The University Library as an Innovation and Knowledge Services Centre: A case from Nigeria

Abstract

Before the advent of information and knowledge driven economy, industry was the central focus for economic development of any society. However the turn of century brought about changes which placed information and knowledge at the centre of any development framework. These changes have strengthened the role of the university, and its mandate to produce and inject knowledge through research, teaching and learning. The university’s mandate places the library’s functions: to acquire, process, organize and disseminate information, at the core of the university’s foundation. New pedagogical changes arising from this change as well as mindset of the university community require the library, as the university core subsystem, to step up its operations and services. The paper is designed to showcase the approach the Library of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria (FUTO) has taken to introduce innovative knowledge services to address the new expectations of its clientele.