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Aslib
PROCEEDINGS
Contents
Editorial
3
The information needs of parents
Mary Marden and David Nicholas
5-7
Exhibitions in university libraries: the Nigerian experience
9-12
S. A. Ogunrombi and G. O. Babafemi
The Intranet – the quiet ®evolution
Lord Wodehouse
13-19
The inclusive Intranet: linking into legacy systems
Bod Bater
21-24
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Exhibitions in university libraries:
the Nigerian experience
S. A. Ogunrombi
Ag. University Librarian, University Library, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, PMB 0248, Bauchi, Nigeria.
G. O. Babafemi
Librarian II, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.
Abstract
This paper presents a survey of research using a questionnaire to investigate the role of exhibitions in Nigerian
university libraries.
The study revealed that exhibitions are not taken seriously as a means of attracting both potential users in a
society with poor reading culture and more funds for library development. None of the responding university libraries
had any written policy on exhibitions nor made budgetary provisions. Between 1991 and ]995t only. 83 exhibitions
were organized, an average of 16 per academic year. The occasions attracting exhibitions were major anniversaries
such as convocation, national day, students' orientation and displays, on subjects of general interest. About 50 per cent
of the libraries hold exhibitions irregularly.
The problems associated with the effective management of library exhibitions were highlighted, while suggestions
were proffered to make exhibitions meaningful in Nigerian university libraries.
These are:
(a) exhibitions on specific library services, such as
abstracting cum indexing services and audiovisual materials;
(b) celebrations of particular 'weeks'. These types of
exhibitions include those mounted by associations and groups to mark annual events and
activities, usually lasting a week or more such as
National Library Week;
(c) displays of particular subjects that are of general
interest such as exhibitions on architecture and
art;
(d) exhibitions featuring anniversaries associated with
outstanding individuals or events, 'such as
orientation for new students, convocations,
matriculation, conferences, independence and
occasions of national and international significance.
Recurring exhibitions usually encompass, the history
and traditions of the university, acknowledgement of
important gifts and publications of faculty members.
Introduction
Exhibition has been succinctly described as "organized displays of works of art, science or industry for
stimulating public interest, promoting manufacturers,
expanding trade or illustrating the progress and
accomplishments of one or a wide variety of productive activities"1.
There are three kinds of library exhibitions: the
literary type, the museum type and the commercial
type. Literary type of exhibitions are frequently
mounted by libraries with exhibits accompanied by
scholarly annotations. The essence of commercial
exhibition is to promote the sales of exhibits; while in
the museum type exhibitions, objects are generally put
on display accompanied with descriptive annotations.
Objectives of library exhibitions
Library exhibitions are often mounted to achieve the
following objectives:
l. To create awareness about information sources and
services in the library.
2. To create demand and use for information resources
and services exhibited.
3. To create a positive attitude for the library as an
important asset of the university in the pursuance of
its objectives.
4. To communicate to the community the institution's
efforts, including achievements.
5. To enhance the status of library personnel2. Lyle
(1974)3 identified four types of occasions that are
marked with exhibitions in university libraries.
Objective of this study
Although previous students4-7 have articulated the role
of exhibitions as publicity strategy in Nigerian
university libraries, this study becomes necessary
because the previous ones were limited to specific
university libraries rather than encompassing all university libraries.
This study therefore seeks to answer the following,
questions:
9
UNIVERSITIES
YEAR
BOOK STOCK
TYPE OF
ESTABLISHED
(VOLUME)
UNIVERSITY
ABU, Zaria
OAU, Ile-Ife
1962
1962
433,401
281,885
Conventional-Federal
Univ. of Ibadan
Univ. of Lagos
1948
1962
560,000
300,000
11
Bayero Univ, Kano
Univ. of Benin
Univ. of Calabar
Univ. of Ilorin
Univ. of Jos
1975
1975
1975
1975
1975
26,000
226,917
69,400
53,346
130,000
Conventional-Federal
"
"
“
“
3rd Generation:
Univ. of Abuja
ATBU, Bauchi
Fed. Univ. of Tech., Akure
Fed. Univ. of Tech., Owerri
Fed. Univ. of Tech., Yola
Fed. Univ. of Tech., Minna
Fed. Univ. of Agric., Abeokuta
1988
1981
1981
1980
1981
1983
1988
19,000
41,000
40,000
45,000
16,944
19,387
25,413
Conventional-Federal
Sci.&Tech.-Federal
1st Generation:
2nd Generation:
“
"
“
“
Agric- Federal
Table 1: Profile of responding libraries
The desirability of library exhibitions in advertising
collections is in conformity with Rang-anathan's law
(1964)8 that highlights drawing attention to library
resources for full exploitation by users.
1. Are library exhibitions desirable?
2. For what purposes do libraries organize exhibitions?
3. How regularly do Nigerian university libraries
organize exhibitions?
4. Do Nigerian university libraries have written exhibition policies?
5. What kinds of exhibitions do the libraries mount
and how are they publicized?
Regularity of exhibitions
Though all the responding libraries (16) confirmed
that it was desirable to mount exhibitions, when asked
whether or not they held exhibitions, only ten (62 per
cent) answered in the affirm alive, while six (37 per
cent) did not for any reason mount exhibitions. As
presented in Table 2, between 1991 and 1995, a total
of 83 exhibitions were mounted, an average of 16 per
year. This revelation portends doom to the survival of
academic librarianship in Nigeria, if university
libraries cannot use exhibitions to draw the attention
of policy-makers to their importance as agents of
change and development.
The upsurge of exhibitions between 1993 and 1995
was due to continuous display of books and journals
received by most federally-controlled universities
under the auspices of the World Bank Loan to
promote optimal use of the stock. The loan was taken
by the Federal Government of Nigeria to redress the
book famine plaguing the university sector of the
Nigerian educational system since the mid-1980s.
No wonder the library profession is feeing Herculean
and daunting tasks in making the government
Methodology
The study was limited to libraries in federally controlled Nigerian universities. Twenty-two libraries
were chosen. A letter succinctly outlining the aims of
the survey and a brief questionnaire was mailed to
them.
Completed questionnaires came from 16 of the
libraries, a response rate of 72 per cent.
Data analysis
General overview:
As shown in Table 1, the 16 responding university
libraries comprise one university of agriculture with
about 26,000 volumes of monographs, five universities of technology with library collections ranging
between 19,000 and 45,000 volumes, and ten conventional universities with collection sizes of between
19,000 and 500,000.
Librarians, cognizant of the low level of library
patronage as a result of poor reading culture, even at
the tertiary level of the Nigerian educational system,
mount exhibitions to increase the number of potential
library users as well as motivate actual library users to
stick to libraries for life-long education.
10
YEAR
NO.
OF RELATIVE
EXHIBITION FREQUENCY
S
(%)
1991
10
12.05
1992
8
9.64
1993
18
21.68
1994
21
25.30
1995
26
31.33
TOTAL
83
100.00
Types of exhibitions
As revealed in Table 4, the dominant type of exhibition was the literary type (56 per cent) meant for the
promotion of library services, followed by the commercial type (25 per cent) for the exhibition of art
works and books by book sellers and -publishers,
while museum type (18 per cent) trailed last
In about one third of the university libraries,
exhibitions were mounted to publicize subjects of
particular interest, while anniversaries, such as convocations, orientation of students and National Day
accounted also for 29 per cent of occasions marked.
Surprisingly, the promotion of library services accounted for just about 18 per cent of occasions marked
with exhibitions, as opposed to the 56 per cent
recorded under exhibition distribution by type in Table
4. It is pertinent to state that even during anniversary
events, libraries promote their services.
NUMBER
RELATIVE
TYPE
Table 2: Exhibitions in Nigerian university libraries,
1991-1995
see the need for the formulation of national library and
information policy, as well as inaugurate the
Librarians' Registration Council of Nigeria, a year
after endorsing the National Registration Council for
Librarians' decree.
As shown in Table 3, of the 16 responding libraries,
nine (56 per cent) hold exhibitions irregularly (that is,
when the need arises, once in a while, when desirable
or when necessary), while five (31 per cent) and two
(6 per cent) respectively hold exhibitions annually and
quarterly. As centres of excellence for learning and
research that attract various kinds of people in pursuit
of knowledge from within and outside the university,
it behoves university libraries in Nigeria to mount
exhibitions on a regular basis.
REGULARITY NUMBER RELATIVE
OF
FREQUENCY
EXHIBITIONS
(%)
Irregularly
9
56.25
Annually
5
31.25
Quarterly
2
12.50
TOTAL
16
100.00
FREQUENCY
Promotion
of
9
library service
56,25
Commercial type 4
25.00
Museum type
3
18.75
TOTAL
16
100.00
Table 4: Distribution of exhibitions by type
Occasions marked with exhibitions Table 5 presents
the occasions marked with exhibitions in the
responding libraries.
NUMBER RELATIVE
OCCATION
FREQUENCY
(convocation.
5
National
Day,
Students'
Orientation, etc.)
Celebration
of 3
particular 'week'
Table 3: Frequency of exhibitions
Exhibition policy
None of the 20 sample libraries had any written
policy on exhibition. This accounts for why exhibitions are organized irregularly. This means that the
role of exhibitions as publicity strategy is not taken
seriously in Nigerian university libraries.
For effective exhibitions, libraries should fashion
policy guidelines as well as have standing exhibition
committees to plan ahead of time. Only one library in
a university of technology has a standing exhibitions
committee. Some of the roles of an exhibition committee are to advertise and annotate exhibits mounted
as well as review the success or failure of exhibitions
with a view to making improvement.
Displays
on
subjects
of 6
general interest
Library services 3
TOTAL
17.
29.41
17.65
35.29
17.65
100.00
Table 5: Distribution of occasions of exhibitions
xi
4. Libraries should publicize their collections by linking exhibitions to their collections and services.
Major book donations should be exhibited to promote use and spur others to emulate such gestures
by making donations too.
5. Demand for library collections can be created
through exhibitions. It therefore behoves Nigerian
university libraries to increase the number of potential patrons to their libraries by mounting
exhibitions at regular intervals in the year. Library
patronage can be increased and sustained in Nigeria,
where reading culture is low, through articulate
exhibition programmes.
6. Equipment and materials needed for mounting
exhibitions should be procured, such as exhibit
cases, display boards, table sheets (cloth), poster
paints, cardboard, book ribbons, etc,
7. A good exhibition is a pleasure to make and when it
generates interest there is satisfaction, but even the
best exhibition loses its attraction if kept too long.
Therefore, the wise exhibits librarian should remove
his exhibit at the right lime and have another one
ready to replace it as soon as possible, knowing that
exhibition is infinite, in scope and continuous in
practice.
8. Nigerian academic libraries are advised to operate
separate budgets for exhibitions to make them
regular features in our libraries,
9. Finally, the duo of the Academic and Research
Library Section of the Nigerian Library Association
and the Committee of University Librarians of
Nigerian Universities (CULNU), should formulate a
guideline on library exhibitions,
REFERENCES
1. New Encyclopedia Britannica: Micropedia. 15th
ed. Chicago: Britannica, Inc., 1975, Vol. IV, p.4.
2. RABURN, J. Public relations for a special public,
Special Libraries. 60 (10): 647, 1969,
3. LYLE, G R. The, administration of the cr library.
4th ed. New York: H W Wilson, p.274,1974.
4. OBOKO, N B. The role of university library
exhibitions in developing countries; the university of
Port Harcourt experience. Nigerbiblios 6 (3-4), p.4 J44. 1980.
5. ABEGUNDE, J A, Exhibitions in academic libraries: the experience at Ibadan university library.
Nigerbiblios 8 (2): 65-68s 1983.
6. AFOLABI, M. The role of exhibitions in publicising university libraries: a Nigerian case study African
Journal of Academic Librarianship* 4: 57-64, 1986.
7. OGUNROMBI, S A, Exhibitions in university
libraries: the. experience at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
University, Baitchi, Nigeria. Unpublished manuscript,
lip, 1993.
8. RANGANATHAN, S R, The five laws of library
science, Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1964.
Publicity of exhibitions
In response to how the exhibitions are publicized by
the few libraries that exhibit, the predominant medium
is library bulletins (35 per cent), followed closely by
the use of Library Annual Reports (23 per cent), while
Library Guide and Readers' Handbook each accounted
for 17 per cent. The predominance of library publications for advertisement of exhibitions may limit the
benefit of library exhibitions to only librarians, thus
defeating the advantage of winning more users to our
stock in trade, books. The more conventional sources,
such as print and electronic media, should be used to
attract the community at large to library exhibitions.
Problems
A number of problems are associated with the effective management of library exhibitions. Some of these
problems listed by respondents are:
1. Non-appreciation of the need for exhibitions by
libraries.
2. Lack of materials for exhibition.
3. Noise and crowd control.
4. Problems of planning.
5. Space problem.
6. Lack of a formal policy statement by university librarians who only dictate when to have exhibitions.
Discussion
An exhibition is one of the means of getting the public
to know and appreciate the contributions of different
academic programmes to the advancement of social,
economic and scientific development. In addition,
libraries also weave their own exhibitions with anniversary events in order to publicize their collections
and services. However, Nigerian university libraries
should increase the number, scope and depth of exhibitions for the promotion of their services.
The study showed glaringly that exhibitions are not
taken seriously by libraries as a potent means of
attracting more funds for library development.
Conclusion and recommendations
Exhibitions no doubt can be used by libraries to good
advantage, particularly as publicity strategies.
Nigerian university libraries should therefore take
advantage of using exhibitions as potent public relations strategy. To redress the dismal performance of
libraries in the area of exhibition, the following
recommendations are prescribed:
1. Libraries should prepare comprehensive exhibition
guidelines for the use of exhibitors. The need for
well thought out exhibition techniques needs to be
clearly spelt out.
2. It is necessary to have trained exhibits librarians to
occupy official positions in our university libraries.
An exhibit librarian must be an artist with the
creative ability to construct exhibitions with logical
plans. As a specialist in library work, when he or
she performs his or her task faithfully, he or she has
a talent for creating timely interest in the resources
around him or her.
3. Nigerian library schools should fashion curricula for
the training of exhibits librarians,
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