Assessing The Impact Of Public Library Services On The Literacy Level Of Nigerians

Assessing The Impact Of Public Library Services On The Literacy Level Of Nigerians

Preface

Libraries in general and public libraries in particular, play an important part in all aspects of societal development especially when viewed against its druggies, which correspond of all orders of people in the society. Public library has been defined similarly. numerous see it as a place erected for the collection of books and other published coffers and the labor force to give and interpret similar coffers as needed to meet the information, exploration, educational, recreational, artistic and aesthetic requirements of the varied druggies and it’s generally financed with public finances. In line with the over, Gates( 1976) defined a public library as “ that authorized by law, supported from general public finances or special levies suggested for the purpose of administration, for the benefit of the citizens of the country, city, megacity or region which maintains it on the base of equal access to all. ” The idea of a public library system in Northern Nigeria started in the late 1940s with the Native Authority(N.A.) Reading Apartments. Prior to this period still, a collection of Islamic Holy Writ and calligraphies can be set up with individual ministers scattered across the Region especially in Sokoto, Borno and Kano which are regarded as centers of commerce and Islamic civilization as a result of their contact with the Arab world through the Trans- Saharan Trade Routes.( Aguolu 1984). These “ libraries ” demanded all that can be said of a public library in terms of programs, association, labor force and services.

The first significant attention to public library was the commissioning of a study on library services in the region in 1963, by the government of the Northern Region under the distinguished leadership of the late Premier, Sir Ahmadu Bello. The study was conducted byF.A. Sharr under the Special Commonwealth African Assistance Plan and the report popularly known in the

Nigerian Library Literature as “ The Sharr Report ”, praised the “ foresight of the Government in seeking, at this early state to explain the development of all

types of libraries and to avoid the waste and inefficiency which follows from awkward bid ”( Sharr 1963). Following his recommendation, there was a review of the being structures and Public Library system evolved. The first functional Public Library was the Kaduna Lending Library which also doubled as the Regional Reference Library. The Library system was organized under a Director and was departmentalized according to the colorful functions in the Library. While a public library system is gradationally taking shape, a major political shake- up of the Northern Region took place in 1967. The formerly notorious “ giant North ” was broken into six( 6) countries. This development led to decentralization of the Regional Library System and accordingly, the former Regional Library Headquarter in Kaduna had to resolve its coffers and means inversely among the new States. Another corner in the history of Library Development in Northern Nigeria was the commissioning of yet another study by Rober.