A Historical Trace of Library and Information Science Education in Selected Countries of Africa- Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa

LIS education is more concerned with training in librarianship. LIS education aimed at producing competent librarians to manage all types of libraries in the countries of the world for sustainability. Other information related disciplines such as documentation, archives and records management were relatively unknown when they started existing, thus, they were not accorded prominence. However, librarianship in Africa owes its origin to colonialism. Colonialism introduced reading and writing among the indigenous people. Until then, the two activities were alien. Colonial governments introduced Western education which entailed among others, reading and writing. In an attempt to boost the two activities, a need was felt to provide the new literates with information materials, basically books, to further their reading and writing skills which brought about the establishment of Library Schools in Africa. Thus, UNESCO played a leading role in the establishment of LIS education programmes in Africa and in particular Anglophone sub-Saharan Africa. The pressure emanated from public libraries. UNESCO was convinced that illiteracy in sub-Saharan Africa could only be eradicated with the support of libraries. A number of regional seminars were held between 1953 and 1963 on the African continent to sensitize colonial governments on the need to establish public libraries in their colonies to speed up socio-economic development, thus, library schools were established in Africa to sustain library practices.The history of Library Education was traced in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa. The paper concluded that the existing ICT laboratories in all library schools in Africa should be well equipped, while the library schools without laboratories should be encouraged to establish one by training efficient manpower to manage and coordinate the established libraries in Africa and the yet-to-be established ones in order to sustain library practices. Adequate laboratories would enhance the provision of adequate and efficient practical and the acquisition of IT skills. Above all, the parent institutions in Africa (universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education) running LIS programme should provide adequate funding for the procurement of facilities in the ICT laboratories