Investigating school library services in north-west geo-political zone, Nigeria: A case study of Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the availability and services of school library in norther western geopolitical zone Nigeria with its main focus on Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara. The specific objectives are to; find out the availability of functional school libraries in public secondary schools in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States, examine the strength of collections and find out the effectiveness of the services provided. Thirty six public secondary schools were selected to form the sample for the study. The study use questionnaire for data collection and data were analysed using descriptive statistics using SPSS VERSION 16.0. The findings revealed that majority of the respondents indicate that there were school libraries in secondary schools in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara State. However most of the libraries are improvised using classrooms. Few respondents are of the view that there were no purpose built library buildings in their secondary schools in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara State. The result also indicated that most of the secondary schools libraries do not have enough resources in the libraries. The study recommended that government and stakeholder should collaborate and make sure that a standard and well stocked library buildings should be provided in each public secondary school, government should also employ professional librariansn to guide the operation and services of the schools libraries.