Fund Allocation as a Correllate of Sustainability of Departmental Libraries in Nigerian Universities

Universities in Nigeria and the world over are engines of growth and development. They are increasingly recognised to have a broader role in the social, economic, technological and manpower development of a nation. In fact, the universities serve as the main source of supply of skilled manpower needed in the various sectors of the nation. The National Policy on Education (2004) acknowledges that university education shall make optimum contribution to national development by intensifying and diversifying its programme for the development of high level manpower within the context of the needs of the nation. The library has a great role to play in the provision of the right information in the right format to the right user and at the right time. Haruna and Mabawonku (2001), while stressing the importance of information for every profession, affirm that legal practitioners depend fully on a nugget of relevant, precise and timely information for success in their profession. This is why faculties and departments offering professional programmes in the university usually require well equipped departmental libraries. In fact, knowledge of the various programmes in the university and information needs of both students and faculty members are vital to library effectiveness. The central library of a university initially had the sole responsibility of providing needed services to the few members of staff and students in the few established departments. However, with time, more departments were created and resulting in increase in the population of users attended to by the main library. Bozimo (1992) describes libraries in tertiary institutions as the nerve/centre of activities that hold the key resources for departments in the teaching and learning process. Since the academic departments will have to patronize the main library for needed information, there is a tendency towards failing to satisfy users, thus the need for departmental or faculty libraries