fundamentals of library and information services

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Also if the table is dirty or wet, the turned pages become soiled and ... Never open a book with dirty hands or turn pages with wet fingers. 4. Never read while ...
FUNDAMENTALS OF

LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES

Edited by:

Copyright ©

KEN AZUBIKE E.S. ANAEHOBI M.O. OFOEFUNA E.E. ONWUAZO C. NWOGWUGWU E.G. OKANI

Director, Division of General Studies, Nwafor Orizu College of Education and the Authors, 2001

ISBN: 978-34359-3-0 First Published 2001 by NEPAJ PUBLISHERS Awka

CHAPTER FOURTEEN USES AND ABUSE OF LIBRARY MATERIALS BY E.S. ANAEHOBI INTRODUCTION Libraries act as repositories of human heritage. Libraries serve man in his pursuit of knowledge by providing information in whatever format it is carried. They may be divided into four general types: academic, public, school and special libraries. Differences among these types arise from the different categories of patrons served and the limits set by the governing body on the services that the library may provide. If we take academic libraries and specifically a College of Education library and look at the general functions of College libraries, we will have a picture of the uses made of such libraries. Edwards (1972) gave the functions of College libraries as articulated in the Library Association Standards as follows: 1. To supply books, periodicals and other materials needed by students in all the subjects of study which they pursue, to the necessary level. 2.

To provide support for the teaching and research of members of staff, in these same subjects, with due regard to facilities available in other libraries.

3.

To provide for a wide range of background reading in books and periodicals both in subjects close to those of the curriculum, and in more general cultural fields.

4.

To meet specialized needs of a college which arise naturally out 170

of its specialties and interests by building up appropriate collections to satisfy the intensive demands made by students in their special studies on library stocks and to provide bibliographical guidance by library staff. 5.

To help students to become familiar with modern children’s books, a representative collection of textbooks and audio-visual materials, and to suggest to them the potentialities of school libraries.

6.

To help with the day-to-day needs of users by supplying them with ready reference information, such as statistics of addresses, and the information and special material about the locality and the environments in which teaching practice takes place.

7.

To act as link with the world of books and libraries outside, being ready to draw upon the special resources of many other institutions and to make its contribution to the various cooperative schemes.

8.

To provide the bibliographical training in the use of books and libraries necessary to help students to find their way about the literature of their subjects, and in addition to enable them to become practiced in the use of books and other materials in their teaching and contact with children.

9.

To provide guides, lists of additions, reading lists and other publications, and to hold displays and exhibitions of library materials inside and outside the College library in order to reinforce the teaching of the College staff and illustrate the library’s resources. Generally, the main objective of any type of libraries is to provide resources that meet the specific needs of its patrons. The resources of libraries include book and non-book materials. Printed books and journals, newspaper, archival records, manuscripts, public 171

documents of national, state and local agencies are collected and protected for users. Documents of United Nations and other international bodies are acquired. Library also provides recorded knowledge in non-book materials like newspapers on microfilm, other microforms, maps, motion pictures, music recordings, prints and drawings, photographic negatives, prints and slides, posters and CDROMs. All these various materials constitute the library collections and serve as sources of information to the clientele. The responsibility of the library is to procure and provide information in any available form for the clientele. The clientele is expected to use the materials provided in such a way as to safeguard the materials and information contained for others to use. Where a user does anything that damages the materials or information contained, he is said to have abused the materials. It is library misconduct. A library material has been abused where user badly or wrongly used the material. His action would contribute to shorten the life span of the source. It may lead to damage of the information the material carries. It may lead to inability of other users to locate the material. Sometimes complete loss of the material takes place. The issue of abuse of library material is one of such human actions where one does something that negatively affects his future progress because of immediate selfish end. A reader who cuts off some pages or a chapter of a book that interests him at a particular moment may cause the library to withdraw such incomplete book from circulation. At other time he may be faced with assignment which that particular title may help him to solve. Such a person ends up disappointed as the book had been withdrawn because of his previous vandalistic act. Hence real sufferers in matter of any abuse of library materials are the users and not the library. LIBRARY MISCONDUCT Library misconduct are many and varied. According to Rogers (1971) 172

beginning with the selfishness of one who does not return a book needed by another, misconduct range from deliberate shelf misplacement to the use of false names to unrecorded borrowing; and from underlining to cutting out entire journal articles, and even theft by student recalcitrants or professional book thieves. users.

We shall now consider some abuses perpetrated by library

MUTILATION Mutilation is a vandalistic action whereby a reader tears off the pages or chapters of a book, journal or other print materials in order to satisfy selfish end. Sometimes a reader for want of time tears off some portion of the material of interest so as to use it at his convenience. This is evil because a) the material is rendered incomplete b) information contained on the torn portion is lost to all future users of that volume c) other users of the material will be frustrated as the book is recorded in the catalogue d) fund to replace the material may not be available e) the material may be out of print, making impossible its replacement. To reduce mutilation, library provides photocopying services to enable readers make copies of materials they could not find time to use in the library. Also readers are allowed to register and borrow books at no cost through lending services. Another bad behaviour of library patrons is writing in books. This includes making marginal notations where a reader register objection to author’s view. Sometimes he writes his own view on the margin. Another reader may disagree with him and cancels his remarks. Some run their biro on the objectionable words or sentences. These make the pages unattractive to read. Some underline what they consider important with biro or pencil as if they are using personal books. Some underline to show where 173

they stopped. Whatever reason, writing in pages of library book borders on selfishness and should not be done by any responsible clientele. STEALING Sometimes the library loses some of its materials through outright stealing by users. Such thieves use the material to enrich personal collection so as to use them at their convenience. Some users in order to avoid payment of overdue fine keep borrowed books without returning them. Others, remove library books through borrowing with false names. Illegal removal of library books pose serious problem to staff and users. A lot of time is lost by readers and sometimes library staff looking for a stolen book as it was already listed in the catalogue. Often most valuable books are stolen and this brings a lot of frustration to the users and library staff. With the present economic situation, most foreign titles bought some years ago are no longer available in the country. Where such titles are still in print overseas, the naira value is so exorbitant that there is no fund for replacement. Besides some internal security measures, designed to catch thieves, readers are not allowed to go into the library with brief cases, bags, pad folders. Identification card is often demand from a user and must be presented to borrow books. Security guards check books when users leave the library and every person is expected to surrender all books he is taking out of the library to the security for checking. MISPLACEMENT OF MATERIALS This is done by selfish students who hide the books in other shelves. This deprives other readers opportunity of using the material even when the book is in the library. TURNING DOWN PAGES When a reader turns down pages of a book being read to mark 174

where he stopped, the weight of the book rests on the turned pages resulting in cracking of the spine. Eventually, the leaves start pulling out from the spine. Also if the table is dirty or wet, the turned pages become soiled and deteriorate faster. DOG-EARING Many readers are guilty of turning down corners of a book’s pages to mark places where they find some important points or where they stopped. This unfortunate behaviour of many readers, with time, leads to loss of information contained on the pages as the paper usually cuts from the point of folding. The material thereby becomes incomplete. To avoid this, a reader should use piece of paper to remark where he stopped rather than folding the page. ABUSE OF LIBRARY CATALOGUE Some library users cause serious damages to the library catalogue by a) pulling out catalogue cards from the spindle; b) bringing out the card and misfiling it at a wrong position; c) wetting their fingers with saliva to facilitate flipping through the cards The library catalogue provides index to the library collection. Users should only copy information they need with their own paper. The cards should be handled with care and should not be brought out or filed at any other position for any reason. Any observed misfiling of a card should be reported to library staff. Poor handling of library materials by some patrons make such materials to deteriorate faster. Such readers open books with thumbs soiled by chemicals like oil from consumed food items; wet their thumbs with saliva before turning book pages. Wet dirty thumbs cause great harm to books as such dirts attract bacteria, fungi and mold which grow on them. For this, eating of any kind is not allowed in the library. Another worrisome aspect of abuse of library materials are 175

general carelessness and negligence of many library users. Some borrow library books and do not take proper care of the books. Books are soiled with oil, left to children to play with, soaked in water on tables or by rain in hand bags. All these make the material to deteriorate faster. ARSON Of all evils that may befall a library or recorded human knowledge, arson is the worst. Fire irreparably brings to ashes human heritage whether in print or non-print sources. When such destruction arises from deliberate act of an individual or group, it is a damnable crime against humanity. No matter the griviances, people should avoid willfully setting library resources on fire as some documents once lost may never be found again. Part of measures employed by libraries to avoid arson and other accidental destruction of resources by fire include prohibiting smoking, use of candles, lamps in the library. CURBING LIBRARY MISCONDUCT Library misconduct especially theft and mutilation of library materials are antisocial habits which every preson must abhor. Vandalism should be reported to the library staff by any preson who notices it. Library staff of the circulation desk should form the habit of going through books returned by borrowers to ensure the books are intact. Minor damages to the library books may be ignored while major damages should be paid for by the reader. Where a reader causes major damage which makes the material unsuitable for others to use, the replacement cost of the material is to be charged. To help protect library materials, Obi (1977) in A Manual For School Libraries on Small Budget recommended that staff and students should: 1. Use a book-mark to indicate a place in a book rather than bend the corners of pages or insert pencils between the pages. 2. Protect the book from rain. 176

3. 4. 5. 6.

Never open a book with dirty hands or turn pages with wet fingers. Never read while eating or drinking. Never turn an open book back to back or place it face downwards on the table. Turn the pages from the top right-hand corner gently.

REFERENCES Edward A.J. (1972) “Introduction: Scope and function of College and their libraries” in Libraries in Colleges of Education 2nd ed., edited by Peter Platt, London: The Library Association, pp. 3-18. Jam, Awua (2000) “Teriary Libraries on Fire in Benue State: Barbarians resurrected.” Frontiers of Information and Library Science Vol. 1 (1) pp. 43-55. Obi, Dorothy S. (1977): A Manual for School Libraries on Small Budget Ibadan, Oxford University Press. Rogers, Rutherford D. and Weber, David C. University Library Aministration. New York. The H.W. Wilson.

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