ASSESSMENT OF SCHOOL LIBRARIES IN SOUTH EAST NIGERIA BASED ON LRCN STANDARD 2011: FOCUS ON ACCOMODATION, FURNITURE AND EQUIPMENT.

Abstract

The study assessed the accommodation, furniture and equipment of school libraries in southeast Nigeria based on librarians’ registration Council of Nigeria standards 2011.Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The area of the study is south east, Nigeria. The population of the study was 20 librarians from 20 school libraries. Ten (10) Librarians from state public school libraries and ten (10) librarians from federal college libraries. There was no sampling because the population was manageable. The instrument for data collection was observation checklist adopted from the LRCN standards and structured interview. The instrument was validated by three experts. The data collected was analysed with percentage while t – test was used to test the hypothesis. The findings of the study revealed that accommodation in most school libraries are in line with the LRCN standards but minor deficiencies which are not in line with LRCN standards such as the provision of school library building designed with facilities for physically challenged, provision of concrete seats outside the library for light reading and discussions, security posts and sanitation. The study further revealed that furniture and equipment in both federal school and state public school libraries did not meet the LRCN standards.  Though basic furniture like book shelves, tables   and chairs are available, but items such as reading carrels, audiovisual storage, computers, scanners and book trolley are lacking. Based on the findings, the following recommendations were made: the federal and sate ministries of education should make provision of toilets, facilities for physically challenged, concrete seats outside the library for light reading and discussion, computers, scanners, audiovisual storage, book carrels.