A majority of libraries in Nigeria operate their libraries completely
manually. Nigeria is a developing country and there are many challenges
and constraints facing library automation. There is erratic power
supply and not many professional librarians. There is also an absence of
maintenance and support agreements present from library vendors. The
funding present for libraries in Nigeria is close to non-existent, even
though there is a rule in academic institutions that a certain
percentage of funding should go to the library – that does not happen.
Even sometimes there is a poor attitude (negative) from the heads of the
libraries.
Adeyemi College of Education, which was established in 1962 and is
named after the Reverend Canon M C Adeyemi (1882-1942) and was created
to produce qualified manpower to teach education. They offer
certificates in education, bachelors degrees, and post graduate degrees.
There are about 10,000 students and their library has a collection size
of about 50,000 records.
Migration to Koha, First the library director had to convince the
management of the library to provide funding to purchase hardware and
other accessories for the library. They agreed!!! Using an education
fund they were able to purchase equipment and begin installing Koha and
manually migrating their data to Koha. There were some initial problems ,
such as phobia of the staff in automation, erratic power supplies
(which is a very common problem in Nigeria).
Final thoughts – They are very excited in presenting their story and
Koha to other college community members in Nigeria and help them spread
and install Koha. Koha is gaining recognition in Nigeria. They would
love to host a Koha conference in Nigeria and we really hope that they
will be able to some day.
It’s very encouraging to hear success stories about Koha in
developing countries and that we are all part of helping these people
and librarians get and use a really great system. Go Nigeria and Go
Koha!
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