Building Effective Public Relations in University Libraries in Nigeria

Library is one of the strongest pillars that hold the universities. Its role in the overall improvement and success in the intellectual development climate of universities cannot be overemphasized. However, as important as it is, it has a challenge of competing with other agencies and departments in the academic community for scarce resources. This is so, because, many in the university community perceive that internet and the mega-book stores are better place to find information that they need. Defending the university libraries existence becomes a serious challenge today thus the need to get the word out to draw people into their doors. To learn how they can better do this, a strategy such as public relations needs to be employed. This article therefore attempts to discuss building effective public relations in university libraries in Nigeria. It listed some techniques as regard making public relations effective in the libraries and concluded by advising libraries to be proactive in building positive relations as to structure and improve library service, so that they may make maximum contribution to survival through learning. Keywords: Public Relations, University Libraries, Effective, University Community, Librarians