CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACCKGROUND OF THE STUDY

There are several libraries for various purposes. The function, the type of users, and the motivation for building the library are all examples of these goals. The biggest disparities in libraries can be attributed to these factors. The fundamental reason libraries exist, according to Okiy in Tinuoye (2010), is to supply the appropriate contents to suit their users’ information demands. The kind of people who use a library, the services it provides, the types of collections it houses, and the general goal of those who founded it all separate one type of library from another. National, public, school, academic, private, and special libraries are examples of library kinds. Produce a national bibliography; hold and keep up to date a large and representative collection of foreign literature, including books about the country; act as a national bibliographical information center; compile union catalogues; publish the retrospective national bibliography are some of the other functions they will typically perform. Libraries that are labeled as “national” but do not fulfill the above description should not be included in the “national libraries” category (UNESCO 1970). Furthermore, the legislation known as the legal deposit statute guides the functions of national libraries.

In particular, Section 4(1) of the National Library of Nigeria (NLN) Decree No. 29 of 1970 states that within one month of publication, the publisher of every book published in Nigeria must deliver three (3) copies of the book to the National Library at his own expense for permanent preservation, one of which shall be sent by the Director to the Ibadan University library. This is referred to as the legal deposit law. Them is presented to the National Library as a legal document authorizing it to collect these indigenous resources.As a result, legal deposit resources are those that are legally acquired by some libraries for permanent preservation, correct processing, and public dissemination. These items are largely local, coming from writers and publishers in a specific geographic area. By law, some libraries are tasked with receiving and preserving these materials. Edoka(2000). Depository libraries are the name given to these types of libraries. According to Prytherch (1995), legal deposit is a system by which particular libraries are legally entitled to receive one or more copies of every publication printed or published in the country. Federal academic institutions, public libraries, and national libraries make up the majority of these depository libraries. By legislation, the National Library of Nigeria was founded to serve as a legal depository. It’s the mother of all libraries. It acts as a national information bank because it contains uncommon, valuable, and all published content. The National Library of Nigeria Decree, according to Adewunmi (2008), has the following goals: (a) Providing required support for intellectual endeavours in all activities aimed at growth and development. (b) Assuring a free flow of knowledge between this nation and others, ensuring the nation’s place in the community of nations that rely on recorded knowledge and information for survival in a world of rapid advancement and idea rivalry.(c) Assuring the availability of a comprehensive and as close to complete a collection of resource materials in current knowledge around the world, as well as full access to such resources both within and outside the nation’s borders.These legal deposit resources include both indigenous and non-indigenous materials published within and beyond the country. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They contain printed materials, with publishers providing the National Library with access to passwords for digital or electronic copies. They are legally obtained for free from intellectual work publishers and authors. Books, periodicals, journals, films, newspapers, government publications, audio recordings or documentaries, and so forth are among the items. Books, journals, newspapers, and government publications are collected and kept for posterity, according to Arua (1997) and Owen (2007). These items could be literary, collaborative, individual, or documentary effort.Because of the type of information contained in these legal deposit papers, they are extremely valuable to the government. They are valuable for study, according to Ifidon & Ifidon (2007). They are also crucial in the national and international bibliographic control of publications. This is accomplished through the National Library of Nigeria’s publishing of the National Bibliography of Nigeria (NBN). The National Library of Nigeria is the nation’s “giant memory,” according to the edict that established it. As a result, the Legal Deposit documents assist users in doing retrospective searches, as many of these materials are uncommon and old.In the case of litigation, they are utilized as reference materials in court subpoenas, as well as authentication and certification in government offices. In this scenario, government records, serials, and monographs are useful. The importance of legal deposit materials in the formation of a collection cannot be overstated. This is due to the fact that neither the depository nor the national library invests in their acquisition. They are freely deposited by the publishers. Ifidon and Ifidon (2007) believe that if it is fully utilized (legal deposit materials), as it is in industrialized nations, the collection can be greatly increased. They also provide up-to-date information as well as information on several subjects.Lawyers also utilize it as the Certified True Copy (CTC) in court to resolve author conflicts. It is the only copy accepted in court, and a librarian from Nigeria’s National Library is normally present when the material is subpoenaed. This is due to the fact that it is the genuine copy. The legal deposit materials are also beneficial to students in their educational pursuits. Okafor and Ezema (2009). Civil servants, in particular, are heavy users of legal deposit materials, especially government publications. In government offices, official gazettes are used for certification and validation.They are used to verify leave of absences, first and second appointments, promotion dates, and service transfers, among other things. These documents are quite useful in government offices. Current affairs and job searchers are other users of the legal deposit contents. These people are looking for information in newspapers about job openings and current events. Despite the importance of newspapers, according to Ajidahun in Owairu (2010), their prices are out of reach for most people. As a result, most Nigerians rely on libraries, which provide free services, to stay up with current events. The legal deposit materials are library resources that fulfill this noble function. The National Library of Nigeria is one such library.Bibliographic control is important for discovering the presence of information-bearing materials, identifying the works contained within them, systematically gathering these resources, and generating lists and access points for their retrieval. This facilitates access to and use of the materials. According to Line and Line (1979), the legal deposit assists national libraries in achieving the worldwide goal of Universal Bibliographic Control through local bibliographic control. It accomplishes this, for example, by legal deposit of Cataloguing-in-Publication (CIP) Data in the Library of Congress, or collection growth initiatives that target book markets in foreign countries.For these legal deposit resources, the National Library of Nigeria also provides Cataloguing –in – Publication Data. The legal deposit serves as the nation’s memory or information bank, among other things. The legal deposit materials hold a great deal of promise as essential library resources. The users are educated, informed, and equipped as a result of their actions. This also serves as a springboard for users to make meaningful contributions to society. They distinguish Nigeria as a country and give her a voice at the United Nations. This agrees with Okwilagwe’s assertion in Ola and Osagie (2011) that books serve as a record of a people’s experience and artifact.The Nigerian Yearbook, for example, published and printed by ‘Times Press (Nigeria)’ in Apapa, offers everything a person needs to know about Nigeria. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe depicts the culture of a certain ethnic group in Eastern Nigeria, the Igbos. Through the standard numbers provided by the National Library of Nigeria, the legal deposit materials assist in the international promotion of Nigerian indigenous authors and publishers.The International Standard Book Number (ISBN), International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), and International Standard Music Number (ISBN) are examples of these (ISMN), Aside from preserving books for future generations, the legal deposit system’s additional goals include the creation of a national bibliography and the accessibility of a collection of the nation’s published resources for research purposes. The goal of the legal deposit, according to Adrienne (2005), is to safeguard and enable long-term access to the nation’s intellectual legacy. This is what distinguishes an excellent library.

As a result, it is the accessibility of these materials, as well as excellent user service, that draws people to the library. A user who rushes to the library as an information pool or bank returns disappointed if the library fails to meet his or her information needs, either due to a lack of available material or difficulties in obtaining the material.

The National Library of Nigeria, because to its organizational effectiveness, also gives access to legal deposit resources. According to Owen (2007), these include staff consultation, indexes, library catalogs, and abstracts, all with the primary purpose of delighting customers.Access to legal deposit resources, on the other hand, is contingent on circumstances affecting legal deposit libraries (Nsibirwa, Hoskins and Stilwell 2011). Implementation of the Legal Deposit Act; other legislation impacting access to legal deposit collection and preservation of materials; and methods of administering the materials are among the criteria cited by these authors.These factors reveal the library’s managerial inefficiency. As a result, the user’s experience is negatively influenced. In light of the foregoing, this research focuses on the National Library of Nigeria’s management and use of legal deposit items for effective user support.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Legal deposit documents make up a significant portion of the National Library of Nigeria’s collection. They’re useful for bibliographic management, research, study, learning, enjoyment, and knowledge transfer from one generation to the next. They are also verifiable authority for Certified True Copy during litigation, subpoena, and verification (CTC). They serve as a display for the country’s cultural heritage. They bring a large number of people to the library. Lawyers, students, researchers, public servants, legal practitioners, tourists, and others are among them. However, the researcher has noted from on–the–job experience that legal deposit materials are not user–friendly because their accessibility and effective usage by users are poor and limited. Furthermore, good legal deposit management and practices ensure that residents and academics across the country and around the world have access to the nation’s published resources. With the constructive and devoted administration of the legal depository library, publishers, and writers as stakeholders, this is achievable and may be accomplished successfully. However, it has been highlighted that legal deposit law is not well-implemented, and publishers and authors have failed to meet their legal deposit duties in a timely manner. As a result, these risks have a substantial impact on user assistance and experience when using legal deposit documents at the National Library of Nigeria. As a result, the goal of this research is to look at how libraries manage and employ legal deposit resources for efficient user support in Nigeria’s national library.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The overall goal of this research is to look into how libraries manage and utilise legal deposit items for effective user support in Nigeria’s national library. The study’s particular aims are listed below:

Find out about the National Library of Nigeria’s legal deposit policies.

Determine how legal deposit materials can be used to provide efficient user support at Nigeria’s national library.

Determine the characteristics that influence effective user support at Nigeria’s national library.

RESEARCH QUESTION

The following questions will lead the research:

What legal deposit practices does the National Library of Nigeria offer?

What are the uses of legal deposit materials in the Nigerian National Library that promote effective user support?

What variables influence effective user support at Nigeria’s national library?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The findings of this study are likely to help the National Library of Nigeria’s administration and personnel, as well as researchers, students, policymakers, authors, lawyers, government servants, publishers, lecturers, and library and information science students.

Legal deposit materials are valuable library resources that have earned a position in library and information science literature. This research on the management and use of these materials in the National Library of Nigeria to improve user support is intended to add to the body of knowledge in the library and information science department. Furthermore, if adopted, the findings of this study may be of considerable service to the National Library of Nigeria, as they may indicate the library’s strengths and limitations in managing legal deposit materials for proper accessibility and effective use. It will also highlight areas where improvements should be made, such as the depository library, to improve the accessibility and use of legal deposit resources.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

In the Nigerian National Library, the study focuses on the management and use of legal deposit items by libraries for effective user support. The research is limited to determining the legal deposit practices available in the National Library of Nigeria, determining the uses of legal deposit materials that promote effective user support in the national library of Nigeria, and determining the factors influencing effective user support in the national library of Nigeria. The respondents for this study will come from five departments at the National Library of Nigeria in Abuja that provide library services.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The researcher ran into some minor roadblocks while conducting the research, as with any human endeavor. Insufficient funds hamper the researcher’s efficiency in locating relevant materials, literature, or information, as well as in the data collection process, which is why the researcher chose a small sample size. Furthermore, the researcher was working on this study while also doing other academic work. As a result, the time spent on research will be cut in half.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Management: Forecasting, planning, organizing, regulating, commanding, and coordinating are all aspects of management. Management is also a method through which organizations guarantee that their goals are met by properly planning, organizing, and regulating their human and material resources.

Library: A library is a social institution established to gather, organize, conserve, and disseminate information resources to people for whom the library is founded in a location favorable to their usage.

National Libraries: These are the types of libraries that, regardless of their title, are in charge of acquiring and preserving copies of all significant publications issued in the country, as well as serving as a deposit library, either by law or by agreement.

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