Fundraising in Academic Libraries: A Case Study of Selected Academic Libraries in Southwest Nigeria

ABSTRACT This study examines fundraising in academic libraries as a global problem. This has become imperative since what these libraries receive from the government through their parent institutions is not sufficient to maintain and sustain library services and operations. Academic libraries in Nigeria have resorted to other ways of raising funds for their libraries due to world economic recession and inflation which has hampered them from effectively and efficiently meeting their set objectives. This study therefore investigated fundraising in selected academic libraries in the southwest of Nigeria in order to ascertain their sources of funds, how adequately it is received, challenges and other ways these libraries have resorted to raise funds for the sustenance of their libraries. The study adopts a survey research design with two sets of questionnaire which have 34 and 25 items respectively and the reliability coefficient of 0.77. Population of the study comprises librarians and library users. A total of two hundred and seventy-seven (277) participants were randomly selected. The results shows that all the academic libraries in this study have not started fundraising, thus do not have fundraising plan in their strategic objectives. The study also revealed that the libraries depend more on their parent institution, and they only generate a token internally which is insufficient to run library services. Consequently, this study recommends that librarians and other library personnel should be trained, workshops and seminars should be organized which will promote fundraising activities