ASSESSMENT OF PERSONNEL AND COLLECTION IN SCHOOL LIBRARIES IN SOUTH EAST NIGERIA BASED ON LIBRARIANS’ COUNCIL STANDARDS 2011.

Abstract

The study assessed the categories of personnel and collections of school libraries in south east Nigeria based on Librarians’ Registration Council of Nigeria standards. Descriptive survey research design was adopted. The area of the study is south east Nigeria. The population of the study comprises of 20 librarians in 20 school libraries: 10 federal colleges and 10 state public secondary schools. There was no sampling as the population was manageable. The instrument for data collection was observation checklist adopted from the LRCN standards and structured interviewed. The instrument was validated by three experts. The researcher personally visited the libraries to checklist the items and interviewed the librarians. The data was analysed with percentages and presented in tables. Independent t – tests was used to test the hypotheses. The findings revealed that school libraries’ personnel in south east lack professional librarians in all school libraries except in 4 federal schools namely; FGGCIM, FGCAN, FGCEN, FGGCEN. However, library assistants are available in both federal colleges and state government public school libraries. The study also revealed that majority of the federal and the state government public school libraries lacked other supportive staff except in few libraries. Findings also revealed that the collections of school libraries in both the federal colleges and state government public schools have books. However, federal school libraries fared better than the state school libraries in digitals, references, fiction and non – fiction and periodicals. It was therefore concluded that in area of personnel and collection, both the federal school libraries and state government public school libraries fail in meeting the LRCN standards. It is therefore recommended that the federal and state ministries should employ qualified librarians, and support staff in school libraries to ensure effective management. The federal and state ministries of education should provide all school libraries with comprehensive e – books, reference materials, fiction and non – fiction, audiovisual resources to enhance learning and overall effectiveness in line with LRCN standards.