Nigerian Library Association Annual Conference 2007
| Pages | 11-14 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07419050710874197 |
| Date | 30 October 2007 |
| Published date | 30 October 2007 |
| Author | Jonathan Ogugua,Nancy Emerole,Fanny Egwim |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Nigerian Library Association
Annual Conference 2007
Jonathan Ogugua, Nancy Emerole and Fanny Egwim
LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 9/10 2007, pp. 11-14, #Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/07419050710874197 11
The Nigerian Library Association
(NLA) National Conference and Annual
General Meeting (AGM) had as its
theme, ``Nigerian librariesfor the future:
progress, development and
partnerships'' when it met at Uyo, Akwa
Ibom State, 9-14 September 2007. Over
400 delegates attended and they
represented over 30 out of the 37 state
chapters of the Association in Nigeria.
Interestingly, Akwa Ibom State, the
venue of the conference is also known as
``the land of promise''. The usual pre-
conferenceseminar that forms part of the
opening events was not readily
available. Two of the nine papers billed
for the conference were therefore taken
to fill the gap. The first on the list of
paper presentations was the one by L.O.
Aina, University of Botswana,
Botswana, titled ``Appropriate
curriculum for library and information
science schools in Nigeria: the role of
the Nigerian Library Association''. He
noted that Nigeriais the cradle of library
and informationscience (LIS) training in
West Africa. Specifically, librarianship
training in Nigeriastarted at the Institute
of Librarianship at the then University
College Ibadan (now University of
Ibadan) in 1959. At present,there are 18
universities offering LIS training both at
undergraduate and graduate levels and
four other universities are at the planning
stage. The study revealed that
universities have the academic freedom
to design curricula that their trainees
would offer in any discipline including
LIS, but a professional association has
the responsibility for prescribing
guidelines on courses that it considers
important for traineesin its profession to
offer, to enablethem function effectively
in the immediate environment and
beyond. Unfortunately, the professional
body ± Nigerian Library Association ±
has not played this role accordingly and
one of the consequences was the
accreditation of only five LIS schools in
Nigeria by the National Universities
Commission in 2006. Furthermore, the
multidisciplinary courses required for
non-traditionallibrary jobs (for potential
employers) are not included in the
curriculum;the assurance that trainees in
the profession would easily secure
employment in the private or public
sectors or in self-employment does not
address these problems. A proposal was
made for the inclusion of eight modules
when designing a LIS curriculum for the
bachelor of library and information
science programme as follows: library
and information science, information
and communications technology (ICT),
archives and records management,
publishing, rural community
information services, public relations
(PR), advocacy, basic statistics and
communication and writing skills. In
addition, the paper recommended that
adequate staffing, information resource
center; ICT and indexing/cataloguing
laboratories must be put in place before
the proposed cur riculum could be
implemented.
The next paper by David F. Elaturoti,
University of Ibadan,Nigeria, was titled,
``Education and training of school
library media specialists (school teacher
librarians) for Nigerian schools in the
twenty-first century: the Abadina Media
Resource Center programme''. The
Government of Nigeria recognized the
importance of libraries in educational
institutions and recommended in its
national policy that school libraries be
established accordingly, along with the
training of librarians. Efforts made to
achieve this goal, especially the training
of teacher librarians through short
courses and workshops, suffered many
setbacks. More so, developments in
science and technology have
revolutionised and extended the concept
of learning resources and the learning
environment beyond the classroom. A
school library media specialist is,
therefore, a professional under whose
direction falls the design, development
and implementation of a dedicated
school library media programme in the
school (learning community). A school
library media programme is a
specialization in the field of LIS that
requires students to meet not only the
core LIS requirements butalso specified
coursework in instruction, youth service
and managementof school library media
centers. It also involves identifying
resources that support and enhance the
curriculum as well as integrating
information and instructional
technologies into classroom teaching
and learning. The programme should
motivate a love of reading and lifelong
learning. In pursuit of these objectives,
the Abadina Media Resource Centre
Training Programme focused on the
training of qualified personnel for
developing school library media
programmes in schools at the
undergraduate and graduate levels. The
following programmes have been
staged: diploma in school media,
professional master in media resource
management (MMRM), master of
school media (academic), master of
philosophy (MPh) and doctor of
philosophy(PhD) in school media.
The formal opening ceremony was
very lively andattracted dignitaries from
Akwa Ibom State and beyond. The
ceremony beganwith a welcome address
delivered by Victoria Okogie, President
of NLA. In her address she formally
welcomed everyone to the 45th national
conference/AGM of the Association.
She reiterated that the theme of this
year's conference focuses on the
changing role of libraries from
information provision to knowledge
development, e xchange of information
and social networking. Libraries in
Nigeria have to work hard to be part of
the global community and adopt a
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