Council to clamp down on schools without certified librarians

The Registrar/CEO, Librarians Registration Council of Nigeria (LRCN), Prof Michael Afolabi, says the council has been ensuring standards in all categories of libraries.

He also said it had finalised the production of the minimum standards for school libraries, which was introduced upon observation of the poor state of school libraries in the country.

“The standards will regulate the effective management of school libraries and professionals in the sector. All school libraries are hereby called upon to adopt these new standards. The council will deploy serious efforts to clamp down on non-compliant libraries and sanction defaulters,” he said

Prof Afolabi, who stated this at the 7th Conference of Certified Librarians in Nigeria and the 11th induction ceremony with the theme, ‘Transforming Libraries and Librarianship: A Gateway for Sustainable Development’, said the induction of 330 new librarians on Tuesday in Abuja brings the total number of certified librarians in Nigeria to 6,796.

He encouraged all graduates of Library and Information Science from approved Library Information Science (LIS) awarding institutions to apply for LRCN certification.

“Most organizations are now implementing the council’s policy on the recruitment and promotion of only qualified librarians. This implies that soon, there will be no job or promotion for LIS graduates who are not certified,” he said.

He, however, reiterated that all holders of LIS certificates who are not inducted are not professional librarians.

While noting that the workshop is geared towards re-tooling and re-skilling librarians, he said the theme was apt especially in this decade that concerns of sustainability were replete in all sectors.

Speaking at the event, Minister of Education Malam Adamu Adamu commended the council for popularizing the library profession and expanding the frontiers of librarianship by injecting into the system, skilled, well-equipped and qualified librarians who offer world-class services in the different sectors of the economy.

Represented by the Director of Library Science, Barnabas Anwunadu, he called on all librarians to make effective use of the standards for academic, public, government and the schools libraries to ensure standardization in library operations across Nigeria.