Public Libraries And The Development Agenda In Nigeria

Abstract

The paper examined the services of public libraries in Nigeria, including the National Library of Nigeria with a view to ascertaining which services aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union Agenda 2063. A lot of training has been carried out for librarians by many international non-governmental organizations. However, the visibility of the development work of public libraries in Nigeria is still low. For instance, while many countries have uploaded stories on IFLA Library Map of the World (LMoW), there is no story from Nigeria, in spite of the fact that a lot is being done by the public libraries. The main aims of the study were to highlight how public library services are adapting to the global development agenda and to make the services more visible in the LMoW, African Library and Information Associations and Institutions database, the Nigerian Library Association website and other networks. The IFLA questionnaire on “Collecting Stories that Matter” was adapted. All the 37 public library headquarters and the National Library of Nigeria headquarters were investigated. Data collected revealed that the most addressed SDGs were Goal 4 and Goal 8. It was also observed that many of the libraries were still operating in their comfort zones (traditional library services) and that of the three development agenda investigated, the level of awareness of the SDGs was the highest (84.2%). At the end, recommendations were made on how public libraries could better align their services to meet community needs and facilitate the development agenda.