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RNATIONAL PERSPECTIVESsues Facing Academic Libraries in NigeriaRowena Cullen, Samuel Adeyoyin, Richard Olorunsola, and D.A. Idada

Available online 28 May 2004

nal of Academic Librarianship, Volume 30, Number 4, pages 330–332

ullen is School of Communications and Informationent, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600,

Wellington, New Zealand<rowena.cullen@vuw.ac.nz>.

oyin, Richard Olorunsola, and D.A. Idada are at theIgbinedion University Library, Okada P.M.B. 0006,

Benin City, Edo State, Nigeriae2003@yahoo.com>, <richsola2004@yahoo.com>.

Arecent Carnegie Challenge, which brought togethersome twenty-five international donors and librarians,identified the ability to participate in a global economy

that is increasingly centered on access to knowledge as a criticalkey in solving the problems of the African nations. ‘‘Africa’slibraries, under resourced and under utilized, are facing a crisisthat, though seemingly quiet, has the potential to affect thecontinent’s intellectual capital for decades to come.’’2 Thevision created by the meeting was of libraries of the futurebased not on the outdated models of the colonial past, butinnovative and self-sustaining services designed to meet theparticular needs of local populations. Anxious to see thecontinent ‘‘not left behind in the information revolution as itwas in the industrial revolution,’’3 one of the goals of theconference was to develop partnerships between libraries anddonors and establish a platform on which future consortiumsand agendas could be built.

Along with the many problems they share with publiclibraries in Africa, such as an unmet demand for professionallytrained staff and a chronic and severe shortage of financialresources, the report identified some additional problems facedby university libraries in Africa, many of which were initiallydefined in the International Africa Institute report, UniversityLibraries in Africa: A Review of Their Current State andFuture Potential.4 These included issues such as:

� inadequate funding leading to inadequate collections anddependence on donors;

� poor physical facilities and a failure to keep pace withexpanding enrolments;

� teaching methods centered on classroom learning, not onlibrary-based independent research;

� lack of management strategies and poor communicationsbetween librarians and university administrators; and

� electronic resources such as CD-ROMs and the Internet seenas more easily accessed sources of information.5

All these factors were considered to have resulted in univer-sity libraries being perceived as unable to anticipate the needs ofacademic and student users, or keep up with technology, and asbeing increasingly marginalized in the academic communityrather than being seen as a center of learning to be enhanced andexpanded.

In addition to lack of financial and staffing resources, otherproblems confronting African universities and libraries areidentified by Chisenga as inadequate technology infrastructure,lack of computers, networks, bandwidth, and even vandalism insome areas (e.g., of copper telephone lines). Little cooperationbetween institutions that each create their own databases of localmaterials and very few digitization programs to increase Africancontent on the Web and respond to the thousands of differentcultures and languages across the continent were also noted asproblems common to most countries in Africa.6

Counteracting these issues, the Carnegie conference notedpositive progress in African university libraries in the introduc-tion of ICT through university-wide networks and the Internet,the growth of regional professional associations such as theStanding Conference of African National and Academic Librar-ians in East, Central and Southern Africa (SCANAL-ESC), andthe increasing adoption of information technologies by theAssociation of African Universities (AAU), which has ‘‘activelypromoted ICTadoption and the establishment of a clearinghousefor the dissemination of information concerning library man-agement.’’7

Nigeria, governed by a federal system comprising sixty-onestates and one territory, is the most populous country in Africaand has a long tradition of higher education since colonialtimes. According to the CIA Factbook, Nigeria is currentlyrebuilding after nearly sixteen years of military rule. A newconstitution was adopted in 1999, and a peaceful transition tocivilian government was completed in national elections inApril 2003. The new administration faces the daunting task oftransforming the earlier petroleum-based economy, whoserevenues have been squandered through corruption and mis-management, into a broader economic base and institutional-

izing democracy in the context of longstanding ethnic andreligious tensions.

With an estimated population of approximately 134 million(in a land mass not much larger than California), Nigeria has ayoung population1 but relatively high literacy rates by Africanstandards (68 percent of adult population). The population isdivided on religious grounds: 50 percent Muslim, 40 percentChristian, and 10 percent indigenous religions. Despiteattempts by the new government to diversify away from theovercapitalized oil sector in recent years, Nigeria remains asubsistence agricultural economy with 60 percent of its popu-lation living beneath the poverty line and great disparities inincome between rich and poor—however, there is a growingservice industry sector (including education), which has nowreached 30 percent of employment.

Nigeria, as noted above, has had for many years a strongeducational/research infrastructure including a large number ofresearch institutes and scholarly associations, most of whichdate back to the 1960s and occasionally earlier. World ofLearning (2004) lists twenty-nine universities, under state orfederal jurisdiction, and over thirty colleges and polytechnics inthe public sector, all of which have libraries. Many of thesealso date back to the early 1960s or 1970s, with the exceptionof the University of Ibadan, established as the UniversityCollege of Ibadan in 1948. Nigeria also, according to Guptaand Gupta,8 has eight library schools providing professionallibrary education, some up to PhD level, and Nigerian librar-ians are enthusiastic and prolific contributors to the LISliterature, including the Journal of Academic Librarianship.9

The irony of this, as Nwakanma notes, is the problem createdby the very industry and ambition of Nigerian library research-ers—publishing in international journals, their work is inac-cessible to colleagues in Nigerian libraries because of the stateof the Nigerian economy and the rapid inflation of the NigerianNaira, which makes these journals too expensive for purchase.

Funding remains a crucial issue for tertiary libraries inNigeria, which are heavily dependant on international aidfunding.10 A 1997 report on education funding in a group ofsix developing countries lists Nigeria as devoting the least ofits national budget to education, despite paying lip service tothe importance of education and libraries for many years.With a history of military government, defense has taken thelion’s share of national resources,11 although Nigerian librar-ians are hopeful that this may improve with the new civilianregime in power. In addition, some new developments andresearch reported by contributors to this column may providenew models for the tertiary libraries in Nigeria.

For example, Olorunsola and Idada of Igbinedion UniversityLibrary, in Benin City, report that there are now six privateuniversities in Nigeria: Igbinedion University, Okada, EdoState; Babcock University, Inisha, Ogun State; Madona Uni-versity, Okija, Anambra State; Covenant University, LagosState; Benson Idahosa University, Benin City, Edo State; andBowen University, Iwo, Osun State.12 These, they report, havebeen established because of two reasons: ‘‘One, the issue ofcultism is gradually destroying what is left of our educationalsystem in Nigeria. The private universities have indicated theirreadiness with a common desire to frontally confront themenace of campus cult currently plaguing older generationsof universities in Nigeria.. . . Two, the impact of strikes on theeducational system, particularly in higher education, has beendevastating over the years. Academic sessions have been

disrupted for as much as six months in a few instances.. . .The private universities have the mission to put in place strikefree academic sessions.. . .’’13

As these new universities set out on their charter, they toostruggle to find the necessary IT and library resources tosupport their learning programs. Olorunsola compares two ofthese new universities, Igbinedion, privately owned and oper-ated, and Babcock, a mission-based institution, with otherNigerian universities in their founding years. Igbinedion’s10,000 books and fifty-six foreign journal titles and Babcock’s40,000 books and 140 foreign journal titles compare, notunfavorably, with Edo State University’s 60,000 (in 1981 for15,000 students), Ogun State’s 33,000 (in 1982 for 8000students), and Ondo State’s 122,000 (in 1982 for 6500 students)(the new private universities appear to have far fewer students).The only exceptions to this are the universities establishedduring colonial times, e.g., Ibadan established in 1948 with650,000 books and Lagos in 1962 with 450,000 books.14

However, there are considerable discrepancies in fundingbetween the two, as Olorunsola and Idada report. The newlibraries have applied for generous funding to establish theircollections and services but do not all receive funding at thislevel—both Igbinedion and Babcock libraries applied for sumsaround five to six million Nairas.15 Igbinedion received aroundNGN 500,000 for their budget for 2001/2002. Babcock re-ceived a sum of over NGN 9,000,000–2.5 million in excess ofwhat was requested. Olorunsola comments that private univer-sities will continue to be disadvantaged by the falling exchangerate of the Nigerian Naira, and by inadequate funding forlibraries in private universities, since administrators do notunderstand the role of libraries in an institution of higherlearning. Technology services fall far behind tertiary librariesat all levels in developed countries, with reliance on manualsystems still the norm, and only Babcock having e-mail andCD-ROM facilities. Babcock’s significantly better budget andfacilities may possibly be attributed to the establishment of alibrary committee to oversee the development of the libraryand the appointment of a University Librarian dating back tobefore the university opened (Igbinedion has only a DeputyUniversity Librarian and one librarian/second class, supportedby six paraprofessionals). Olorunsola concludes that while thetime for private universities has clearly arrived in Nigeria, iftheir libraries are to offer adequate services to staff andstudents, they will need to increase their budgets to 10 percentof the institutional budget (the norm in Nigeria for tertiarylibraries), employ more professional staff, make significantincreases in their book collections, and introduce electroniclibrary services. In earlier papers, Olorunsola has argued for theneed for Nigerian academic libraries to get away from thetraditional structure of reader services and technical servicesand focus on access services, information services, specialcollections, and training activities, but this would be a solutionfor larger institutions, with more generous staffing and otherresources.16

Another way of increasing revenue and enhancing servicesin Nigerian academic libraries was explored by Samuel Adyo-yin, who investigated the use of charging for services in fourNigerian libraries—a federally funded university, a state fundeduniversity, a private university, and a research institute.17 Themajority (65.9 percent) of respondents favored charging forservices (such as interloans and online searches). This is in linewith a number of developments in Nigeria to enhance services

July 2004 331

in the current economic circumstances such as charges beinglevied on patients in public hospital for some services and forprescription drugs. Adeyoyin indicates that this policy ofrevenue generation is in line with government policy for theeducation sector.

More sustainable and effective solutions may be found insome of the solutions suggested for the mainstream tertiarylibrary sector across the sub-Saharan continent. These includecollaboration and resource sharing and the applications oftechnology to support these activities. Despite the difficultiesof establishing and maintaining computer networks in Africa,there are some successful initiatives bringing gains to Africanlibraries, education, and research. While noting the irony that‘‘although information is more available worldwide todaythan in any other era of human history, most of it isinaccessible in African countries,’’ Alemna and Antwi list anumber of consortia being established in the southern part ofAfrica (most often based in South Africa and dependant onSouth African library resources) and some in Ghana andKenya, with support from international aid agencies such asthe Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).However, lack of bibliographic tools that can support suchventures and lack of political will, as much as the lack offinancial resources, management expertise, and technologyinfrastructure, Alemna and Antwi note, mean that suchdevelopments are slow to materialize.

However, some significant advances have been made byhealth librarians that could provide a model for other sectors.According to Akhigbe, who summarizes current endeavors tosupport international cooperation in Africa in the health andmedical information sector, the prohibitive cost of communi-cation and the unaffordability of subscriptions to the medicalliterature means that critical new research on endemic diseasesand other diseases is not available to clinicians and medicalresearchers alike. In addition, information produced in Africaabout local health problems and initiatives is not widelyavailable due to the inadequate infrastructure, both biblio-graphic and technological.

With strong support from the World Health Organisation(WHO), the International Congress of Medical Librarians(ICML), and the International Federation of Library Associ-ations (IFLA), the African Medical Library Association hasestablished an international network, AHILA, to promotecooperation between health libraries in the region. AHILAmaintains a communication network among members andwith international colleagues, using Ahila-net to add to theexisting printed and mailed newsletters. In addition to itsinternational connections, AHILA has two internal concerns—sharing scarce resources through interlibrary cooperation anddeveloping systems for improved bibliographic control of thehealth literature produced in Africa. Against this are setproblems such as the lack of a common language, irregularpublication schedules of local journals, and the lack of trainedstaff to support such developments. Stop–start internationalfunding exacerbates problems of sustainability. Despite this,AHILA can point to gains such as Ahila-net, the development ofan African Index Medicus, regular congresses, and continuingeducation programs for health librarians.

In addition, Healthnet run by Satellife (an initiative of theWHO that is based on satellite communication networks toovercome some of the problems of lack of physical infrastruc-ture in developing countries) can enhance access to the

332 The Journal of Academic Librarianship

international journal literature and WHO reports.18 With suchICT networks in place, countries like Nigeria are better placedto take advantage of the willingness of major health sciencespublishers, including Elsevier, Blackwell Science, OxfordUniversity Press, and the British Medical Journal PublishingGroup, to permit free access to the major health sciencesliterature for subscribers accessing their journals from devel-oping countries—which includes most countries in Africa.

To readers from the developed world, despite continuingcomplaints of underresourcing and the escalating amount ofinformation to be accessed and managed, a brief glimpse ofthe problems faced by countries in Africa and the willingnessof our colleagues in Africa to tackle them with ongoing hopeand goodwill are sobering. Initiatives to support education andresearch with free access to information, from more publishersin the field of science and technology, might be possible withmore pressure from concerned academic librarians around theworld. In the meantime, may the endeavors of our colleaguesin Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa all contribute to a healthierenvironment for their tertiary and research libraries.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. Forty six percent of the population were under fifteen at January2003, the population distribution having been significantly affectedby the AIDS epidemic.

2. Carnegie Corporation of New York, Revitalizing African libraries:the challenge of a quiet crisis. Carnegie Challenge 2000. Chi-cago: Carnegie Foundation, 2000. http://www.carnegie.org/pdf/aflib.pdf. Accessed 2/02/04.

3. Ibid.4. International Africa Institute, University Libraries in Africa: a re-view of their current state and future Potential, 1997.

5. Carnegie Corporation, Revitalizing African libraries, p. 5.6. Justin Chisenga. ‘‘Global information infrastructure and the ques-tion of african content’’, in: Tatiana V. Ershova, Yuri E. Hohlov(Eds.), Libraries in the Information Society, Munchen: Saur,2002.

7. Carnegie Corporation, Revitalizing African libraries, p. 5.8. S. Gupta and D.K. Gupta, ‘‘Development of library and informa-tion science education in Africa’’, Library Science with a Slant toDocumentation and Information Studies 35 (1) 1998:59–67.

9. Nwakanma, Chukwuemeka D. ‘‘Research publications in libraryand information science (LIS) in Nigeria: publishing to thewrong audience?’’, African Journal of Library, Archives and In-formation Science 13 (2) (2003): 93–106.

10. Anyanwu, Emmanuel U. and Pearl Akanwa, Funding of Librariesin Nigeria: The Way Forward. International Information & LibraryReview 33 (4) (2001) 347–358.

11. J.C Anafulu, ‘‘Trends in the funding of academic libraries in Niger-ia’’ Paper presented at the 35th National Conference/AGM of theNigeria Library Association, Arewa House, Kaduna, 5–9 May,1997.

12. Richard Olorunsola and D.A. Idada, ‘‘Private university libra-ries in Nigeria: a comparative study’’ Research report completedat Okada: Igbinedion University Library, 2003.

13. Ibid.14. Ibid.15. There are approximately 140 Naira (NGN): US$1.00.16. Ijeoma J. Ibegbulam and Richard Olorunsola. ‘‘Restructuring aca-

demic libraries in Nigeria: issues to consider’’ Library Manage-ment 22 (8/9) 2001:381–386.

17. Samuel O. Adeyoyin. ‘‘Commercialization of library services inNigeria’’ Research report completed at Igbinedion University li-brary, Okeda, 2003.

18. http://www.healthnet.org/infoservices.php.