National Library Act Non Compliance-Govt MDAs are Culpable-National Library

The failure of authors, publishers and Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies to abide by the legal deposit law in Nigeria and poor funding have been identified as the major challenges confronting the National Library of Nigeria(NLN).

This was the submission of Mrs. Laureta Isioma Ekwemuka of the Legal Deposit Department of the National Library, in a paper titled ‘’Evaluation of Legal Deposit Collection at the National Library of Nigeria(2014–2018) at the South Western zonal session of the Nationa Library two day sensitization workshop on Legal Deposit Compliance ISBN & ISSN, held in Ibadan.

‘’Some major challenges of the National Library include the uncooperative attitude of Authors, Publishers, Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, when it comes to the submission of copies of published works to the National Library. So many Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies publish quarterly, bi-annually and annually, but they do not deposit copies of their published works to the National Library. Another major challenge is lack of adequate funding. We have been trying our best to overcome these challenges’’, Mrs. Ekwemuka stated.

Similarly, in a paper titled ‘’Evaluation of ISBN/ISSN Acquisition at the National Library of Nigeria(2014–2018), Mrs Taye Abena of the International Standards and Programs Departments expressed worry over the proliferation of fake ISBN numbers saying’’ people tend to do things their own way, they go to publishers to collect fake ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits, in the process of collection, 3 digits are removed, and these three digits represent the numbers of the international center’’.

In his remarks, the Head of Branch, Oyo state, Mr. Bashiru Salawu warned Nigerians not to obtain the ISBN and ISSN from sources other than the National Library, adding’’ISBN and ISSN emanating from other sources are fake’’.

The National Library Act was passed in 1964 and later reviewed in 1970 with emphasis on deposit obligations and bibliographical functions.

The Act №29 of 1970 applies throughout the country and has supremacy over any library laws of state governments in the event of jurisdiction conflicts. Read the Act here-https://bit.ly/2Pou5ck