Dwindling Reading Culture In The Internet Era And The Imperative For Lifelong Reading

Abstract This paper discusses dwindling reading culture in the internet era and presented a succinct imperative for lifelong reading. The paper examined reading, reading culture, lifelong reading, the internet era and its impact on reading culture and the imperative for lifelong reading. There is no doubt that the internet had contributed immensely to education for all. However, the proliferations of the internet and its resources such as social media have brought about shift in concentration from the reading pattern adapted from the inception of civilization to technology freaked society. It emphasized that proliferation of internet and digital media have changed the reading habits and as such it is fast disappearing into the thin air. It also expressed how the internet seems to have reduced the interest in reading of printed materials, vocabulary development, general knowledge and broad mindedness which individuals get from having good reading habits. The paper further identified the format of information resources to read and how to cultivate and sustain life long reading. The paper concluded that right attitude must be inculcated in a child right from infant and parents must encourage their children to read. The study recommended that individual, librarians, book sellers, publishers, teachers, government, mass media and the entertainment industry have distinctive roles to play in restoring our reading culture

PERCEIVED INFLUENCE OF BIBLIOTHERAPY ON THE REHABILITATION OF DRUG ADDICTS IN SOUTH-WEST, NIGERIAN TEACHING HOSPITALS: AN INVESTIGATIVE STUDY

This study investigated perceived influence of bibliotherapy on the rehabilitation of drug addicts in South-west Nigerian teaching hospitals. The study specifically identified the pattern of information utilisation by drug addicts; examined approaches used by medical librarians in administering bibliotherapy and perception of drug addicts on behaviour modification using bibliotherapy. The survey research design was used for the study and the population of the respondents consisted of Forty-Eight (48) drug addicts purposively selected. Questionnaires were used as instrument for data gathering and were pretested for validity and analysed using frequency, percentages and four-point Likert scale. Hypothesis was also tested using spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. Out of 48 questionnaires administered, 45 were returned and found useful representing 94% response rate. The survey revealed that respondents used specific reading materials for information with mean of 2.9; they used novels, short stories, poetry, plays and biographies to improve their psychological wellbeing with mean of 3.1; it was also revealed that they read online books on addiction and recovery with mean of 2.6, among others. It was revealed that bibliotherapy assisted them to recognize when they were likely to relapse; it assisted them to avoid and cope with relapse and encouraged abstinence from addictive substances. The result of the correlation indicated a low positive relationship between pattern of information utilisation and behaviour modification. Hence, the null hypothesis was rejected. It was recommended that health information professionals should work with mental health practitioners in providing access to information that would enhance behaviour modification among drug addicts

AN ASSESSMENT OF DISASTER PREPAREDNESS IN THE LIBRARIES OF SOUTH-WESTERN, NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

The paper examines the extent of disaster preparedness in libraries of three South-western Nigerian universities. The survey research method was adopted, randomly administering on a ratio of 1:1:2:3, eighty (80) copies of the questionnaire to staff members of four university libraries. A 73% response rate was recorded and simple frequency tables, Likert Scale aided with summative indexing and Chi square test were used for analyzing the collated data. Four research questions were answered with three universities selected for the population study. There were fifty-eight respondents, made up of 30 males (51.7%) and 28 (48.3%) females.Disaster Likelihood Index (DLI) was used to measure propensity to disaster and of the seven indicators, water leakages (3.89) and faulty power supply (3.15) having the highest index scores, are the most probable sources of disaster. In addition, results reveal that the most available disaster management utilities are fire extinguishers, emergency exits and smoke detectors in the libraries with 90%, 75.9% and 72.4% respectively. The availability of smoke detectors however varies significantly across the libraries and is most available in the Kenneth Dike Library. The level of preparedness was also measured with three main indices, namely: maintenance (MI), adequacy (AdI) and awareness (AwI) of disaster management measures, each with its checklist of indicators. With the mean MI, AdW and AwI being 3.17, 3.03 and 2.82 respectively, awareness on disaster management measures is the lowest scoring index of preparedness, and knowledge of emergency numbers has the least AwI (2.31) among its indicators. The study recommends among others, the installation of utilities like smoke detector, emergency exit doors conspicuously indicated,awareness campaign as well as regular staff training on disaster management, to increase the level of preparedness in all the university libraries

Dwindling Reading Culture In The Internet Era And The Imperative For Lifelong Reading

Abstract This paper discusses dwindling reading culture in the internet era and presented a succinct imperative for lifelong reading. The paper examined reading, reading culture, lifelong reading, the internet era and its impact on reading culture and the imperative for lifelong reading. There is no doubt that the internet had contributed immensely to education for all. However, the proliferations of the internet and its resources such as social media have brought about shift in concentration from the reading pattern adapted from the inception of civilization to technology freaked society. It emphasized that proliferation of internet and digital media have changed the reading habits and as such it is fast disappearing into the thin air. It also expressed how the internet seems to have reduced the interest in reading of printed materials, vocabulary development, general knowledge and broad mindedness which individuals get from having good reading habits. The paper further identified the format of information resources to read and how to cultivate and sustain life long reading. The paper concluded that right attitude must be inculcated in a child right from infant and parents must encourage their children to read. The study recommended that individual, librarians, book sellers, publishers, teachers, government, mass media and the entertainment industry have distinctive roles to play in restoring our reading culture