An assessment of Networking and Resource Sharing in Federal University Libraries in Nigeria

No library today can boast of having it all to satisfy all the vital needs and demands of her clientele without recourse to some forms of collaborative assistance or the other. This study so to speak is an assessment of networking and resource sharing in federal university libraries in Nigeria. The study was guided by four research objectives and questions respectively with a population sample of 86 librarians purposively derived from 43 federal university libraries. The major instrument used for data collection for the study was a 34-item modified Likert scale questionnaire while the data collected were analyzed using frequency and percentile and presented in tables and figures for clarity sake. The outcome of the study showed among other things that most federal university libraries in Nigeria were not participating in Wide Area Networking rather concentrate mostly in local area networking which implies that no federal university library in Nigeria can boast of being fully involved in global networking as to gaining from piles of information available in academic libraries of developed nations. The study further identified some of the factors militating against these services and operations. The study after due consideration of the findings recommended among other steps that all identified challenges as displayed in table 4 and figure 3 should be tackled head-on by all concerned and that the National University Commission (NUC)as universities’ control and monitoring body should partner Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) to sponsor and finance the establishment of Nigerian University Libraries consortium that will ensure effective networking and resource sharing among university libraries in Nigeria and those of developed nations