A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE WAYS OF GENERATING INCOME IN NIGERIAN LIBRARIES

Background to the study

Generally, sufficient funding is needed for effective library and information service delivery; also while responding to the opportunities of digital revolution, the library faces renewed and intensified period of financial stringency. Rosemary, Edward, and Maxwell (2016) opined that both public and academic libraries cannot totally fund their activities without a vibrant alternative income generation venture. As the country is yet to bounce back from recession fully, many sectors of the economy is been faced with high financial crisis of which the Library is not an exception. Libraries have for long played a central role in the lives of Universities, in supporting learning, teaching and research, therefore it is obvious to say that adequate funding should be considered a basic necessity for the effective development of library and information services (Boadi,2006). Again, due to the high financial crisis in all sectors of the economy, it is prudent for the academic library to find avenues of alternative income generation to support their services (Chaputula, 2011). Rosemary et al., (2016) in their article argued that academic libraries need alternative source of funding to keep them surviving in the world of financial difficulties nowadays. Boadi (2006) equally on income generation activities as a viable financial source for African academic libraries intimated that, though academic libraries are funded by their colleges, universities, polytechnics and so on, it is critical for the librarians and library staff to find viable sources of alternative income generation activity to support them.

This is because, it is on record that, funding of academic library comes from the government hence any delay turns to affect the existence of the library (Boadi, 2006), and as a matter of urgency, academic libraries need to break away from the complete over reliance on government, institutional funding, and employ consultancy services and brokerages services in their day to day survival.

Fafunwa (1994) sees libraries in tertiary institutions as crucial centres in the educational development of man and his environment. National Universities Commission (NUC), insist on the provision of purpose-built, well-equipped, information resource-rich and adequately staffed libraries, as a pre-condition for approval of these institutions and accreditation of courses offered in them. To acquire the necessary facilities for the discharge of their statutory responsibilities, these academic libraries require adequate funding for their capital and recurrent expenditures, which mainly comes from two sources namely; (i) financial allocations from parent institutions, and yearly financial disbursement from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TET-Fund) (Chuma,2013).

During the recent recession in 2017, academic libraries in Nigeria have had to endure significant budget cuts. Funding continues to go down at the same time the cost of materials and staff continues to increase. This has created an untenable situation of annual reductions to acquisitions budgets and the layoff of library staff. Academic libraries have to look at other ways to fund their budgets. One of these is an increasing emphasis on fund raising. (Ananwu and Akanwa, 2001).

Fowoe (1988) citing University Grant Committee (1976) stated that academic libraries are the central organ of a university, as a resource house, it occupies a central and primary place in a University, because it supports all the functions of a university-teaching, research and extension of the frontiers of knowledge and the transmission to posterity of the learning and culture of the present and the past. A library, particularly an academic library, must be up-to-date and at the same time must allow access to older materials in its collections. It must provide service and guidance to its readers, as well as suitable space and conducive conditions and environment in which they can work. In addition, an academic library must house collections of special value which should be part of the university’s and the nation’s heritage, this require a lot of funding.

An academic library must be properly supported financially. Adequate funding should be considered a basic necessity for the effective development of academic libraries. Ubogu and Okiy (2011) emphasis that it is absolutely essential for an academic library to posses the resources that will enable it meet its goals, like well trained staff, current information storage and retrieval systems can only be appreciated if excellent services are rendered to users. These services cannot be provided without adequate finding.

The cost of scholarly information held by academic libraries to support teaching, research and publication continues to increase at an exponential rate, the alarming external debt profile of Nigeria has lead to the devaluation of our national currency (Naira) (CBN,2016). In addition to the fact that academic libraries compete with teaching departments, administrative services and students union for share of their institutions’ budget. As governmental financial receipts declined, the once booming economy nose-dived and, as a consequence, it became increasingly difficult to access ample funds for libraries, education and other social services. The reality, which is rather disappointing, is that most of those academic libraries receive far less funding than the percentage usually approved for them by both overseeing government ministry/department and the educational institutions under which these libraries operate.

Several efforts has been made to arrest this situation but to no avail for instance, the allocation of 10% of the recurring annual budget of Nigeria’s tertiary education institutions for library services was championed by Universities. This funding arrangement was concretized in a 1992 agreement between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government (Okiy, 2005). The inability of most executives of these tertiary institutions to adhere strictly to this policy continues to constrict and erode the capacity of their libraries to access funds for their services, as well as, recurrent and capital projects which is regrettable (Akporhonor, 2005). There are also instances where library funds are diverted to non-library projects by chief executives without the consent of the management of their institution’s libraries (Zakari, 1997).