APPLICATION OF COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY IN BUILDING LIBRARY AND INFORMATION RESOURCES FOR EFFECTIVE SERVICE DELIVERY IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN NASARAWA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated the application of collection development policy in building information resources for effective services delivery in academic libraries in Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Two objectives with corresponding research questions were raised. Survey research design was used. The population of the study was 121 librarians and library officers from seven academic libraries in Nasarawa State. Self-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data collected were analyzed using frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while the null hypotheses were tested using Chisquare. The study revealed that academic libraries in Nasarawa State applied collection development policy on printed library information resources on high extent while application of the policy on non-printed library information resources is on low extent. Further, the study revealed that academic libraries in Nasarawa State faced constraint in application of collection development policy such as globalization, poor funding, lack of seminars. Recommendations were made that, librarians should insist on having functional collection development policy to achieve standard library collections, efforts should be made by library schools to include Management and Budgeting as core courses for student’s librarians as this will help in the understanding of policy in administration, librarians (in Nasarawa State) should strive to be participating in workshops, and seminars particularly, on methods of improving collection development policy, by doing so, their libraries’ collections would meet the needs of the users and enough Funds should be made available to facilitate application of collection development policies in academic libraries.