Stakeholders have called on the Federal and State Governments to increase budgetary allocation to education and library to boost reading culture among Nigerians.
The Stakeholders made the call in an interview during a survey on state of the library in the country.
A survey revealed that most of the facilities in public libraries in many states of the federation have decayed, with virtually empty shelves racking outdated materials.
Prof. Lenrie Aina, The Chief Librarian and Chief Executive Officer, National Library of Nigeria (NLN), said that the budgetary allocation for national library of Nigeria averagely was about N2 billion and it includes over head cost and capital projects.
Alina said in Abuja that inadequate funding was affecting public library in the country.
According to Amina, the money is not sufficient; however, we are prioritising projects as much as possible and at the same time we are trying to cover every aspect that had been appropriated for.
“In 2017, the government appropriated N1.8 billion for us and only N900 million was released that is about 50 per cent.
“So if we want to do something and if we cannot finish it this year, next year we will complete it.’’
Speaking on restocking of the library, Aina said the National library of Nigeria is not a typical library, however, the library budgeted for books every year and spent close to N50 million on books both for the headquarters and state offices across the country.
Speaking on the state of libraries in tertiary institutions, Aina said there were standard libraries at the university level; however, that was not the case with some libraries in Colleges of Education and Polytechnics.
At the university level, we have standard libraries you can be proud of such as University of Jos , Covenant University, University of Lagos, ABU, Zaira, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, to mention a few.
“The libraries at university level are well stocked they are as near as what is obtainable in other parts of the world but polytechnics and colleges of education, the attention is not like what you have at the universities.’’
Commenting on the state of mobile libraries in the rural areas, Aina said they were no longer in existence because of the lack of political will on the part of succeeding governments to librarianship.
“Early independence we used to have mobile libraries where we take libraries to the rural areas even in the riverine areas, boats were used to take books to them.
“Many of these things done before have been neglected. We used to have Bendel State Library Board and it used to be one of the best library boards in Nigeria in the 60s, 70s and 80s and they ensured books were taken everywhere across the state and some states followed suit.
“But later on we lost focus in Nigeria, succeeding governments were not really allocating so much money to librarianship; that is why we have been having problems.’’
According to him, we have problems with our libraries in Nigeria, especially our public libraries, because public libraries are the centre of library development in any country.
“Do you believe that there are some state public libraries that have not bought a book in the last 10 years , some state public libraries are not habitable , people cannot sit there and read.
“The national library of Nigeria has been promoting readership because we know our reading culture is very bad, and also we cannot do it alone.
“We need public libraries to assist us but if public libraries cannot even exist on their own how can they offer that service.’’
He said the recently concluded conference themed: ‘’ Repositioning Public Libraries in Nigeria,’’ with Chairmen and Directors of state library boards in attendance, was aimed at addressing the problems of public libraries holistically in Nigeria.
The conference identified what went wrong, what can be done and how do we serve our people better.
According to him, hopefully the report that will come out of the conference would be sent to the Federal Government through the Minster of Education, so they see how they can sensitises the various states and effectively strengthen public library services in the country.
Patronage of libraries across Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Port Harcourt, and Kebbi States had declined due to obsolete reading materials, poor funding and advent of social media.
In Kano State, where the government said it had budgeted N500 million in 2018 for the Murtala Mohammed Library in Kano, an official, Abdullahi Ado said the patronage was not encouraging.
“Those who come to consult certain books annually is 46,761, while daily we register at least 120 and those we issue books to return it after use, we have at least 2,892, while daily we register not less than eight.’’
Ado said that the mobile library has not functioned for the past 10 years due to financial issues.
The Executive Secretary, Kano State Library Board, Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmad said that the state had constructed four new libraries in Dawakin Tofa, Kura, Gabasawa and Gwale in 2017.
“We also provided two new machines in our binding unit and other needed facilities in the library which are all functional right now”.
Ahmad said the Murtala Mohammed Library was re-stocked with new books annually, but added that the mobile libraries have stopped functioning due to lack of fund.
According to Ahmad, one of the major challenges of libraries is poor patronage by students due to prevailing poor reading culture among students.
Abubakar Abdullahi, a student of Saadatu Rimi College of Education, expressed concern on the outdated books and other facilities in most of the libraries in the state.
He stressed the need for the provisions of latest books, on all subjects, to enable students acquire modern knowledge that can assist them in their study.
“Most of the books we have in our libraries are the outdated ones that are no longer existing in the modern libraries in the world.
“I think this situation has contributed to the low patronage of the libraries by the students, where they prefer to search for whatever they want through Google instead of going to the libraries”, Abdullahi said.
Also, in Kaduna State, the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Sani Jaafaru said that the government was stocking its libraries every year,
However, the situation was different at the State Library in Kafanchan, which has visible marks of total decline and neglect, with only a handful of archaic books on its dilapidated shelves
An official said that there was poor patronage due to general decline in reading culture and absence of materials to read and other facilities.
The official said that the library structure has suffered neglect on the part of the government as no attention had been given to the facility over the years.
“The situation is worse during the rainy season as virtually most parts of the roof leak, thereby causing further damage on the furniture.
In spite of that, the commissioner, however, insisted that the state government ensure that the libraries are up to date with new findings and publications that would meet the needs of their readers.
According to him, the government has procured, 4,666 new books in 2016 and 2, 296 in 2017 for its 10 public libraries across the state.
“We equally have an e-library component in our libraries that provides our readers access to e-books of different subjects and covering different issues.
“All one need to do to access our library is pay a registration fee of N250, and N200 annual subscription fee, “he said.
He also said that a total of N339,455 has been allocated to the state Library Board for capital project in the 2018 budget.
At the Arewa House, Centre for Historical Documentation and Research, Kaduna, an official, Mrs Salamatu Garba, said that there was no budgetary allocation for stocking of the library.
According to her, the books were mostly donations from late academics that willed them to the library for research.
At the Kaduna State University Library, the Librarian, Dr Abdullahi Musa told NAN that the library is stocked all year-round with funding from the state government and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).
Musa said that the university stock books that are only relevant for teaching, research and learning.
“We have a Social Media Librarian, whose main task is to interact with our users via the social media platforms; Facebook, twitter, YouTube, Instagram, to intimate them of our services and how to access them.”
Similarly, the Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, Katsina, said that it has no fewer than 36,000 books collections in its library.
Alhaji Sadiq Abdulkadir, the Senior Librarian of the university, said that the collections comprise text books and journals in different disciplines.
According to him, the library was designed to contain 300,000 book spaces, with accommodation space for as much as 1,500 readers.
He said that TETFUND also provide funds for the purchase of new books to the institution annually, and also receives donations from organisations and individuals.
He noted that the university has e-library section where students and staff have access to different resources without limitations.
At the Hassan Usman Katsina Polytechnic, Katsina, the Librarian, Alhaji Lawal Salisu, said that it has over 40,000 books collection with support from TETFUND and donations.
Salisu said the library has capacity to accommodate over 650 readers at a time and hold orientation for new students on the use of library.
He further noted that the institution e-library section was not functional due to internet connectivity issues.
‘’We are now trying to get bandwidth so that users can have access to internet, nevertheless, a person can have access to such resources using his own data,’’ he said.
In Kebbi, the situation is worse, as the state libraries had not been stocked since 2006.
Alhaji Umar Kambaza, Director, Dr Bala Usman Library Birnin Kebbi said lack of funds was the major impediment to the provision of modern libraries in the state.
“The books here are not current and the infrastructure requires repair, especially the leaking roofs and aesthetics.
“We have recorded between 7,000 and 8,000 attendants on monthly basis, but as books in stock are old and outdated that had reduced attendants to between 2,000 and 3,000 on monthly basis.
‘’The management has been saddled with running a traditional library as we have no computers, e-libraries as well as electronic record-keeping.
“All these require money and without proper funding of the libraries, how will we have a relatively class library that will compete with the rest in terms of global best practice.’’
Alhaji Abubakar Kalgo, Chairman of the state chapter of Association of Nigerian Authors, expressed concern over the high level poor reading culture among students and Nigerians generally.
He told NAN that the association has commenced awareness campaign to encourage use of the libraries among students, especially at primary and secondary school levels.
He also agreed that the use of the library has been threatened by the emergence of the social media, noting that the use of the new media is encouraging laziness and affecting search for knowledge.
Kalgo also blamed libraries for failing to provide digital facilities to entice patronage. (NAN)
