International Journal of Education and Information Technology
Articles Information
International Journal of Education and Information Technology, Vol.1, No.3, Aug. 2015, Pub. Date: Jun. 30, 2015
Professionalism in Librarianship: Librarians’ Functions, Challenges and the Way Forward
Pages: 70-79 Views: 3857 Downloads: 6037
Authors
[01] Japheth Abdulazeez Yaya, J. C. Pool Library, Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria.
[02] Kikelomo Adeeko, University Library, Mcpherson University, Seriki Sotayo village, Abeokuta Ogun State, Nigeria.
Abstract
Every profession in the human history has its origin, prospects and challenges; it is the desire of every member of the professional body to seek for solutions to the problems militating against their successful journey in the society. Thus, this paper discusses Professionalism in librarianship with emphasis on the prospects, challenges and it suggests some factors that could help in resolving the problems of librarianship profession in Nigeria; several issues were also discussed. Thus, the practitioners of this laudable profession must possess some characteristics that would make them more effective in providing the much needed information to an individual, organizations and the general populace. The paper concludes by suggesting the following steps as the way forward from the problems militating against the librarianship profession in Nigeria: The activities and programmes of the librarianship profession should be given a wide publicity; People should have a right attitude towards printed educational materials and give due recognition to the Nigerian Library Association (NLA) as being done to other notable associations in Nigeria; Membership of the NLA should be financially committed to their association as done by membership of other associations; Government officials should have positive attitude towards library and the association that represent the interest of librarians in the land; and librarians should know that they are in the highly contested profession. Hence, the library management should act fast and provide all the modern facilities and technologies that are needed to enable library to effectively compete with other organizations that are offering similar services to the general public.
Keywords
Professionalism, Librarianship, Librarians, Library Profession, Librarians’ Functions, Librarianship Challenges
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