Maintenance Culture in Academic Libraries of Universities in South West, Nigeria (Published)
This study explored maintenance culture in academic libraries of universities in south west, Nigeria by taking a cursory look at Lagos State University Library, Ekiti State University Library, Ado – Ekiti and Olusegun Oke Library of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso as case studies. Related literatures were reviewed on sub heading that concerns the subject matter. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Fifty (50) questionnaires were distributed to each of the university library sampled for the study making a total of One Hundred and Fifty questionnaires (150) in all. Out of this One – Hundred and Twenty Eight (128) were returned valid. Four point Lickert scale was used to elicit responses and data collected analysed using frequency count and percentages (%). The findings of the research work indicated some causes of deterioration of library materials in south west Nigeria which are characterized by high temperature and humidity, natural ageing, mutilation by users, insect activities among others. Some of the maintenance practices identified in the course of the work as being practiced were careful removal of documents from shelves, binding of torn books, fumigation, photocopying, digitization, mounting of securities to check delinquencies among others. It was revealed that there were lack of constant training and retraining for staff on preservation, no preservation policies, inadequate funding, lack of functional library equipments for preservation and conservation among others. Based on the findings, the study recommended the following: working policies should be formulated on maintenance, training should be organized, open communication should be established between library management and university community, equipment on preservation and conservation of library materials should be procured.
Keywords: Academic Libraries, Conservation, Deterioration, Maintenance, Maintenance Culture, Nigeria, Preservation, South-west, Universities