A STUDY OF THE CHALLENGES IN THE TRAINING AND EDUCATION OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDENTS IN NIGERIA (EDUCATION PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Library and information science (LIS) training and education play a significant role in the production of high quality LIS students who occupy a unique position in national development. LIS students are gatekeepers and brokers of information which is essential for knowledge acquisition, decision-making and national development. The success of library, archives and information centre?s in effectively meeting their obligation of information provision is hinged, in part, on the development of skilled manpower.
Trained personnel, according to Korsah (1996) are a key requirement in library and information work. In this respect, LIS education plays a vital role (Edegbo, 2011). Although early LIS students, particularly librarians did not undergo any formal training (Wikipedia, nd.), the modern day challenges of library and information work require that personnel should be well-trained and educated to make for effectiveness.
Melvin Dewey, the famous proponent of the Dewey Decimal Classification System was said to have established the first library school in the United States in 1887 at Columbia University (Wikipedia, n.d.). In Europe, the library School established in Barcelona in 1915 is reputed to be the oldest library school in that continent. Many other library schools were said to have been established during the Second World War. In Africa, however, South Africa is credited with the longest history of LIS in the continent dating from 1938 (Ocholla, 2007).
In West Africa, the earliest formal training in librarianship consisted of short courses organized by practicing librarians and these were aimed solely at preparing the participants for the British Library Association examinations (Ojo-Igbinoba, 1995) which then constituted the only gateway for aspiring librarians (Aguolu and Aguolu, 2002). One of such courses took place in Achimota College, Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1944 and it drew participants from various West African countries including Nigeria. This appears to be the earliest evidence of the strong historical link between Ghana and Nigeria in the education and training of LIS students. Hence this study tends to study the challenges in the training and education of library and information science students.
