CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
This report is all about my personal experience in the industrial training which I did in Obafemi Awolowo Library, College of Education, Nsukka, Agu Echara Campus from (18th September to 18th October, 2017).
Industrial Training (I.T.) is a practical aspect of what has been taught in the lecture room. The aim of students’ Industrial Training is to have a work to develop hands-on-work experience in a certain occupational field. It was introduced by some of the departments within the university to help students course of study. Places for industrial training vary but it depends on ones field of study. This means a place the student should do the training. It also requires a job specification that would guide the institutional supervisors and I.T. coordinators in the placement of students. Industrial Training exposes students to the expected qualities and presents a potential for an offer of full time employment.
In department of Library and Information Science, the duration of industrial training for master students is one month i.e. (4 Weeks). This is a good measure to determine the practical competence of students and also helps to develop their professional work habit. So, industrial attachment is a special opportunity for students to learn or have an idea of the nature of work in their field of study.
Historical Background of Obafemi Awolowo Library, College of Education, Nsukka, Agu Echara Campus
Obafemi Awolowo Library, College of Education, Nsukka was established in 2007 alongside the school by two friends (Dr, Ugwuerua Emmanuel JP and Dr. Origo Bonaventure). It is located at Agu Echara, Nsukka in Enugu State with serene and beautiful weather, characteristics of the green hills of Nsukka; that is very conducive for learning. It is a small library compared to Nnamdi Azikiwe Library with a relatively large reading room and other small sections/units. It was accredited by the National Commission for College of Education (NCCE). The library is built and maintained by the private college of education and therefore, not as standard as federal or state college of education.
According to Mr. Ugwoke T.S., he has been the College Librarian since 2007 till date with two (2) other supporting staff. The Library opens from Monday to Friday, 8am-4pm daily. It was named Obafemi Awolowo Library to show that the library is open to everyone, no matter where he or she comes from. Once you identify with the library; you are free to access their resources. For more information concerning the school, you can visit the college website
CHAPTER TWO
Aims and Objectives of the Library
The major objective of building the library was to serve the students and lecturers and also to promote teaching, learning and research. In addition, the library was built in order to support the general objectives of The College of Education, Nsukka (TCEN) which include:
- To produce efficient and effective professional teachers with diversified teaching strategies, making the child the center of the learning experiences rather than passive listeners in class;
- To enable students demonstrate sound practical knowledge, skills and attitudes;
- To demonstrate professional proficiency for teaching in primary and junior secondary schools and preparing students for academic pursuit in higher institutions or to become self-employed after school;
- To produce teachers who will be the vanguards of poverty eradication by producing pupils/students who will be job-creators rather than job-seekers.
Sections Available in the Library
Although, Obafemi Awolowo Library does not have separate rooms for each sections of the library, the librarians there still carry-out the major duties of the library as expected. Such duties include: acquisition, cataloguing, circulation, reference services, ICTs and others except children section. There is no place for children in that library.
Acquisition Section
I learnt that acquisition section is the first place materials coming into the library are kept. The materials can be secured through gifts, purchase, subscription or exchange. The major duty of acquisition librarian is the acquisition and pre-processing of all kinds of relevant information materials for the library.
The following files are kept and maintained in the acquisition section: want file, serials check-in file and accession register file. This section is in charge of ordering, receiving and claiming of information materials for the library.
According to Mr. Ugwoke, T. S. the processes involved in acquisition include; request processing, bibliographic verification and ordering. The ordering process is of three types namely: firm order (i.e. an authority to supply), standing order (i.e. an authority to keep supplying until the order is cancelled, this is mostly used for serials publication), and finally, the blanket order (i.e. this involves making a request without looking at the actual materials). He also explained to me and made me to understand essence of bibliographic verification in the acquisition section. He said that it is necessary in order to avoid the following errors: incomplete information in the materials ordered, variation in the spelling of author’s name, choice of main entry, correctness of the data supplied in the request and also wrong edition and imperfect copies.
He also taught me that when library materials ordered for arrive, the following should be done;
- Cross-checking: This is done to check if what was ordered tally with what was supplied. We also check to know whether the books are in order because some of the books damage on the way before arrival.
- Stamping: After checking of books, stamping follows. There are appropriate pages meant for it but each library chooses the pages that would be suitable for them. According to him, Obafemi Awolowo Library appends its stamp on the following pages: imprint, the security page (25), and any other place. We can also stamp at the top and bottom edges of the book.
- Accessioning: This means giving accession number to each book. It is done with a special machine and no two materials have the same accession number in the library.
- Record: This means entering the particulars of each book in a 2×5 paper size. The particulars include: author, title, place of publication, publisher, date of publication, price etc.
Furthermore, I learnt from Mr. Ugwoke, T. S. that the acquisition section is in charge of provision and maintenance of up-to-date selection and order tools appropriate to the needs of the library which include: publishers’ catalogue, trade bibliographies, announcement, books in print etc. These tools are used to advertise or create awareness of what is available with the publishers. The books in print contain the list of publishers, their addresses, e-mail and phone number.
Process of Acquisition in Obafemi Awolowo Library
Purchase: According to Mr. Ugwoke, T. S., whenever the library wants to acquire information materials, the Librarian will send the selection tools to the faculties and departments asking them to suggest information materials that would be relevant to them. After the identification and selection of the relevant materials, he will gather them and prepare a list of best materials to be purchased. He will present the list to the management who will approve the money that will be used to buy the items. The Librarian will then order for the materials or go and buy them depending on the amount of money that was approved.
Donation: The library gets books from philanthropists who are willing to donate their personal information materials to the school. Likewise, the school mandates every final year student to donate at least one textbook relevant to his/her subject area/department before graduation.
Gift & Exchange: The library engages in inter-library exchange with other libraries such as Ihe-Amufu College of Education library and others.
When these books get to the library, the acquisition Librarian cross-checks, records, accession and stamp them. He stamps verso page, the security page (25) and any other part of the book. After these processes, the materials would be arranged and forwarded to the cataloguing department.
Cataloguing Section
When we reported to the cataloguing section, Mr. Michael Omeje (The Chief Librarian) taught us the duties of cataloguing section. According to him, Cataloguing section in the library is in-charge of organizing the library materials for users to have access to them. They receive books that have been partly processed from the acquisition section. In cataloguing section, there are two major stages involved in cataloguing books, namely: Descriptive and Subject cataloguing.
- Descriptive Cataloguing – This is a process of pointing out/ systematic description of the physical attributes of library materials as an item in a collection which make it different from other items in a collection. It is also known as the preliminary cataloguing because it precedes the subject cataloguing and actual classification of the materials.
- Subject cataloguing – This is a process of finding out the intellectual contents of books or information materials. This stage of cataloguing is concerned with the assignment of subject to an item in a collection using the Standard Subject Heading List in the library. This is done by a Librarian because it requires professional techniques.
We only practiced the preliminary cataloguing during this IT program using the cataloguing slip/worksheet that was available in the library. The bibliographic details that are entered into the worksheet include: the title, parallel title, author or editor, edition, imprint, ISBN, pagination, binding etc. According to him, the worksheet was formatted using the University of Nigeria pattern. He said that the cataloguer is not expected to manufacture any information by himself but should just provide the details that are available in the information material that he is cataloguing. After the preliminary cataloguing, the Librarian will move the books to Nnamdi Azikiwe Library for subject cataloguing because the library (Obafemi Awolowo Library) does not have Standard Subject Heading List. It is from the subject cataloguing that call number is assigned to the information materials.
Circulation Section
These are what I learnt from Mr. Ugwoke T.S. about circulation section. He said that the routine functions of the circulation section include:
- Shelving and shelf reading every morning
- Registration of all categories of users both internal and external users.
- Charging and discharging of materials
- Clearance of users especially the graduating students to ensure that they have donated their copy of textbook.
- Compilation of debtors list at the end of every academic section
- Keeping of statistics such as users’ statistics, loan or borrowers’ statistics, statistics of lost materials, lost and replacement of library cards etc.
Students are allowed to borrow some books for one month and renew them as many times as possible.
Reference Section
This section is headed by a professional Librarian in the person of Mr. Ugwu Donatus. He gave us general orientation on the operation of this unit. We were exposed to various kinds of reference materials which include:Dictionaries, Manuals, Bibliographies, Yearbooks, Maps, Atlases, Guidebooks, Gazettes, Directories, Encyclopedia etc. The section stores, organizes, and disseminates information for easy retrieval. Materials in this section of the library are to be consulted from time to time and the job of the reference librarian is to give accurate information to the users. In general sense, reference materials are not meant to be borrowed by the users rather, they are specifically meant to be consulted for specific item of information.
According to the American Library Association Glossary of Library Terms; A reference book/material is a book designed by its arrangement and treatment to be consulted for definite item of information rather than to be read consecutively. In order words, a reference material is one published primarily for consultation, rather than continuous reading. From the forgoing, certain characteristics of reference materials emerge thus:
- Reference materials are deliberately arranged to be consulted with ease.
- They are arranged and treated to be consulted for a specific item of information
- They are not to be read cover to cover
- They are consulted more frequently than books
- They are usually arranged as separate collection in the library
- Their use is restricted to the library. i.e. they are not given out on loan.
- The call number of a reference material in the library is marked with the letter “R” indicating that it is a reference material.
The following services are carried out in this section of the library;
- Answering readers’ queries at the reference desk
- User education
- Compilation of book list and bibliography
- Inter-Library lending
- Current awareness services (CAS)
He said that a Reference Librarian should always be at alert and ready to help a user with reference queries whenever he/she comes. The Librarian can do this by writing out the frequently asked questions in a register and getting the materials that answer such questions in handy.
Serial Section
According to Mr. Ugwoke T.S, all the processes that happen from acquisition to circulation happen within the serial section in the sense that the serial Librarian selects the serial materials and order for them. When the materials arrive, he or they cross-check the materials and stamp them.
Some operate open and close system. Open system is when users are allowed to go and retrieve materials from the shelf on their own while a close system is when a librarian mans the place in such a way that users make request of what they want and the librarian assists them to retrieve the material. In this case, users are not allowed to go to the shelf to access information materials. I learnt that serial materials are materials that come in successive part and that are meant to continue. Examples of serial publication include; Journals, News papers, Magazines etc.
ICT Unit
Obafemi Awolowo Library has a small unit containing computers, printers, desktops and other ICT equipment meant to serve the users and enable them access online information resources.
CHAPTER THREE
Challenges Facing the Library
This chapter tries to explore the challenges facing the library and my suggested solutions during the industrial training. Generally, given the fact that the library is owned and maintained by a private institution, the fund available for the running cost of the library such as buying books, comfortable seats, paying staff and providing security is often not sufficient. The library can only purchase a limited amount of information materials depending on the amount approved by the management. Other specific challenges include:
- Insufficient shelves and reading spaces.
- Lack of comfortable seats to enable readers study for a long time.
- Few staff members managing the library.
- Some of their information materials are outdated.
- Few of their books are torn and worn out.
- Lack of tools for subject cataloguing such as Standard Subject Heading List.
- Absent of online public access catalogue (OPAC).
- Insufficient computers and other ICT equipment to serve the users.
- Lack of environmental control technologies to preserve the books and computers.
- No free Wi-Fi to enable students browse freely.
Solutions Recommended
I suggest the following solutions in tackling the challenges facing this library. First, the school authority should give more attention to the library by allocating more funds to it during each year’s budget. This will equip the library and provide necessary information resources meant to support the school in achieving its main objectives of teaching, learning and research. Other solutions include:
- The librarians should buy more shelves and create more reading spaces to accommodate the readers.
- They should provide more comfortable seats to encourage students use the library.
- School authority should employ more Librarians and remunerate them well.
- Outdated information materials should be replaced
- Torn or worn out books should be taking to bindery for binding.
- The library should buy their own cataloguing tools to save the Librarians the stress of going to Nnamdi Azikiwe Library for subject cataloguing.
- They should try and create online public access catalogue (OPAC) to make their resources more visible and accessible.
- The school should provide more functional computers and other audio-visual materials to the library
- Environmental control technologies such as fans, air conditioners (AC), etc should be provided in the library to preserve the information materials and library equipment.
- The school should provide free Wi-Fi especially in the library to attract users to the library.
Summary / conclusion
The aim of industrial training (IT) is to expose students to the practical aspect of their field or area of studies to augment the theoretical parts they have been taught or being taught in the class room. It also enables the students to familiarize themselves with the working environment if eventually get employed in that field after graduation. My one Month I.T. in Obafemi Awolowo Library helped me to learn a lot about practical Librarianship especially the preliminary cataloguing.
