Resource sharing among Nigerian University Law Libraries: a state of the art

Abstract

This study investigates the state of the art in resource sharing among law libraries in Nigerian universities. The survey research design was adopted for the study. Copies of the questionnaire designed by the researchers were administered to all the 33 Nigerian universities offering law programme. Of these, 27 law libraries responded. Simple percentages were used in the analysis of the data collected. The study revealed that: every law library acknowledged the need for resource sharing with attendant benefit to the participating libraries; majority of the libraries often shared resources, while 13 (49.15%) of the libraries shared resources rarely. Admittance was ranked first by 24 (88.89%), on forms of resource sharing, followed by donation/gift 20 (74.07%), while cooperative classification (3.70%) was ranked least. Only 6 libraries (22.22%) agreed that they had written policy on resource sharing. Constraints and hindrances to resource sharing in law libraries were identified and the way forward proffered.

African Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science Vol. 18 (1) 2008 pp. 75-82