A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE WAYS OF GENERATING INCOME IN NIGERIAN LIBRA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
The library is a strong research base for any institution, preserving age-old information for a variety of purposes. Nigeria is a country with various institutions, each of which has an academic library (Lawal 2007, p:5).
The presence of a library makes it simple for any researcher to gather information needed during the course of their research, as well as for students to gain additional knowledge. Because libraries are so important, the National Universities Commission (NUC) conducts routine inspections to ensure that Nigerian libraries are well-equipped for both students and lecturers.
With its functions in mind, the library is meant to provide adequate services to its users; however, the opposite appears to be the case in Nigerian university libraries, where there are no new books on the shelves, dilapidated structures, and very important materials are stolen from the library (Ojoade and Ochai, 2000).
However, funding for libraries in Nigeria has been a major source of concern for academics. The limited resources cannot meet the human needs on the ground; thus, when the Federal government allocates funds to universities, the library is left out before such funds are shared with the various divisions of the university.
As a result, most institutions still have outdated books/materials in their libraries, and lecturers are not compensated sponsored to conduct meaningful research and even attend seminars
Due to the fact that funding is a major issue in maintaining the library, it is now up to the librarians to find other ways to keep the library running as the government is failing to do so; and the truth remains that funding drives the effectiveness of a library. Meanwhile, in the twenty-first century, there is a need for information sophistication.
With the advent of information and communication technology (ICT), there is a great need to review Nigeria’s library system in order to keep users up to date; users are now so aware of their surroundings that they must be updated as time passes (Etim (2004) cited in Okon 2005).
However, Nigerian libraries are seriously struggling to meet the current needs of their users due to a lack of funds. The country’s current economic situation has also had an impact on the funding and maintenance of Nigerian libraries, as the cost of foreign books is rising due to a lack of foreign exchange. Given that federal institutions are funded, the problem is severe by parent institutions and the Federal government via the National Universities Commission (NUC).
The Federal government allocated approximately 5% of its budget for libraries in the 1980s, but this allocation was increased in the mid-1990s to approximately 10%, of which 10% was given directly to the Library Development Fund (LDF);
however, the Library Development Fund (LDF) has been eliminated from the budget (Olanlokun and Adekanye, 2005 p: 145). As a result, each university determines what to give to its library.
When an assessment was conducted to determine whether the said 10% was allocated to university libraries, it was discovered that many federal universities had not received the allocated fund, and in state universities, it is about who knows who in government to help fight in order to get the said allocation.
And, in the case of a private university, the founders decide how much money goes into the library’s funding. As a result, rather than relying on the government, academic libraries in Nigeria should engage in a variety of revenue-generating activities to support their operations.
An introspective look into internal means of generating revenue for the library’s maintenance will go a long way toward achieving the purpose for which it was established, and this study is intended to discover those ways.
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