CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The current world economic recession dealt as a serious blow on developed and developing countries. These countries are apart from this economic gloom neck deep in other crisis.
Academic libraries in Nigeria are even facing greater problems. A typical examples is that of the Nigerian premier university, university of Ibadan library whose collection development has been adversely affected by foreign exchange restrictions (though it does not have total dependence on foreign sources of supply of library materials). Lean library vote which progressively and systematically decrease yearly; lateress or orders to arrive; affect of the government policies on library acquisition such as the pre-shipment inspection of import Act of 1978 (up dated import Act has changed this and books can now enter with ease into the country), astronomical rise in the cost of publications and the increasing number of library users without a concomitant increase in the library materials.
Despite the economic recession these academic institutes spend large sums of money stacking their libraries with expensive library materials for organized learning and research.
However, due to the country’s poor economy and the difficulties involved in obtaining foreign exchange, academic libraries in Imo state have difficulties in attaining the required standard of adequacy in their collections. It is recommended by the American library Association that an institutes recurrent budget of al least 5 percent should be spent on the library and more if the library collection is deficient or if there is rapid increase in students population or programme offered. The present government policy in Nigeria is not in accord with the American policy in terms of the percentage to be spent. There is still argument on the amount to be spent though there is a standard in the Nigerian academic libraries.
The attainment of standards of collection is made more difficult by foreign exchange restrictions which affect greatly book purchase by academic libraries. Hence the targeted collection size is becoming increasingly difficult to attain. In these libraries, the maintenance of effective security for the library resources that have been painstakingly acquired have not been easy.
This is due to mounting problems of book loss and mutilation resulting from the anti-social behaviours of some library users.
This problem of book theft is also felt by developing countries like Nigeria.
The real anguish of building up library collections in Nigerian universities is the fact that library materials appear to be finding their way into students lockers and book shelves. The disappearance of these hard earned expensive library materials frustrate the efforts of the readers in searching for what they want and also reduces the credibility of the library services and a consequent loss of confidence in the use of the library.
The acquisition of library resources is no less important than their preservation and protection. These libraries face the problem of mutilation of books, book theft, and misuse of library materials. In view of the inadequacy of resources in Nigerian libraries, there is need to conserve what the libraries have acquired by providing adequate security systems and measures.