Librarians deserve academic status, veteran librarian says | EduCeleb
Confidence Evwodere
24th April 2019
Veteran librarian, Jonathan Dipeolu has advocated academic status for professional librarians.
He was the Keynote lecturer at the maiden edition of the Eminent Personality Lecture, organised by the Nimbe Adedipe Library, Federal University of Agriculture (FUNAAB), Abeokuta on Wednesday.
The formerUniversity Librarian at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University(OAU) was speaking at the lecture themed, “Librarianship in the TwentiethCentury Nigeria: My Reminiscence and Observation”.
Mr. Dipeolustated that professional librarians should be accorded academic status because“to select books effectively and efficiently, by reading book reviews asprovided in learned journals is an academic exercise.”
He addedthat “the classification of books requires subject knowledge if books are notto be lost in the wrong places on the shelves, which according to him is alsoan academic function in nature.”
According tothe former University Librarian, both categories of staff engage in differentforms of public service, hence the need for adequate attention to be paid tothe major function of professional Library staff, which is to collect andorganize for various forms of use the totality of human knowledge as recordedin books and other forms of recorded communication.
Mr. Dipeolu however described as erroneous the use of a uniformset of criteria for the appointment and promotion of professional Librariansand academic staff because the major business of Lecturers is to teach andengage in research, which can lead to publication of their findings in learnedjournals and books, whereas professional Library staff undertake bibliographicresearch which appears in the form of bibliographies.
The erudite Librarian noted that the job of a professional Library staff “is a full time occupation that covers collection development, cataloguing and classification of books and other forms of material and above all reference and assistance to readers”, adding that “some Library staff also engage in the investigation of problems arising from the practice of librarianship and publish their findings.”
Earlier in her Welcome Address, the University Librarian,Dr. Fehintola Onifade stated that the Library as a subsystem of a universitysystem is an important unit of the university information infrastructure whichkeeps evolving, hence the need for Librarians also to keep learning anddeveloping new strategies to meet the need of library users.
She disclosed that the Lecture will border on knowledgesharing, adding that the kind of knowledge to be shared may not be found inbooks or in the internet, but through mentoring and personal knowledge sharingand experience.
According to her, “organizing a Lecture like this, provides an opportunity for us to learn from the knowledge of our elders in the profession, life and direct”, adding that “the Nimbe Adedipe Library staff have decided to explore this opportunity by digging into the archives and learning from the experiences of one of our erudite Librarians.”
In his Remarks, the Vice Chancellor, Professor KolawoleSalako who was represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor Development, ProfessorLateef Sanni appreciated the distinguished lecturer for accepting theinvitation to deliver the maiden eminent Personality Lecture of the UniversityLibrary, assuring him that all the recommendations he proffered would beproperly looked into.
EduCeleb.com reports that the event was attended by members of the university and librarian communities. Among dignitaries there were FUNAAB’s pioneer University Librarian, Dr Taofiiq Salisu, his successor, Mr. Abayomi Agboola and the immediate past UL, Dr Mulikaat Salaam.