collections development in academic libraries: the case of nigerian university libraries

ht. Libr. Rev. (1991) 23, 121-134

Collections Development in Academic Libraries: the Case of Nigerian University Libraries OKECHUKWU M. OKORO*

A library collection includes books and serials, periodicals, documents, dissertations, maps, etc., and non-book materials such as recordings, photographs, pictures, slides, microcards, etc.’ In other words, it is the sum total of library materials that make up the holdings of a particular library. Building a collection may occasionally involve the selection and acquisition of these materials ab in&o, but in most cases it is likely to mean the planned, systematic development of an already existing collection.

It is an accepted aphorism that “no modern society can function without an intensive use of books”. There is no under-playing the importance of information that books carry, for as Ibuen put it,

“Information can be regarded as data or symbols which can be physically recognized and processed, either by human or machine. Information is a renewable resource, it is not depleted once applied, but remains available for further use elsewhere.“’

At the right time and in the hands of the right people, information can help to ensure the effective use of other resources. According to the IDRC report ( 1986), it is the “master resource of our time, the chief raw material and principal product ofmodern economies”. Information is the focal point of several activities. As Ting put it,3 unfortunately, information is all too often treated by all of us as the air we breathe. It is omnipresent, accepted and relied upon, but seldom examined too closely.

It is a recognized stipulation that a university library’s collection should be of sufficient size and scope to support the university’s total instructional needs and to facilitate the research programmes. The university library’s collection shall not only be developed within the terms of explicit and detailed policies, but shall contain all the varied forms of recorded knowledge.4 Even though these stipulations are the model for such libraries, and are in fact, guiding principles for col-

*Assistant Librarian, Centre for IGBO Studies, ho State University, P M B 2000, Okigwe, Nigeria.

00’S7837/91/020121+ 14 $03.00/O c) 199 1 Academic Press Limited

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lections development in several countries, it is, more or less, a mirage in Nigeria.

Nigeria is not only a preliterate society, it is also saddled with the misfortune of a depressed economy. The implications of such a harsh economy on collections development in university libraries become those of “the parent not being able to feed the child”. This paper argues that the problems faced in developing Nigeria’s university libraries’ collections are, more often than not, financial. This paper discusses collections development, highlighting arguments for and against this concept; collections development in Nigerian university libraries; means of developing library collections; and the problems and prospects.

TERMS USED IN THIS PAPER

In this paper, collections development is used to mean, not only the planned, systematic development of an already existing collection, but also includes the selection and acquisition of these materials ab initio.

Here also, the term “academic libraries” is used in the general sense in which it is used in librarianship to mean college and university libraries. For the scope of our discussion, we will restrict ourselves to the university libraries only, although references to academic libraries do not necessarily exclude college libraries.

COLLECTIONS DEVELOPMENT: THE STATE OF THE ARGUMENT

James Thompson wrote (not about Nigeria),

“the problems may have started with inflation, and may still have a lot to do with inflation, but the cuts which are going to hurt most in the next two to three years are directly related to the screwing-down by the government, for economic and political reasons, of the expansion of high education. The result in my opinion is that this country is now well on the road to becoming a kind of backwater, intel- lectually and academically, starved of all sorts of research facilities, including library materials”.’

What could therefore have started as a mini opera, has degenerated into a macabre occurrence. The gate to the now familiar “trigger effect” has opened as simply as that.

Watson’ believes the concept of the steady-state library is not an old one, but its development reflects a significant shift away from the values espoused by librarians to those stressed by funding bodies and politicians. The concept of the steady-state library thus attempts to resolve three basic dilemmas currently confronting academic libraries

COLLECTIONS DEVELOPMENT IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES 123

and the funding bodies which support their development-the need to cut costs, the need to place some limits on the indefinite expansion of academic libraries and the need to improve performance rates (that is, the ability of libraries to provide, quickly and easily, the material the patrons require). This idea of steady-state assumes that there is a point beyond which libraries ought not to be allowed to grow in overall size, and that this is not merely an economic necessity but a desirable planning constraint. Another assumption concerns “weeding” of the collection and the application of “use” criteria. The development of this concept of steady-state came in April, 1976, when the University Grants Committee released the report of its Working Party on Capital Provision for Libraries (the Atkinson Report).

The Atkinson Report,7 even though it appeared in 1976 failed, or refused, to consider some points embodied in the Parry Report* ( 1967) which came nine years before. Parry was cautious on the matter and wrote that, “the inevitable expansion of their libraries presents universities with one of their most difficult problems”. The presence of the word “inevitable” was significant; the steady-state library played no part in their thinking. Indeed even in the steady-state university or as the report puts it “even in a numerically static institution, the library will continue to grow as more and more materials of scholarly interest pour off the world’s presses. Maurice Line,g though not supporting the steady-state option opines that libraries needed some restrictions on their expansion and that librarians needed to change their attitudes.

This had been the view of Donald Urquhart” as far back as 1967 while speaking at a conference on research into library services in higher education. It was Urquhart’s paper which influenced Brian Enright” to change his own attitudes, already expressed in his chapter in the Urquhart Festchrift “Essays on information and libraries”, under the title “Biblioclothanasia” (a library application of the condition of“oclo- thanasia”: death by overcrowding). His criticism of what he sees as the traditional university is scathing. “A librarian who appears to advocate stock control is likely to be branded an enemy of books, a bibliothecal quisling.. . .“. There is almost a divine right of growth for libraries which appears to make any apology unnecessary and questioning almost barbaric and indecent. He accepts that it “would clearly be a disaster if the concept of stock control was used (or abused) in a way which weakened libraries and the contribution they can make to the community”. He further accepts that stock control or “de-acquisition”, would be “as costly (if not more so) than the process of acquisition itself ‘. Nevertheless, he argues that “library obesity creates a ‘negative browsing’ situation and an unhelpful collection bias”. The notion of a steady-state library, no matter the embellishments, does not hold water

124 OKECHUKWI! M. OKORO

to librarians who are united in their professional belief that “the library is a growing organism”.*

Another import in the case of argument on collections development is what is known as the “value” or “demand” theory. In an article about modern theory, Bill Katz contends, “I firmly believe that those who build a collection only on the basis of demand are dead wrong, and a trifle muddled in their approach to what libraries are all about”.” Ulveling wrote, “there are cheap worthless novels that have no place in a library even if they achieve ‘best seller’ standing’.‘” Another writer declares, “the proper business of the library is with the serious reader . . . ‘Serious’ reading is any that improves one’s stock of knowledge, enlarges one’s horizons, or improves one’s values.“14 Others have expressed the value theory by insisting that the library has responsibility for improving the reading tastes of patrons and of presenting them with information they may not otherwise choose to search out.

The other side of the argument, however, is also persuasive. As far back as 1984, the librarian of the St. Louis Public Library stated his position simply: “In the first place, we try to provide the books people want-not those we think they ought to read.“15 Monroe wrote, “bluntly, if there is no demand, there is no service” and went on to state that a library may educate its readers’ demands, but that education is manipulation.‘” In fact these people ask the following questions: who is the librarian to impose his tastes of what is best for the citizens who support the library? Is he omniscient, that he may dictate what people need? In support of this demand theory, we would look at the widely publicized quote of Borges:

“I tell my students that if you begin a book, if at the end of fifteen or twenty pages you feel that the book is a task to you, lay the book and lay that author aside for a time because it won’t do you any good.“”

The implication of this position is evident. It follows that even what a librarian may call low-quality reading materials serve a useful purpose. Thus, to deny readers such pleasures is like expecting a human being to be born as a 180-pound heavyweight rather than as an infant who will grow up slowly.

The above was incorporated to highlight the state of the argument, i.e. whether or not libraries should be allowed to grow and grow.

COLLECTIONS DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Without recourse to a redefinition of collections development or what constitutes a university library, it might be pertinent to emphasize here

* Ranganathan, S. R. An Indian librarian and the author of “Colon Classification” used that axiom as the fifth law of librarianship.


that there are several classes of universities in the Nigerian nation. There are the “first generation” universities (which includes the University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, etc.). The “second generation” universities (which includes University of Benin, University of Port Harcourt, etc.); and what might be classified as the “third generation” universities (this includes the state universities and the universities of technology). It might be argued that a fourth generation (those of agriculture) has emerged. The reason for stating this fact is that since these universities were established at different times, it has affected their collections.

However, these Nigerian universities themselves have established their own priorities at the local level, especially with respect to areas of specialization and extent of emphasis. There is, for instance, strong emphasis on law, administration and social studies in the University of Lagos; general administrators, executives and managers in commerce, industry and government, as well as specialists such as accountants, economists and bankers generally originate from here. The University of Benin started off as a technological university and, therefore has a bias toward applied sciences. The Universities of Ibadan, Ife and Nigeria stress agriculture at degree level, while Universities of Ife, Nigeria and Ahmadu Bello University offer public administration at the sub-degree level. In addition, Ahmadu Bello University stresses Architecture and Engineering at the degree level. One significant thread that runs through all Nigerian universities is their strong emphasis on African studies. For instance, each of the older Nigerian universities has an Institute of African Studies which is primarily a centre of research and advanced facilities to attract scholars in African Studies.lR But the main handicap of these libraries is the inadequacy of books.

Tamuno’” wrote that “twice in the recent past, the Federal Govern- ment has had to address itself to the severe shortage of books and other reading materials needed for the support of the country’s educational programmes, particularly at the tertiary level”. In order to find solutions to the crisis, a task force comprising all the sectors involved in the book trade was set up in 1985. The solutions proffered have not in any way halted the crisis, since the book situation did not improve, “but grew steadily worse”.” The deteriorating book situation, particularly in the university libraries, gave educational planners and policy makers sufficient cause for concern to warrant the setting up of another panel. Addressing the inaugural meeting of the Panel on National Book Policy, in September 1987, the Minister of Education declared that “much more still needed to be done, for the country’s higher institutions”.”

In its report, the members were united in the conclusion that Nigeria

126 OKECHIJKWI: M. OKGRO

could not meet its book requirements from its internal resources and they recommended an interim measure of book importation for 5 years. It would appear that, in reality, this recommendation was never implemented. This is only one aspect of the problem, since anybody can bear witness to the unbelievably high costs of books. It was suc- cinctly put by the African Guardian: “millions of books are warming the walls because people cannot afford them, due to high prices”.” It was further stated that, “acquisition of materials for academic libraries have been beleaguered by many difficulties.. . not to talk of the dwindling financial resources available to the parent institution.. . The current SAP and SFEM conditions have brought the harrowing conditions to a state of permanent coma”.23

This is more or less a summary of the state of collections development in Nigerian University libraries. Tamuno painted a gloomy picture of the situation when she said, “in one of the nation’s oldest universities subscription for the current year stands at 3 17 titles. The drop from the pre-SAP intake of 6130 was considerable”.‘4 Many academic libraries in Nigeria have not acquired much in the way of reading materials in the past 2 or 3 years as journal subscriptions and monograph prices skyrocketed in the wake of the Naira adjustment.

This brings us to the National Universities Commission (NUC) stipulation that libraries should be given 5oj, of the total university budget. It is no secret that during the last 5 years, no library has received the NUC specified percentage (perhaps with the exception of Bayer0 University Library, Kano, which gets between 7-8% of their total university budget). In Imo State University for instance, the library does not benefit from such an allowance. Of the W9.5 million university budget in 1988, nothing was made available to the library for that year. That year, the 941 items received were acquired with money approved in 1986.

Collections development in most university libraries in Nigeria is nothing to write home about. The Imo State University Library has only 18045 volumes collected during the years that it has been open: 198 1 ( 1493 volumes) ; 1982 (2922 volumes) ; 1983 ( 1948 volumes) ; 1984 (1363 volumes); 1985 (4028 volumes); 1986 (1316 volumes); 1987 (2722 volumes); 1988 (941 volumes); 1989 (1310 volumes).28 This shows that during the 9 years since its inception, it has been able to acquire, on the average, about 2004.9 volumes (11 .l 1%). This figure is ridiculous when compared with the University of Ibadan journal titles subscription of 6130 yearly, or in a world where millions of volumes of books and other information materials are published annually.

Perhaps with the exception of the University of Ibadan, which employed a librarian for a year before the University College was


opened, universities have made little or no effort to establish a worth- while library before starting their academic programmes. The end- result is that these libraries fail to provide adequately for the users. Imo State University Library, for instance, is pitiable as there are no proper provisions for post-graduate studies, sandwich programmes, and the horde of courses in education. Be that as it may, one is bound to ask what options lie open for librarians in the face of non-compliance in the allocation of the NUC prescribed 5% of the total university budget to the library?

Most librarians have engaged themselves in various activities geared towards attracting donations. For instance, Oyeoku26 received about 35 cartons of books, valued at about $8000 free-of-charge, through his personal connections with Michigan State University. The United States Information Service (USIS) in collaboration with Emerson Elec- trical Company made donations of books in chemistry, food science, etc., valued at $20000. In 1983, Chief W. I. Onyejiaka made a donation of about 4000 law books. Also, most of the books belonging to the former Imo State House of Assembly were willed to the library. The British Council has donated books in English and chemical engineering. Oyeoku is planning a “massive book-injection programme” which, it is hoped, will come to fruition in 1991. Under this scheme, the university library will receive books from individuals, publishers, libraries, and so on (both in Nigeria and abroad), without fee.

Although these can serve, at least for now, as alternative sources in collections development, it in no way solves the problems of university libraries. As Oyeoku put it, “For a university to have credibility, it has to develop its library and laboratory.“27 May Caesar’s lack of caution remind us of the need for it. Similarly, may our lack of a proper collections development programme always remind us of the need for one.

MEANSOFDEVELOPING LIBRARY COLLECTIONS

It is not within the ambition of this paper to delve into the history of the means of developing library collections, thus they will be discussed as briefly, though clearly, as possible. It must be realized that this list is not in any way exhaustive. The means include:

(a) Weeding. The English word “weed” was first and foremost applied to the field of agriculture where it was used to mean “a plant growing where it is not wanted”. By the now familiar terminology transfer, it was applied in library and information studies to mean the removal of unwanted or little-used books from the librarv shelves. The

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fact is that many libraries are so full that new books simply cannot be crowded onto the shelves, so some have to be discarded.2R Weeding is a poor word for this process, since it implies that these books were unwanted in the first place. The British term “thinning”‘” suggests removing the less healthy so that the better works can have a chance to stand out and be used. The problem here is that in Nigerian university libraries, weeding, ifdone at all, is very skeletal. In Imo State University Library, the concept is not considered important. In fact, weeding has not been carried out since the library started.

(b) Collection evaluation. Evaluation means, “to determine the value of something”.30 The usefulness of any collection can be deter- mined by looking at how well the library satisfies its patrons’ or users’ needs. In the words of Okoro, “an elegant library building is a white elephant unless it houses materials appropriate for its users”, “a soph- isticated system for information retrieval is pointless if it affords access to the wrong documents”, “ an impressive structure ofstaff management is a luxury unless it organizes staff in a way which facilitates the library’s main purpose”.” These are only reminders of the importance of collections evaluation. Academic library evaluation occurs in three ways:32 (i) as part of an accreditation procedure; (ii) as a survey by an outside consultant; and (iii) as an in-house self-evaluation.

Eva.luation of collections in libraries has always been a difficult task. The primary reason is that there are no quantitative measures of output in which librarians have great confidence. At Imo State University, no evaluation of the collection has been carried out. The reasons for this include the fact that the library collection is not large enough to evaluate. Thus collection evaluation work will be a wasteful exercise; the present collection was selected very cautiously, making it unnecessary to evaluate a “life” collection.

However, it is proper to mention that there are five suggested ways by which a library collection can be evaluated. They are:

(4 compilation of various in-house statistics; (ii) checking of lists, catalogues and bibliographies;

(iii) obtaining the opinions of regular library users; (iv) direct observation of the collection; and (v) the application of standards.

(c) Co-operation-Acquisition and storage. Acquisition as we all are aware, is the procurement of selected materials, while storage is the proper preservation of acquired materials so that they can stand the test of time. In Nigerian university libraries, this is very important, and if properly explored will help the libraries to build their collections. This should be done in a spirit of sharing and encompasses the concept


of interdependence among libraries. There is no concrete evidence that university libraries in Nigeria are engaged in such co-operative schemes.

(d) Exchange and redistribution programmes. In librarianship, these words stand for just what they mean in common usage; In exchange programmes, libraries may establish a give-and-take relation- ship whereby the one provides another with what the other needs, and vice versa. Redistribution is a collective scheme whereby libraries pool their resources and agree to distribute items on a worked-out plan. The working dictum behind exchange and redistribution programmes is that of the interdependency of libraries. In other words, the “no man is an island” maxim becomes an accepted feature in librarianship because no library, no matter the size or finances, can acquire all the items its users require.

PROBLEMS OF COLLECTIONS DEVELOPMENT

All along, we have looked at the collections development phenomenon in academic libraries. There are bound to be inhibitory factors that impede this activity especially in a depressed economy like that of Nigeria. These problems include:

(a) Finance. As Afre (1983) put it: “Finance is the lifeblood of any service. “33 Nigeria is a developing nation with not only a low per capita income but with huge external debts. The situation is not helped by the high illiteracy rate. The sum-total of these handicaps is that people do not have the reading habits necessary for effective library development. Libraries are thus starved of vital funds that should be used in developing their collections. Needless to say this problem has now become perennial and may linger for sometime to come. As we observed earlier, this is a biting problem in the Imo State University Library.

(b) Foreign exchange control regulations (government policies). What can be said here is that the foreign exchange control regulations of Nigeria, which have been subject to constant changes, modifications and amendments since the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War in July 1967, have been a constant headache to the Nigerian librarian, especially the university librarian. On account of the large scale abuses and malpractices that resulted from the short-lived liberalization of the foreign exchange regulations in 1974, the Federal Government had to introduce the Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme, effective from January, 1979, to check malpractices. The implementation of the scheme under which most imports were to be inspected before shipment and which was again amended in May 1982, requires that a Nigerian

130 OKECHUKWIJ M. OKORO

importer of any commodity, including books, from overseas must obtain the prior approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria before the despatch of the goods either by parcel post or by sea/air freight to Nigeria. When the scheme was first introduced in 1979, any consignment worth #lOOOO (C&F) and b 1 e ow was granted exemption from pre-shipment inspection.

This rule was abrogated when government granted books, spare parts and raw materials total exemption from pre-shipment inspection in April 1981. This exemption was rescinded in March 1982, and as of May 1982, only consignments worth I%5000 and below can be exempted from pre-shipment inspection. This is what the inglorious “Form M” was all about. The implication of this hard-line stance on information materials shows the degree to which an unrealistic and unreasonable government policy can affect collections development. No sooner was this policy lifted, and librarians and lovers of books breathed a sigh of relief, than the government introduced a more stringent policy aimed towards economic recovery, namely the Second-Tier Foreign Exchange Market (SFEM), as part of its Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP).

In what way does this affect books? Because the Naira is not only floating but has an unbelievably unfavourable exchange rate against other world currencies (up to fQ10.00 to $l.OO), libraries can no longer afford to buy books, since nearly 70% are bought from outside. It is as bad as ever in the face of unfavourable government policies.

(c) Inadequate bibliographic tools. The problem of bibliographic control is as ancient as the written word. This is one of the most important areas in which man has been exercising his power, that is, how to control publications of all kinds that contain information. The traditional method of exercising power over recorded knowledge was by the simple process of compiling history publications existing within a period of time. Later, with the “literature explosion” or the “literature avalanche”, brought by the invention of the printing press, came the new demand for information in bibliographic compilations. More atten- tion was paid to bibliographic compilations in subject areas, as these proved more useful because of their comprehensive coverage.

These are indeed noble endeavours, but the question remains: how adequate are these bibliographic tools? It is true that these compilations are not readily available in all Nigerian university libraries, and when they are, the frequency at which they are bought can be anything but commendable. The problem here is that librarians in academic libraries do not always have statistics on the world publishing output, which limits their knowledge of such works, thus inhibiting collections development.


(d) Ideological factors. Closely related to the problem ofgovernment policy is the ideological factor. By ideology I mean total belief in a system and acceptance of its philosophies. It does not matter whether the acceptance is across the board; what is important is whether the upholders of such ideology wield enough political influence. Though collections development in Nigerian university libraries enjoys a “rela- tive” peace, there is no doubt that the government underpins collection development efforts by conceding to certain ideological factors. The book The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, for instance, has been banned in Nigeria for ideological reasons, even though Nigeria is not strictly a Moslem state, but because the powers that be, hold Moslem ideologies in high esteem, The librarian under this kind of ideologically “mad” and “hammer” government loses out in his bid to develop effectively an all-round collection, i.e. one that will contain books on all sides of a particular issue, just like Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. Ideological factors can therefore be an impediment to collections development.

(e) Selection problems including bias. The world of potential library materials is an immense territory for exploration. Knowing something of its extent, we are brought to the question: of all the books and related materials which have ever been published, which ones are best for a given library?34 The University of Chicago held a symposium in 1966 attempting to determine what knowledge is most worth having. Each library has to deal with a certain clientele, and the problem is to choose the materials which are best for the clientele. In our case, we would not need to hold a symposium to determine what to acquire, as the curriculum of the institution serves as an able guide towards a fruitful selection process. This writer does not trust general standards as these are too idealistic and standards outlining volumes or titles to be acquired do not take into consideration the particular institution’s curriculum. Having a sort of blueprint of what the collection should look like, how do we hold emotion in abeyance, to ensure “uniform” collections development for the various disciplines. This brings us to bias or prejudice.

“Prejudice” or “bias”, as they are used interchangeably, are common aspects of the human nature. There is no doubt that we transfer our biases into areas they should otherwise not have come into play. A collections development librarian who is strongly biased against a subject field will no doubt succeed in producing a biased collection. Even though we might recoil from this observation, it does not invalidate the truth of the matter. It is the belief of this writer that selection bias is a common feature of collections development in a typical Nigerian university library.

132 OKECIIL'KWU M. OKORO

PROSPECTS YOK THE FUTIJRE

Now that we have completed the examination of collections development in Nigerian university libraries, can we now, like prophets, try to see beyond the problems?

The collections development activator of the year 2000 will deal with a world in which there is more of everything, more federal and state governmental involvement, more reading and more students.“” First, there will be more books. Look at the progression in the number of the US imprints alone in the past three decades: 1950& 11 022; 1960- 15012 (up 3601,); 1970&36071 (up 14041;); and 1975- 39372 (up llq/,).“” There will certainly be more specialization within the university’s garden of knowledge. It should now be apparent to every thinking citizen that our political leaders are both unable and unwilling to do anything to end the inflationary spiral we are now experiencing. Too many people are cashing in on the short-term benefits of inflation, and our self-elected leaders are so busy making political hay out of both the evils and the benefits of inflation to have any time (let alone the courage) to do anything about it.

Though the picture looks gloomy, it may be possible, through patri- otic and adequate leadership, improved technological advancements, improved reading habits, and all that helps in creating a favourable economic atmosphere, to bring about a change for the better in collections development in university libraries in Nigeria.

The growing world of books is interesting territory because it represents what man thinks, imagines, investigates and holds dear. In many ways, the human being is an evil and disgusting animal: murderous, dishonest, superstitious, prejudiced, and so on. It is not hard to sympathize with those groups that renounce the values held in high esteem by our civilization. But man as writer is another thing. True, many publications are junk or worse (at least to people other than the authors and publishers); but if most of man’s bad qualities are reflected there, his best ones are shown even more clearly. Books are records ofhumanity and they must be preserved.

It would be unrealistic to end this discussion without commending the government for some of its contributions toward ameliorating the problems of university libraries in collections development. It will now be revealed that the Federal Government of Nigeria, Ministry of Edu- cations7 has obtained a loan from the International Bank for Recon- struction and Development (IBRD) amounting to US $23.3 million


and intends to utilize a portion of that loan to procure training equip- ment and library books for four federally owned polytechnics and the Federal Technical Colleges.

In conclusion, this paper calls Thompson’s bluff 5 and maintains that the prospects ofcollections development in Nigerian university libraries are very bright. We have reached the breaking point, the era of the dark cloud is almost over, and it is hoped that in the near future, with our problems solved, the era of better collections development in our university libraries will be with us. It will take time, but it may eventu- ally come to pass.

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REFERENCES

Shipman, Joseph C. (1977) Collection development. Emylopedia of Library and Information Science, Vol. 5, pp. 260-268. Ibuen, M. 0. (1986) Developing ‘SIAC’ through agricultural research libraries. Nigerbiblios 11 (l), pp. 19-22. Ting, 7’. C. (1984) Value of information. In Management of information Centres in China: results of a course held in Kunning, Yunnan Province, People’s Republic of China. 6- 18 December, 1982. Ottawa, Ontario, IDRC. 1984, pp. 58-60. Gardner, R. K. (1981) Library collections: their origin, selection, and development. Nrw York. McGraw-Hill. 1981, pp. 304-306. Thompson, J. (1977) Coping with cuts. A conference to examine the problems faring academic libraries in the late 1970s. London. National Book League. 1977, p. 7. Watson, E. A. (1978) The concept of the steady-state library whose definition? In Colin Steele (Ed.) Steady-state, Zero-growth and the academic library. London. Clivr Bingley. p. 14. University Grants Committee ( 1976) Capital provision for universi~ libraries; report of a working party. London. HMSO. 1976. University Grants Committee (1967) Report of the Committee on Libraries (the Parry Report). London. HMSO. 1967. The art of the librarian. A collection of original papers from the library of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Oriel Press. 1973, 1 3. Urquhart, D. 1’. (1968) The librav user and his needs: research into library services in higher education. Papers presented at a conference held at the University of London on November 3, 1967. London. Society for Research into Higher Education. 1968. lmm.5. Barr, K. and Line, M. (Eds) (1975) Iissqr on information and libraries: festchrt”i,fir Donald Urquhart. London. Hamden. 1975. Katz, Bill (1968) Statistical wailing wall: a nationwide survey. Library Journal 1 p. 2208. Ulveling, Ralph A. (1959) The public library an educational institution? Library Resources and Technical Services 3, p. 15. Banfield, E. C. (1965) Needed: a public purpose. In Ralph W. Conant (Ed.) The Public library and the city. Cambridge. MIT Press. 1965, p, 109. Crunden, F. M. (1894) Selection of books. Library ~Journal December, p. 14.

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Monroe, M. (1963) Meeting demands: a library imperative. Library Journal 88, pp. 516-518. Burgin, R. (1969) Conversations with J, L. nor<fes. New York. Halt, Rinehart and Winston. 1969, p. 122. Ifidon, S. E. (1978) The objectives of African university libraries: the Nigerian experience. International Library Review 10, pp. 43350. Tamuno, 0. G. (1989) Critical issues in bookprovisioning in Nigerian university libraries. Paper presented at the 1989 Library Week of the Imo State University Branch of the National Association of Library and Information Science Students held in Imo State University, Okigwe, May 22, 1989, 16 pp. Ibid. Introduction. Panel on National Book Policy for Nigeria inaugurated. Library News 8(3), (July- September 1987), p. 1. “Tears over books”. The African Guardian (April 30, 1987), p. 20. Ibid. p. 20. Tamuno, 0. G. (1989) Op. cit., p. 6. Accessions lists. Imo State University Library. Technical Services Division. 20 December, 1989. Oyeoku, K. K. (1989) At the request of this writer, Mr Oyeoku, the Imo State University Librarian, granted a short interview in which he spoke on a lot of issues. The interview was held in his office on 20 November, 1989 at 10.00 a.m. Ibid. Broadus, R. N. (1973) Selecting materials for libraries, New York. H. W. Wilson. 1973, pp. 62-63. ibid. p. 62. Chamber’s twentieth century dictionary. Okoro, 0. M. (1985) An assessment/evaluation of the library of the College of Agn’culture, Umuagwo. A paper presented as part of the course: Building and development of library collections III. February, 1985. Unpublished. 14 pp. Marchant, M. P. (1976) Participative management in academic libraries. Connecticut. Greenwood Press. 1976, p. 113. Afre, S. A. (1983). Stock development and management.. African J. Academic Librarianship, l(2), p. 41. Broadus, Robert N. (1973) Op. cit. p. 7. Webb, W. H. (1977) Collection development for the university and large research library; more and more versus less and less. In Herbert Poole (Ed.) Academic libraries by theyear 2000: essays honouring Jerrold Orne. New York. R. R. Borker. 1977, p. 139. United States, Bureau of Census. Historical statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to ‘970, Bicentennial Edition. (Washington, D.C.: Superintendent of Docu- ments, 1975) pt. 11, p. 808; Publishers Week& (February 9, 1976), 55. Daily Champion, Thursday, November 16, 1989, p. 6.

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