LIBRARY STAFF AS EMERGENCY RESPONDERS, E.G., ORGANIZING AND RUNNING RESPONDERS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 THE STUDY’S BACKGROUND
Over the last few decades, Nigeria has embarked on a variety of human endeavors that have resulted in educational, economic, social, cultural, and technological development. The importance of information in the development of individuals, organizations, institutions, and the nation has effectively elevated it to the status of a critical commodity. The benefits are only visible when the user is given the right information at the right time.
Valid information is the key to knowledge, which is required for any type of development. That is why, in any growing nation, the value of any institution whose main duty is to disseminate information is immeasurable; this information usually comes in various formats such as books and non-books depending on the nature of the users. Users typically come to the library with a variety of information needs, ranging from general direction to in-depth bibliographic research.
According to Akinade(2000), people have high expectations when they visit the library to source for and retrieve information. As a result, when expectations are not met, the disappointment and frustration that ensues can be equally as severe. Hence Libraries are not only willing to assist individual readers; they see it as an important part of their responsibility to users and justification for their training.
Academic libraries, in their broadest sense, refer to all libraries found in institutions of higher learning. Their main goal is to meet the students’ curricular educational needs as well as to assist the teaching staff in obtaining up-to-date materials for their classes.
Academic libraries, according to Edoka(2000), are “libraries that exist in institutions of higher education such as universities, colleges of education, colleges of technology, and polytechnics.” These are mostly tertiary education institutions that are usually available after secondary school.
The scope of higher education varies; some colleges focus almost entirely on curricular requirements. Universities, in particular, usually go above and beyond to emphasize research and public interest. Academic libraries serve the following purposes in general.
i. To provide information materials needed for the parent institution’s academic programs.
ii. To provide research information resources that are in line with the needs of faculty and students.
iii. To provide information resources for users’ recreation and personal development.
iv. To provide study accommodations in a useful variety of locations.
v. To provide these materials with protection and security.
vi. To collaborate with other libraries as needed to improve information services.
vii. To provide specialized information services to an appropriate segment of the larger community.
The nature of the parent institution’s academic programs heavily influences the direction and scope of these functions in any given academic library. An academic library’s primary responsibility is to provide appropriate information resources for study and research to members of its own institution.
Library operations are, by definition, service-oriented; this is reflected in the referral services provided by libraries, given the role academic libraries play in providing information resources to support the academic objectives of the institution, particularly in the areas of learning, teaching, and research. In this study, an academic library is defined as a library attached to a university, college, or polytechnic that serves the teaching, learning, and research needs of students and faculty.
As a result, academic libraries are expected to provide services such as user education, inter-library services, abstracting services, cataloguing services, reprographic services, bibliographic services, circulation services, reference services, and information services.
One of the basic services provided in a library or information center is reference service, and this is where librarianship begins. It is also regarded as the most interesting and stimulating of library services, with aspects that arouse the practitioner’s entire sense of professionalism due to the interaction between the reference librarian and the library users.
According to Ifidion (1979), reference work services are the personal assistance provided by librarians to individual readers in search of information. This entails not only locating the materials where the necessary information can be found, but also locating the information and sorting out what information is relevant from the mass of information. According to Aboyade (1983), reference services in any library are the sum of all library activities aimed at facilitating the use of the library and its resources.
The formalized provision of information in various forms by reference librarians, who act as an intermediary between the questioner and the available information resource, is referred to as reference services. As a result, reference services are provided between the questioner, the reference librarian, and the information resources. A reference service is defined as a reference librarian’s ability to strive within and outside of available resources to provide answers to reference queries for the purposes of this study.
As a result, academic libraries provide the following reference and information services: abstracting services, indexing services, photocopying services, information services, selective dissemination of information (SDI), and user instruction services. Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Directories, Manuals and Handbooks, Maps, Bibliographies, Biographies, Yearbooks, Almanacs, and online resources are some of the resources available for these reference and information services.
However, the following methods are used in academic libraries to provide these services: query answering, telephone, fax, e-mail, internet, readers advisory services, verification, referral services, inter-library loans, selective dissemination of information (SDI), database searches, and the Library Instructions program. According to Kumar (1982), the concept of information services is the provision of information on demand, which means that a user who makes a specific request will be provided with an answer to his query on demand.
It is also the provision of information in advance in the hope of keeping users informed and up to date in their field of specialization and related subjects. He went on to say that the library’s information aspects are not propaganda, but rather generating, collecting, synthesizing, and disseminating up-to-date, accurate, unbiased, and relevant information available in a variety of formats that can be stored and retrieved whenever needed.
The role of reference and information librarian is critical. A good reference and information librarian is bound to encourage the use of academic libraries by acting as an intermediary between users and information and being able to bring together the efficient flow of resources and the seeker without wasting time.
The academic library’s mission is to provide reference and information services to users (lecturers, students, and researchers) who rely solely on libraries for their desired and necessary information in furthering knowledge.
As a result, the reference librarian is expected to have a broad range of intellectual skills and a desire to assist users, as well as a flair for document organization, the ability to search literature, communicate fluently, and adequate knowledge of the resources. According to Grogan (1992), “library users, if assisted by the reference librarian, will be able to get more value from a library collection than they could on their own.”
The nature of reference and information services varies depending on the type of library. The nature varies depending on the type of clientele to be served and the goals of the library to be achieved. Academic libraries place a high value on reference and information services, as well as library instruction.
Students and researchers, who make up the majority of academic library users, are given a lot of help in terms of information provision. Despite these critical roles of reference and information services, academic libraries face challenges such as inadequate funding, inadequately trained personnel, insufficient and outdated reading materials, poor user handling, poor instruction services, and a lack of technology application in reference and information services.
These impediments have undoubtedly posed a significant challenge to academic libraries in achieving their goals. Olanloku (2003), Utor (2004), Igbo (2006), and Madu (2008), on the other hand, observed the following strategies for improving effective service delivery: provision of state-of-the-art library and information services, provision of improved reference and information services, provision of adequate finance,
training and retraining opportunities for reference staff, acquisition of current reference resources, and provision of mandatory users instruction services to all ca If these strategies are implemented, the academic library will be able to provide effective reference and information services. However, observations show that reference and information services in Nasarawa State vary in terms of service and practices.
Abdullahi Adamu, the then civilian Governor of Nasarawa State, established Nasarawa State University in Keffi in January 2002. The University began with three faculties, but it now has seven faculties and 37 programs, including the Faculty of Arts with seven programs, the 15 Faculty of Arts with five programs, the Faculty of Social Science with
nine programs, the Faculty of Natural Science with nine programs, the Faculty of Education with eight programs, the Faculty of Law with one program, the Faculty of Administration with three programs, and the Faculty of Agriculture with five programs. The library offers the following services:
Media services, Circulation Services, Serial Services, Reserve and Special Loans Services, Reference and Information Services, Binding Services, and Internet Services. The library appears to have improved services because it has at least one qualified and other supporting staff, and the presence of an ICT Centre also gives the library a good image. The College of Education Akwanga was founded in 1977, and it is comprised of the following colleges:
College of Arts, College of Science, College of Social Science, College of Education, College of Languages, and College of Vocational Technical Education. Administration, Acquisition Department, Cataloguing Departments, Circulation Department, Serial Department, Reserve Department, Reference and Information Services are the departments that make up the library.
This library appears to be understaffed, and the reference service appears to be neglected as a result of this, as well as the small size of the section. While the Nasarawa State Polytechnic Lafia was founded on August 15, 2000, it began with the following schools: School of Basic and Remedial Studies, School of Business Administration, School of
General Studies, School of Science and Technology, and now the Institution has added School of Environmental Science. The Library provides services such as indexing, abstracting, circulation, reserved services, computer services, reference services, and binding.
The Library appears to be superior in terms of inventory, staff, facilities, and service delivery. In light of the foregoing, the researcher is conducting a project on the delivery of reference and information services in academic libraries in Nasarawa State in order to determine the status of these services in relation to the stipulated standard.
1.2 THE PROBLEM’S STATEMENT
An academic library’s reference and information services play critical roles in presenting a positive image of the library and providing equitable, timely, and accurate information delivery services. The library offers solutions to both academic and personal problems, which are made available by the reference and information services librarian, who is always ready to answer questions in almost every field.
Despite the importance placed on reference and information service delivery, it has been observed that academic libraries in Nasarawa State do not recognize the critical role of these services, implying that users of these libraries do not use these reference resources for academic nourishment, but instead seek out or patronize other information centers and books outside the libraries for their information needs.
Furthermore, it appears that users in these libraries are having difficulty locating and effectively utilizing these information materials, which could be due to a lack of knowledge about the reference resources and services. These libraries also appear to be plagued by a slew of issues.
These include: poor reference services as a result of unqualified personnel, poor handling of users’ instruction programs, insufficient funding, insufficient reading materials, outdated reference tools, inadequate accommodation, and a lack of modern technology application in reference and information services, all of which have exposed the pathetic situation found in academic library services, particularly reference and information services, in Nigeria, particularly in Nasarawa State.
Others have studied the problems of reference services, the assessment of reference services in academic libraries, the evaluation of reference resources and services in public libraries, and the appraisal of reference services in public libraries, but no one has studied the delivery of reference and information services in academic libraries in Nasarawa State. In light of these circumstances, the researcher has undertaken this study to fill a void. As a result, the study’s problem.
LIBRARY STAFF AS EMERGENCY RESPONDERS, E.G., ORGANIZING AND RUNNING RESPONDERS
Do You Have New or Fresh Topic? Send Us Your Topic
INSTRUCTIONS AFTER PAYMENT
- 1.Your Full name
- 2. Your Active Email Address
- 3. Your Phone Number
- 4. Amount Paid
- 5. Project Topic
- 6. Location you made payment from