Evaluating the use of Polytechnic Libraries in Nigeria: A Case Study of Federal Polytechnic, Offa, Library, Kwara State, Nigeria

Introduction The relevance of libraries in the Nigerian educational system cannot be overemphasized. Library is associated with education and education is a societal instrument of change which consequently, affects the social, political, economic, scientific and technological changes (Daluba & Maxwell, 2013). Academic libraries serve as the fulcrum which the intellectual activities of tertiary institutions hinge on. Tertiary education will be incomplete and largely defective without the existence of academic libraries stocked with relevant information resources and manned by competent professionals. Academic library is a strong educational force which helps every undergraduate student to fulfill his or her obligation and to achieve self-development (Dibua, 2000). Through their services, academic libraries help tertiary institutions to attain their objectives of training the manpower required for the development of nations. Polytechnic libraries are among the academic libraries which contribute immensely to the development of Nigeria. Polytechnic libraries are repositories of information and educational resources consciously acquired, preserved and made available for the use of the members of polytechnic institutions. They represent the polytechnic's sole instrument capable of infecting the totality of knowledge to their clients (Ogbodo, 2011). The essence of polytechnic libraries is to support and enrich polytechnic education by catering for the diverse information needs of the students and staff of polytechnics. The fundamental objective of polytechnic education is the training of professional skill workers who are suppose to constitute manpower to man (Abdulsalami & Salami, 2013). Hence, the services offered by polytechnic libraries are tailored towards the needs of their clienteles who comprise students, lecturers, technologists and administrative staff of the institutions. Omekwu and Eruvwe (2014) stated that the services rendered in polytechnic libraries keeps widening to include acquisition of books and other media, reference services, serials control, cataloguing and classification and then making them available to information seekers. Polytechnic libraries ensure this by selecting and acquiring information materials in accordance with their collection development policies. Polytechnic libraries, unarguably, remain an inseparable part of polytechnics setup which provides adequate information required to sustain and promote the intellectual activities of such institutions. Ita (1980) opined that the objectives of the polytechnic library are inevitably tied up with the objectives of its parent institution since the library is but a unit of the polytechnic. Polytechnic libraries act as the cohesive force which binds the academic activities of polytechnics. According to Nwalo (2001), the polytechnic library has the primary objective of providing literature support for the entire academic, research and extension programmes of the parent institutions. They serve as an extension of teaching and learning activities in polytechnics by providing conducive environment for personal development and access to wide range of educational resources required for higher academic achievement. Hence, polytechnic education is incomplete without the existence of functional polytechnic libraries. Statement of the Problem Polytechnics in Nigeria are established with the aim of training and providing the middle level manpower for the different sectors of the Nigerian economy. The Nigerian polytechnic libraries are crucial to the attainment of these lofty objectives saddled on their parent institutions. They serve as a vital link to the realization of these objectives through their services. It is, however, disheartening that some polytechnic libraries have not been performing optimally in assisting their parent institutions to bridge the technological gap plaguing the country's drive to technological breakthrough. …