The process of digitisation of collections of the National Library of Nigeria will commence soon while the card catalogue will be phase out and replaced by a unified Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) that will link the materials in the branches across the nation.
New National Librarian and Chief Executive of National Library of Nigeria, Professor Chinwe Anunobi, said this on Wednesday in Abuja, while briefing newsmen on the thematic focus of her administration leverage on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to reposition and raise the standard of the NLN.
She said it was unfortunate that publications in Nigeria are not being read beyond the shores of the country because the materials are not made available online.
Anunobi said: “We are going to progress assiduously in digitizing our collections, not just to preserve it but to also make it available to the public in an easier to access mode.
“We do not celebrate authors in our country because a lot of people do not read them but when we digitised, we are going to put it out there. We are going to have OPAC that would all the bibliographic information about resources published in Nigeria as National Library of Nigeria is concerned,” she said.
She pledged to immediately iron out copyrights issues with the respective copyright owners, saying even though NLN is yet to acquire all the required digitization scanners, some that are available could be used to start.
On the abandoned National Library Headquarters project in Abuja, the NLN boss said all hands are now on deck to see to the speedy completion of the project she described as National Monument, following the directive by the Federal Government for the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to take over the completion of the edifice.
She lamented the poor reading culture among Nigerians and vowed to intensify read campaign so as at encourage readership in schools and other segments of the country.
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