We target mothers in reading campaign – National Library CEO
Professor Lanrie Olatokumbo Aina is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Library of Nigeria. In this interview he spoke on falling reading culture in the country and other issues.
Libraries aid students’ learning. What effort are you making to improve the usability and stock in libraries as well as other library services?
Unfortunately, I was appointed just recently. Since I came, however I have been trying to see how we can revive the profession. In the last three months, we have been doing free readership programme in some states in the country. I want to go beyond that and do more. As National Library, we are supposed to collate all the publications that emanate from Nigeria. On that issue we have not done very well because of the decree that established us but we are working on that to ensure that we can collect publications as much as possible.
What are some of the challenges facing libraries country? major in the
The major challenge is funding. We have ideas and we know what to do but the money is not available. The little you have, you must spread it round. This is a social service that is being rendered to the society. We want to see a situation where people will embrace library. Let us start small.
We are trying to do what we called readership programme to ensure that everybody reads. Based on research, we found out that Nigerians don’t read. They depend so much on rumour but once there is source of information we want Nigerians to use that source of information. Karshi Information Centre recently built a library in Abuja and that was very impressive. The director of the centre is an information gatekeeper because he is knowledgeable. So people can interact with him and get information rather than depend on rumour. We also want to put people off the streets and into the library to read. Once you are accustomed to reading you are on top of the world. That is why we must support the centre.
Children’s reading habit is said to be on the decline with many students falling behind in reading performance. How do we improve reading skills?
Government is doing very well. For example, they gave us N61 million to go round the country and improve readership. We have been to urban areas and in the future we will be in the rural areas. We are targeting pregnant mothers to encourage them to start reading for their new babies so that they will be accustomed to reading by the time they get to primary or secondary schools. We are also planning to partner with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to spread the importance of reading in all nooks and crannies of the country.
It is believed that most books in Nigerian libraries are old stock. What effort is government making to provide up-to-date books?
We want to involve the society. Members of the community will provide latest material for their own benefit. On our own part we will try to donate latest material to libraries. We won’t just say go and get books but we will ensure we provide 2017, latest materials to them. So, we will not discourage anybody in providing them with latest information.
You paid a courtesy visit to Karshi Information Centre, in Nasarawa State, recently, what is your general assessment of its library?
My general assessment of Karshi Information Centre is that first of all I feel very happy that an individual provided a library for his community and he is spending his time and money on it. If you go round it you will see many books and other latest reading materials. I am particularly happy that he is working with farmers. We found out that extension workers are not enough to go round in the community this is where the library comes in. So this library is on the right path. We will assist them and link them with other people.