How Libraries Contribute to Communities and Society - Ozean ...

Moreover, libraries are now going online in droves. According to Bertot(1998), approximately 72 percent of public
libraries in the United States have some type of internet connection. Many patrons now go to those libraries solely
for internet access. Therefore, in order to attract and retain such new patrons, libraries must provide a range of
services that go along with internet access. The most important of these services is training. Ongoing support and
training are essential. This training is necessary not only for patrons but also for staff. Due to increasing prevalence
and popularity of information technologies libraries must train both old and newly hired staff (Holland 1999).
At Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Ikeji-Arakeji in Osun State of Nigeria, internet access always draws different
categories of users from all over the university to the e-Library to do one thing or the other. The users include
faculty members, administrative staff members, technical staff members and messengers. Staff and students use the
resources on the internet to do their assignment and research. It is a common sight to see this category of users in the
e-library with their laptops to download information from the internet. Technicians, clerks, and messengers who do
not normally use the resources of other sections of the library such as reference and circulation sections meet at the
e-library to send and receive messages from their friends and relatives at home and abroad via the e-mail. Others
come to read newspapers electronically. This is apart from the physical newspapers like The Guardian and Nigerian
Tribune which also normally attract different categories of users to the library on a daily basis since the year 2006
when the University was established. This is how the library serves as a unifying factor in the community.
Special Services to the Disadvantaged
In order to serve all segments of the community, the library must also pay attention to the disadvantaged members of
the society. Many categories of people fall within this group. But for the purpose of this paper we shall concentrate
on the sick in hospital, inmates of penal institutions, the aged and the physically handicapped.
It is true that the library cannot directly restore good health to the sick or bring about the release of a prisoner or
restore youth to the old, nevertheless there are other ways the library can help these people. There is no doubt that
reading can make time fly faster than lying down hours on end in the hospital bed doing nothing. Some long-term
patients may be interested in serious reading for the first time while they are in the hospital because they have more
leisure hours than they had before being hospitalized. If they have an opportunity to read, they will appreciate
library services and may continue to use the library when they recover. Moreover, some patients might have been
regular library users before they were admitted into the hospital. This category of patients should not be denied
library services because they are now in the hospital. By extending its services to the hospitaliszed, a library like the
Hezekiah Oluwasanmi Library Annex at Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Complex in Ile-Ife will enable
non-users of the library to become aware of the existence of a library that has many books on many subjects. A
library assistant in that library can take a trolley of books to different wards in the hospital at regular intervals to
cater for the patients.
Nowadays, the inmates of many prisons include not only illiterates and semi-literates but also highly educated
people. Some well-educated and notable scholars, who found their way into prisons for one reason or the other,
wrote interesting and fast-selling books when they were in prison. A glaring example is Nigeria’s Nobel laureate,
Wole Soyinka, who wrote The Man Died, when he was in prison. Prison inmates should, therefore, be provided with
library services like other members of the society. Those who have imbibed the reading culture before incarceration
should be given ample opportunity to continue to read. Those who have not formed the reading habit before
imprisonment should be taught to acquire the culture of literacy. This will greatly help in reforming, rehabilitating
and reintegrating them into the society after their discharge from prison.
Until recently, most of the prisons and correctional institutions for the young in Nigeria have no libraries of their
own. However, history was made in the welfare package of prison inmates in Nigeria on 25 th May, 2001. On that
day, the first ultra modern reading room and literacy centre for prison inmates was commissioned at the Ilesa Prison.
The literacy centre is equipped with the state of the art books and computer hardware and software to enable the
inmates to benefit from the literacy empowerment goal of the Non Governmental Organization that set up the centre.
The reading room and literacy centre was named after Heinrich Boll who was one time a prisoner. The story of
Heinrich Boll has shown that incarceration cannot hinder an individual from actualizing his / her goals in life.
Although Boll suffered incarceration, in 1978, he won the Nobel Prize for literature. This shows that to any inmate,
the sky is the limit, if the individual so desires. The reading room in Ilesa was set up to enhance the self esteem of
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