Sustainable development goals attainment: examining librarians awareness and perception in selected university libraries in Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

The United Nations 2030 Agenda with seventeen goals and one hundred and sixty-nine targets is a universal call to nations of the world to end hunger, extreme poverty, protect the environment and reduce inequalities etc. Librarians by training as information professionals are therefore expected to be at the forefront of providing and facilitating access to information on how nations of the world will achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hence, this study investigated librarian's awareness and perception of SDGs attainment in Nigeria. The study is a survey based on the ex-post facto type. Total enumeration technique was used to capture sixty (60), professional librarians, using a questionnaire from selected academic libraries in Ogun state. The study revealed that the librarians were extremely aware of twelve out of the seventeen goals; the librarians also perceived that SDGs enhance human development (51.7%) and SDGs corner should be available in the library (53.3%). On the contrary, librarians affirmed that high level of corruption and misappropriation of funds 58 (96.6%) is the main factor limiting the contribution of librarians to the SDGs attainment. The study concludes that librarians still need to learn more about the relevance and strategies to adopt in order to make the library conducive towards the achievement of the SDGs. The study thus recommended that librarians should consciously increase their knowledge and have positive perceptions as regard SDGs, and also attend conferences and workshops related to SDGs.