By Bianca Iboma-Emefu
Chairman, Conference of Chairmen and Directors of Public Libraries, Mr. Giwa Franklin, has decried the poor reading culture among the youth in Nigeria as worrisome, imploring the government to rescue the situation by developing and equipping libraries with modern facilities that would attract the youth.
Giwa said development of public library has not only suffered long time neglect but also has been poorly funded, inadequate staffing, lack of modern equipment in public libraries, non-conductive library environment, which devoid of a worthwhile recreational and online facilities, that will attract people to read for intellectual research, encourage developmental skill writing, knowledge gathering among others are parts of challenges confronting the sub sector.
According to him, the Ogun State government has introduced a new innovation which has brought complete restructuring, re-modification and re-organization into the state library to achieve its set objective for the state educational development.
He highlighted some of the steps taken by the present administration in restructuring the state library, which includes; the introduction of ICT based library with print, soft and internet facilities where people can conveniently access information without stress, cheering e-community where everybody will be computer savvy, promoting paperless library, digitalizing all books and bibliographies, creating soft links to about 100 computers system where more than 7,250 materials are being uploaded into the server for all readers across the State.
The library boss said in the area of manpower development, the staff of the state library received first of its kind training and retraining on modern library science. He disclosed that the present administration had helped in exposing the staff to major conferences and workshops, in order to increase their knowledge and skill particularly in library and human management, where some of them just concluded a specialized training on modern library development in Kano State.
Giwa, who is also the Director, Ogun State Library Board, said that the state had also embarked on complete restructuring and beautification of libraries in Ijebu-Ode and Simon Adebo in Abeokuta in accordance with global standard, while other libraries in Sagamu, Ikenne, Ilaro and Ota were not left out in the ongoing restructuring as work had been concluded to turn them around into befitting edifice.
He explained that some of them had been completely revamped with new chairsamong other core facilities, such as installation of computers to ensure full capacity, noting that for a long time, public library in the state had suffered neglect and left undeveloped by the immediate past administration, hailed Governor Abiodun’s resolve to uplift the lost glory of public Libraries across the state by making them conducive to encourage intellectual development and promote academic prowess among the young people in the state.
He added that Governor Abiodun sincere interest in developing public library led to resuscitation of counterpart funding which was last paid in 1998, saying that his administration through the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology had resolved to end poor reading culture affecting patronage of public libraries in the state through strategic implementation of laudable policies that would further make public library more attractive and conducive for intellectual recreation, academic research and socio-economic development of the state.