THE NEGLECT OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES

All stakeholders should invest more in libraries

While education is described as the result of acquired knowledge and the accumulation of observations and experiences, a library serves as both the protector and storehouse of that knowledge and experience. But it is a neglected sector in the country. At the 2024 conference of the national libraries with state librarians in Bauchi State, the Nigeria Libraries Association (NLA) chairman, Vincent Giwa Franklin lamented this neglect. “Most of our public libraries don’t have modern equipment and facilities” while others are left with “outdated reading resources, books and journals.” But more concerning, according to Franklin, is that librarians are not treated like other professionals in the public service, even when they work extra hours, including at weekends.

 Since literacy refers to the ability to read, write, and comprehend information, it goes without saying that there is hardly meaningful education without functional libraries. In Nigeria, however, the education sector has long been without functional public libraries since existing ones are no better than the “national archives” they have derogatorily been termed. Most of our public libraries are not fit for purpose, with an unconducive environment, old furniture, first or second edition of old books, some of which were published in the 60s and 70s and which have been updated and reprinted more than five times. The reading rooms are mostly dark and stuffy as a result of power outage and poor/faulty cooling systems.

 In the past, students used to spend more time in the libraries after school because of the availability of textbooks and other reference materials, which help them to prepare for examinations and for self-development. But today, inadequate funding, poor management, government’s insensitivity, lack of public-private partnership and appointment of non-librarians as board members of library concerns, have combined to kill public libraries. It is therefore no surprise that the reading culture has been on the decline, as students prefer the short cut route to success while those who are ready to study get discouraged by the paucity of books in libraries.

 Indeed, a library not only meets the information needs of individuals, but it also creates and further develops

the civic sense and habits of citizens in the constructive use of their leisure time. A library also enables students to educate themselves continuously while keeping abreast of progress in all fields of knowledge and on public issues and world affairs. Regrettably, the advent of social media has also affected the reading culture as a result of misplaced priorities by students who spend a better part of their time on the internet either chatting, playing games or watching movies, rather than taking advantage of the vast instructional materials available online for self-development. The evidence of all this is the mass failure in all our

examinations, from Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) to the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

This poses a problem in Nigerian tertiary institutions, as our institutions of higher learning continue to churn out graduates that are best described as unemployable. The onus is now on government and other stakeholders to overhaul public libraries to prevent their total collapse and curb poor academic performance occasioned by poor reading culture. Public libraries should be stocked with up-to-date volumes of relevant books; and in collaboration with professional associations, government at all levels should set up virtual libraries in all local government areas across the country. Individuals, corporate organisations, educational foundations that operate private libraries, build libraries in communities or donate books to schools’ libraries should be encouraged to do more so that collectively, the country can develop libraries with up-to-date facilities so as to address the problem of mass failure and declining reading culture among the populace.