CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
In each society there are facilities other than classrooms that can contribute in no small measure to teaching and learning processes. For learning to take place, learners must have access to necessary information materials and resources. They have to interact with tangible and intangible resources and institutions to ensure some levels of performance. In an academic environment like the University, one of the main sources of information is the library.
Roberson (2005) defines a library as an institution that manages the intellectual products that individuals can gain access to readily. Iyanda and Salawu (2006) on the other hand see library as a building, an instructional and self-development centre, which operates as an integral part of the entire school environment. Also Ranganathan as quoted by Iyanda and Salawu (2006) describes library as a public institution or an establishment charged with the care of a collection of books, the duty of making them accessible to those who require the use of them and the task of converting every person in its neighborhood into habitual library goers and readers of books.
Libraries provide resources for knowledge acquisition, recreation, personal Interests and inter-personal relationships for all categories of users. Howeverin an academic environment, attention isbasically focused on academic and non-academic staff, students and researchers.
The philosophy of librarianship is based on the concept of library services and provision of relevant resources for users. To this end, professional librarians continue to strive to collect, store, organize and disseminate all forms of recorded knowledge in order to satisfy both present and future information needs of users. Library resources are the stock in trade of librarians. These materials in the library make services possible. They are the materials which the users come to consult, read or borrow. Library resources are many and varied, but they can be divided into two broad categories namely “printed and non-printed materials”. The printed materials are books, pamphlets, periodicals, newspapers and reference resources.