Availability of Books and Other Informational Materials and the Use of Academic Libraries.

Abstract

Gone are the days when librarians perform duties manually except for the few libraries that have not automated their services. Ability to store up-to-date materials, retrieve them for use by the prospective users is very important. A good library is judged by the effective utilization of the resources of the library. The materials must be accessible to
their users without the wastage of precious time. With the advent of computers and the internet, library operations have become simplified, faster, more accurate and current. Learning, teaching and research have become more interesting and less stressful as it used to be. Fears been expressed in some quarters that with the advent of computers and internet in libraries, the traditional librarians may become redundant and irrelevant in the
scheme of things, may not be 100% correct as there are some minute and local information that may be so necessary to the researcher that may not be the internet
Serials/periodical should be given proper place in the acquisition policy in any academic library in such a ration of 70:30 for books and periodicals respectively. Proper retrieval
system should be put in place so that the materials so acquired will be put into judicious use.

African Research Review Vol. 1 (3) 2007: pp. 51-64