centers of information in the Cache Valley. Middle school and high school students can now access a much broader collection of current periodicals and reference materials. University library patrons and staff have access to curriculum materials for use in teacher education programs, children’s literature materials, and educational research. Public library patrons and staff have access to specialized periodicals and curriculum materials.

Book allocations: The key to a plan for collection development

This article summarizes the development and execution of a system for collection development and materials control in an underfunded and understaffed college library. The Simmons College Library staff devised a plan for book budget allocations, evaluated its collection, and formulated a three-part collection development policy with working procedures. Its success requires a strong commitment from the library administration and draws on the collective abilities and participation of an entire library staff. It results in the more judicious expenditure of funds, enhanced communication with faculty, and a structure for long-term collection growth.

Some Comments on Compiling the "Current Bibliography of the Savanna States of Nigeria", and on the Documentation of the Area

The aim of the “Current Bibliography of the Savanna States of Nigeria” is to provide a guide to publications and theses on the country's-ten northern states. It appears as a regular feature in Savanna; the semi-annual journal concentrating on Nigeria's northern savanna which was launched at Ahmadu Bello University in 1972. The inclusion of a current bibliography was the idea of Geoffrey J. Williams, one of the two geographers who planned the journal. Dr. Williams compiled the bibliography oh his own up to 1974, when he left Nigeria to take up a professorship at the University of Zambia. He collaborated with John A. Achema (then one of the university library staff) in 1975 and 1976, with myself in 1977, and then stopped because of the difficulties of carrying out such work in Zambia.

The Gallaudet College Library: its use of technology.

The Gallaudet College Library staff continually seek new ways to integrate their services and resources into the instructional process and creative ways to use technology to contribute to the maximum effectiveness of this effort. As a result, there is a wide range of technology use, including audiovisual materials, television, microfilm, microfiche, and automated information data bases and capabilities. The new Learning Center has been especially designed to maximize the efficient use of technology. In addition to benefits enjoyed by library users on campus, there are a number of ways in which people with similar needs across the nation can share these services and resources.

STAFF PARTICIPATION IN ACADEMIC LIBRARY GOVERNMENT

Conventional wisdom has long held that senior staff in university libraries should have parity with their teaching colleagues not merely in salaries and general conditions of service but also in eligibility to participate in general university government through Senate, faculty boards and the like. The case for such participation and the benefits deriving to the university and to the library were well stated in the Parry Report twelve years ago; and in the US a whole monograph has been devoted to the topic of faculty status. That senior staff should also participate in the government of their libraries through departmental meetings, as their teaching colleagues do, is a proposition less frequently stated until more recently, in line with the increasing emphasis placed on the teaching side on participation at departmental level.

The subject specialists in university libraries

The subject specialist, who has highly specialized knowledge in a particular subject field as well as librarianship, is now accepted as an emerging type of library staff in American and British university libraries. Working in a field of knowledge, the subject specialist concerns himself with a wide range of library tasks, such as book selection, cataloging, advanced reference service, etc. Book selection has been mainly the responsibility of the faculty, but specialized knowledge together with bibliographic skills quite often enables the subject specialist to select material as well as or even better than the faculty. The subject specialist can provide more specialized in-depth service to readers than the generalist-librarian. He is expected to participate in research activities and eventually to become an integral part of academic community. The subject specialist may be in a positive situation to demonstrate the status value of academic librarians. However, if we put too much emphasis on subject ability, it would disregard the librarian's proper functions and knowledge. The librarian is essentially a generalist; he is neither a researcher nor a research assistant.

A course in communication and information retrieval for undergraduate biologists

Most librarians, and at least some lecturers in institutions of higher education, recognise the need for students to receive instruction in the use of information sources. In the life sciences, the continuing growth in the number of these sources creates problems for biologists. To help students cope with the situation, a compulsory course in Communication and Information Retrieval has been introduced into the BSc degree in biology at Paisley College of Technology. The course, taught by the College library staff, covers the structure of scientific literature, the language barrier, techniques of literature searching and scientific writing, and the information network in the life sciences.

A General Survey of Senior and Intermediate Staff Deployment in University Libraries

The terms of reference of the Cambridge Library Management Research Unit included a proposal for research into the staffing of university libraries. Preliminary investigations based upon a literature survey revealed a shortage of adequate current data, and suggested a need for further information. It was therefore decided to carry out a survey of staff deploy ment; this took place in April 1971. The survey involved University Librarians, a sample of professionally qualified librarians who had held university library appointments, and as many graduate staff in university libraries without library qualifications as could be traced. The ressslts give the type of establishment, the numbers of appointments and resignations in recent years, the academic qualifications of librarians, their job expectations, reasons for movement, and professional development. In each section of the investigation it is hoped that results have emerged which will usefully complement the findings of the DES survey of manpower requirements in libraries.

The Place of "Professional Specialists" on the University Library Staff

The Place of "Professional Specialists" on the University Library Staff

The Role of the College Library Staff In Instruction in the Use of the Library

The Role of the College Library Staff In Instruction in the Use of the Library

Goethe's Works. With the Exception of Faust. A Catalogue Compiled by Members of the Yale University Library Staff

Goethe's Works. With the Exception of Faust. A Catalogue Compiled by Members of the Yale University Library Staff

ERRATA

P. 52. Owing to a misunderstanding Mrs. Ida Holmes was erroneoulsy described as ‘of the Cambridge University Library staff’.

Goethe's Works with the exception of Faust, A Catalogue compiled by members of the Yale University Library staff.

Goethe's Works with the exception of Faust, A Catalogue compiled by members of the Yale University Library staff.

Developing a College Library Staff

TH I S DISCUSSION of developing college library staff for both the functional and the subject organization of the library is limited to the college library, because its work differs from that of university in being concerned chiefly with undergraduates and with one educational unit. staff as here considered includes the librarian and professional assistants, but not the student or clerical staff. Functional organization of the library includes the plan of operation and service, such as work in acquisitions, cataloging, lending, and reference. Subject organization covers background and knowledge in subject fields of the professionally trained staff. Developing the library staff begins with the librarian, for the library will seldom be better than its librarian. I do not agree unqualifiedly with the president of Brown University when he says, The least important qualification of the librarian is his training. very nature of his position and the function of the college library make the training of the librarian important. He should be scholar and have the attitude of first-rate teacher, but he must go even further—he must know the functional organization of material and the administration of personnel. 1 Wriston, Henry M. College and University Libraries. In Danton, Emily M., ed. Library of Tomorrow. A.L.A., 1939. p. 147. Assuming good general education, the librarian should be trained in technique (not necessarily routine) and this training should be followed by discipline in service, in order to know applied technique. functional processes of wellorganized library are inseparably interwoven, and each process in its relation to all others needs clear understanding on the part of the administrative head. In short, nothing else entirely takes the place of training and experience. For this reason, it seems to me, the college librarian should not be one who steps from library school, undergraduate or graduate, into this administrative position. trained person who knows first hand the toils and problems of acquisition, circulation, reference, and even cataloging work, is better able to organize the library; better able to develop normal or superior staff; and better able to meet with assurance and decision the administrative problems to be discussed with the administrative head of the college. Such librarian inspires the confidence of the staff and commands its respect, without which the service of the library suffers. librarian needs a command of library procedures on which to build professional performance. There seems to be tendency nowadays to waive much of this in filling certain positions. More men, for instance, are being appointed to executive positions—an undesirable policy unless the man is ap-