Fundamentals of Library and Information Science Education

Description

Foreword

The library is always seen, first, as a powerful instrument of education and enlightenment. Not education in a narrow or formalised sense only, but also education that implies the use of both digital and printed books for material and vocational profits, as well as for social and intellectual advancement; books for reading for specific and general knowledge, for leisure and enrichment of the inward condition of the mind and spirit. With the information age, deluge of books and other educational and informational resources in both printed and digital formats are available in the library collection or accessible through the library’s ICT facilities, especially in the university libraries. This requires that the teaching method of today focuses on the learner and learning process which allows the library to play a central role in education in particular. Library-based learning which the teaching method encourages attempts to expand learning process beyond the interplay of the teacher, classroom and the student. It, therefore, becomes necessary that students in tertiary institutions should acquire the knowledge of the use of library (both digital and traditionally print libraries) for their educational and research activities. It is against this backdrop that students in tertiary educational institutions in Nigeria are compulsorily required to study and pass the `Use of Library’ as a General Studies course. This, therefore, emphasises the importance and relevance of this book, Fundamentals of Library and Information Science Education. The book sets out with the clear mission to introduce the basic principles and practices of library use to students and researchers and inculcate in them the knowledge and skills of basic library use, World Wide Web and the Internet by students, faculty members and other researchers.

Chapter One introduces readers to the types of libraries in existence. This exposes students to both the broad and narrow views of types of libraries and their general and specific functions. The place of library- in education is the concern of Chapter Two. The chapter detnils the services provided by the library. the educational roles of the library and the contributions of different types of libraries to education.
Chapter Three elucidates the resources (both print and non-print) available in libraries, their characteristics. importance and how they are organised. Chapter Four dwells on databases that are available to students for library research. Chapter Five highlights the cataloguing and classification activities and related issues in the library. Chapter Six discusses research writing and techniques required for an excellent scholarly research work. Chapter Seven is insightful. It presents the readers the necessary skills, web addresses as well as guidelines for evaluating scholarly websites, in order to ensure that only the most authentic information is downloaded from the World Wide Web and the Internet for the conduct of scholarly research; while Chapter Eight deals with bibliographic citation and referencing methods that are required for academic writing. Chapters Nine and Ten examine the issues ofplagiarism and copyright respectively. For academic excellence, it is important that students and researchers know what plagiarism and copyright mean, their implications and consequences of default. Chapter Eleven elucidates the topic ‘Study Skills’ which is the hallmark of the success of any candidate who wishes to pursue his or her academics smoothly in a higher institution. This book is vital to students generally, irrespective of courses of study; it is vital to Library and Information Science students in tertiary institutions — the colleges of education, polytechnics, monotechnics and universities. Library and information practitioners and educators will find the book useful as a working tool and guide. While recommending this book unreservedly, I consider it an honour to be requested to write its foreword.

Professor Obiora Omekwu,
University Librarian University of Nigeria,
Nsukka.

Preface

Library and information literacy skill may be taken for granted generations who were introduced to the use of the library and other information centres from the nursery and kindergarten, primary and secondary schools. However, for majority of the students in developing countries like Nigeria who may be coming across libraries for the first time as they are admitted into the tertiary institutions, instructional book like Fundamentals of Library and Information Science Education is an indispensable asset if they are to navigate the tertiary library and information centres adequately in order to carry out undergraduate, graduate and later, postgraduate studies in higher institutions, such as the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education. There is also the issue of the library that has journeyed from the clay tablets of the prehistoric period to the electronic and optical discs and presently to the virtual libraries. There is a major shift from the printed publications to formless data, from ownership of documents to access to information, intermediary to end users and from a library in a specific location to virtual libraries. Thus, there is no gainsaying that there is constant need to teach the unlearned the skills of how to locate in timely fashion useful information needed by students, faculty members and researchers in order to carry out their academic functions in a tertiary environment. It is in this light that this book Fundamentals of Library and Information Science Education has been written to ameliorate the dearth of similar books needed to educate this crop of information users, especially in developing countries. This ground-breaking Fundamentals of Library and Information Science Education is written for library students, faculty members, new librarians and information professionals as well as all managers and anyone who deals with the issues of information and library science retrieval.

A. Ibegwam PhD.,
University Librarian Michael Okpara University of Agriculture,
Umudike Umuahia Abia State.