PROVISION AND USE OF INFORMATION RESOURCES AND SERVICES IN LIBRARIES FOR LEGISLATION IN HOUSES OF ASSEMBLY OF NORTH-CENTRAL STATES, NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1         Background to the Study

Information is that which is transmitted by the act or process of communication it may be a message, a signal, ora stimuli Olabode(2008). It assumed a response in the receiving organism and therefore poses response potential. Despite the daily growth of information and the problems associated with it the need for it keeps on increasing. This is because information is regarded as a basic tool for researchers, politicians, teachers, students and those in business. Olabode(2008) observe that: the need for information as a resource becomes more apparent when information is understood to mean facts, data, opinion, and the like including but revealed in the results of the study research and scholarship in all fields of knowledge. Information has become a critical element in life and society. It is an important part of development. In a developing legislative like Nigeria, information in all aspects of life need to be collected to assist legislators in their day to day management process. The legislators need as much information as it can get to aid its legislative process.

Making information sources readily available and accessible to legislators couldsignificantly increase the effectiveness in making laws for peace and order which are vital to development efforts. Sada (2012) noted that … key to an effective legislature is the knowledge and information that permit it to make informed decisions on specific issues and to play active role in the policy making process of the nation. Library services are the principal sources for meeting the information needs of the parliamentarians of today and future. To make informed decisions on a myriad of complex policy issues, legislators need authoritative information on a timely basis.

Legislative libraries in Nigeria, as observed in Gama (2012) have been part and parcel of institutional framework for law making. There has always been National Assembly Library as well as State Assembly Libraries with any emerging civilian dispensation. The National Assembly‟s Library took its root from the then general government library located in the Secretariat at Marina, Lagos. Its rich collection consisted of a large stock of central government publications and the papers of the old legislative council which was the central law making body up to the year 1951.Legislative libraries therefore serve as windows through which legislators could see and acquire/access information resources and services which facilitate legislative processes in houses of assembly.

Realizing the nature of the responsibilities of legislators, which is primarily law making as well as the role information could play in facilitating their responsibilities, today, virtually all parliaments world over have libraries attached to them with the primary function of assisting and supporting the law makers to carry out their pyramid functions of making decisions for the betterment of the society through the provision of information resources and services.

PROVISION AND USE OF INFORMATION RESOURCES AND SERVICES IN LIBRARIES FOR LEGISLATION IN HOUSES OF ASSEMBLY OF NORTH-CENTRAL STATES, NIGERIA