CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND OF STUDY

        The word according to the new Lexicon Webster Dictionary of the English language. Library is defined as a room or building housing a collection of books usually arranged according to same plan. Such collection of book on related topics issued by a publisher.

        The library has collection of records of human culture in print and non-print information purveying materials housed, preserve, organized, interpreted and managed by a professional librarian, to meet the broad and varying needs of users or clientele, for their information, knowledge, education, research, recreation and aesthetic appreciation.

        However the word library is defined as a room or building containing books that can be looked at or borrowed by members of the public or members of the group or organization that owns the library.

        According to Longman Dictionary of English language and culture; A building in which collections of books, CDs, newspapers, etc are kept for people to read, study or borrow.

        The library is an integral part of any academic institution where it is situated and no such institution can achieve its well throughout objectives without the library. It is not an adjunct to the parent institution, but an indispensable part. It is necessary to have library in our post primary schools because it is the central organ of an academic institution which determines the excellence of the institution in teaching and learning. School libraries are found in elementary post primary and higher schools and house the materials and services that students and teachers requires to carry out their academic activities. Their holdings consist of printed an audio-visual materials that support and extent the curricula and that attempt to make reading attractive to students.

        According to encyclopedia Americana, they offer reference and inter-library loans in terms of size, 54.6% of school libraries have fewer than 2000 books, while 3% have more than 10000% books. In the early 1990s there were approximately 3500 school libraries in Mexico, representing a 24% increase in just two years. School libraries have also extended their missions and the level of their services in recent years.

        Furthermore, from the above one can see that the school library has a remarkable role in academic excellent of students because the process of teaching and learning cannot be effectively done without incorporating the library of secondary education system. It is therefore an instrument of education excellence. In this regard Ishola (2002) says “That whose function is to broaden the education of students by introducing them to spheres of knowledge outside the narrow confines of their school curriculum”

        The school library can serve as follows:-

i.            Resource centre: Offers a wide variety of materials that information is not only stored in print form but also in non-print.

ii.          Teaching Agency: Teacher students various skills which when acquired enhances their academic performance and discourage leaving by rote.

iii.        Services Agency: Offer various services users to aid them make maximum utilization of the library resources.

iv.        Recreation Agency: Guides students in their research work involving using the library by providing minor reference assistance to them.

v.          Educational Agency: This is the overall development of an individual, growth, progressive reconstruction of experience and a life long process. The educational roles of the school library are:-

a)           Inculcation of permanent literacy

b)          Promotion of early child education

c)           Enhancement of secondary education

d)          Development of reading habits.

The school libraries thus has challenged the functions of parents, teachers, classroom and the various institutions that were formerly the exclusion, sources of knowledge and information.