IDENTIFYING THE “SIZZLE” IN THE LIBRARY’S PROGRAMS, SERVICES AND COLLECTIONS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1  BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

The library is the heart of education because the library is the centre of activity of any educational enterprise. School libraries contribute to the total development of teachers and students. It enlarges their knowledge and stimulates critical, imaginative and creative facilities. The development of any meaningful educational program depends on the library. Thus, the quality of the library in terms of its holdings determines the product of any socio-economic and political development. Dike (1980) applauding the gradually evolving educational practice which tends to shift emphasis from the teacher to the learner, sees in the school library as a reliable instrument for actualizing this much derived educational reform. Both library and education have not enjoyed universally accepted definition.

Professionals in the field seem to look at them from several perspectives. The early idea of a library was that of collection of books containing knowledge and information that must be chained together and preserved for consultation only. Today, the definition of the collection of the library has changed. In a very simple way, the library today can be defined as the collection of books and non-books materials arranged in an orderly manner and made accessible to users. In this information age, a library goes to include the totality of human and organized material resources available, both books and non-book forms providing and obtaining needed information. The library facilitates the use of resources by a particular user or group of users for such defined purposes as education, recreation, awareness, decision making, management, research and development.

In Dike (1993) the relationship between school libraries and education, especially the way in which the school library and its resources can contribute to the education of teachers, children and youth was well established. From the discussion, it is clear that there is an intimate, inseparable relationship between the purpose and the role envisaged for the school library and the education which is meant to support learning. She further stated that the central role of the library is inextricably tied to certain idea of educational reforms. This means that learning takes place through interaction with variety of library resources, with individuals or small groups carrying out inquiries or projects under the guidance of the teacher librarian. In that way, the role of the library becomes central. Education has been defined in many ways by different authors, Dike (1993) agreed that two themes emerged from the various definitions. Education according to her can be viewed broadly as enculturation or more narrowly as schooling.

To Olatunde L. (1985) education can be defined as almost exclusively for the satisfactory achievement of human purpose. It is the attainment of progressive non-selfish, good living in the human community; it is the wise, useful, profitable, helpful and progressive application of good knowledge, through high spiritual, moral task and physical disciplines; it is the bulk of the positive expressions which reflect on man, from all impressions on him; it is the continuous to and fro flux of actions and reactions – positive reactions between man and its surroundings in which a man and his surroundings interact taking and receiving mutually from each other; it is the overall goodness that man gives back to the environment which together with his own initiatives and intuitions, develop a man’s personality.

Fasanya (1985) says that education may be regarded as a method of leading people out of ignorance. It is a means of socializing human beings. It involves the bringing up of a child in a community and constantly training him to adjust himself to the changing world around him. It is a lifelong process. In its broadest sense, education is a process by which individual gains knowledge or insight or develops attitudes or skills.