ABSTRACT

This research work covers the impact of the public library services to the people of Kaduna State. It examines the views of the users toward the services rendered by the library, the type of services oered and also how satisfactory the users are with the services. The survey design was adopted in this study and methods used collecting data included questionnaire, observation and interview. From the analysis, it was revealed that students are the majority users of the library and they mostly users of the library and they mostly visit the library to read their lecture notes. The findings also showed that the library lack current information materials and operates a closed access service which does not allow users to borrow books. Other findings were the problems facing the library such as inadequate funding. Outdated materials and poor infrastructures. Recommendations were made based on their findings in order to improve the services of the library. These include sourcing for finds from public and private organizations, procurement of current and relevant information materials and introduction of Information and Communication Technologies in the library administration.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

The Chambers Universal Learners Dictionary define a library as a building or room containing a collection of books or some other collection, for example, gramophone records. Shair (1963) also defines a library as an organization of one or more trained people who use carefully selected or organized books, periodicals and other similar materials as a means of giving to those who may appropriately use it to the fullest extent of their need or desires the information, enrichment or delight which is to be heard from the written word. The library can be defined as an institution that is mostly concerned with the methods, skills, and system for acquisition, storage, preservation and dissemination of recorded and non-recorded materials.

The library is generally grouped into six (6) which are national, academic, school, private, special and public libraries. The public library is a library which carters for the informational needs of everybody in the society. It is not restricted to anybody or a particular group of people. The implication of the word ‘PUBLIC’ is that the library is expected to serve everybody in the community in which it is situated; hence it is also called “The People’s University”.

According to Gates (1976), the public library can be defined as a library authorized by state law, supported from general public funds or special taxes voted for the purpose and administered for the benefits of the citizens of the country, town, city or region which maintains it on the basis of equal access to all. Ikokoh (2003) defines public library as a library provided wholly or partly from public funds and the use of which is not restricted to any class or person in the community, but is freely available to all. The public library primarily exists to serve the entire members of its locality referred to as the general public. Nuhu (1994) observed that the public library has the same universal objective of serving the general public towards the educational upliment and awareness of rural and urban persons, to enhance and develop their potentialities. The public library has the traditional role of acquiring books and audio-visual materials, and making them available to patrons regardless to citizenship, age, educational level, economic and social status or any qualification or condition. It must therefore be a depository of a variety of books and other informative materials and provide needed services for the members of the immediate community it serves. The public library has proved to be of the best means of providing books and non-books materials and making them available and accessible for its diverse users. Public libraries are now acknowledged to be an indispensable part of community wide range of reading materials for all ages and centres for community information services.

The public library that provides services to the general public, is also responsible for serving special categories of the public, such as children, members of the armed forces, hospital, patients, prisoners, workers and employees. In other words, it is a library established by the state to provide wide service and supervised by either a ministry or a library board. The public library first started in the early 19th Century in Europe and America. In England for instance, industrial cities like Manchester, Russia and Detroit in the United States had public libraries so as to meet the informational needs of the industries. Boman (1989) in addition said that the growth of education and printing encouraged the use of books. For that reasons, the first public library Act in England was promulgated in 1850. It empowered that any town council with a population of 10, 000 (later 5, 000) people was entitled to one public library. Emmanuel (2006) asserts that public libraries in Nigeria were modeled aer the Bristish. They started about fiy years before independence with the establishment of libraries in Lagos. The Modern public library movement in Nigeria can be said to have started from the foundation in 1910 and 1920 with the Tom Jones Library in Lagos. He further added that the Tom Jones Library had acquired the character of a public subscription library in which the public can subscribe to membership and get books for a particular period of time. The Lagos Library which was established in 1932 was also on public subscription. Baba (2007) also added that the Lagos book club established its rules of operation at a general meeting on 3rd June, 1932 with Sir Allan Burns, the Chief Secretary of Nigeria being largely responsible for the establishment of the Lagos book club. He was also one of the foundation members of that library. He prepared a forward to the rule that will guide the use of the library at that time. He further said that the genesis of the present day public library services in Nigeria, is traceable to reading rooms which were established by British Colonial administration between 1938-1945. The functions of the reading rooms were merely to disseminate information that were tailored to solicit the support of the British inhabitant. The reading rooms were very instrumental in propagating the British Interest during the Second World War. These reading rooms were spread in many crannies of Nigerian and acted as catalyst of the colonial masters.

After the collapse of the reading rooms, it was decided that each region should have its own independent library services. This was one of the resolutions of the Ibadan seminar on the development of public library in Africa which was held in 1953. This seminar was organized jointly by the Nigerian Government and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The resolution further recommended that the regional libraries be run by library boards beginning with Eastern Nigeria.