AN ASSESSMENT OF SHELVING OF LIBRARY MATERIAL IN COLLEGE LIBRARIES

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY: Shelving library materials is a proven method of ensuring that books and other information materials are placed on the right shelves after being processed at the Technical Services Section or after being consulted by users (Daniel, 2008).

Information items are organized on the shelves of every library according to a certain layout. Shelving is the act of returning processed or used books from the cataloguing/classification section and reading tables to the appropriate shelves, whereas shelf-reading is the act of inspecting books on the shelves to ensure that they are properly shelved and in their correct positions on the shelves (Brown, 2008).

However, while shelving library resources, attempts are made to arrange them according to categorization call-number symbols. When shelving library materials, it is necessary to determine the placement of the items. In the academic context, the college library is an essential institution. The shelving of books in an academic library is an activity aimed at facilitating the dissemination and retrieval of information. These are libraries found in institutions of higher learning that are completely devoted to academic activities that are usually in line with the parent institution's objectives.