Preservation of Cultural Heritage: The Strategic Role of the Library and Information Science Professionals in South East Nigeria

One of the primary problems confronting library profession today is lack of commitment by the available human resources, particularly, in the areas of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and preservation of resources on cultural heritage. The exploitation of knowledge as warranted by the increasing technological interventions are adding new dimension to education and thus making training an essential ingredient to most human development endeavours. This paper seeks to look at the various forms of professional training received by library and information science professionals, the available resources on cultural heritage in libraries and information centres, methods of their preservation and the problems confronting these institutions in their provision of access to and preservation of these cultural heritages. Structured questionnaire was designed and administered to 66 library and information science professionals in the sampled institutions. The findings revealed that formal education, seminars, workshops, on-the-job training and job rotations are the major forms of training. Artifacts, images from books, songs and photographic slides were the major cultural heritage available in the institutions studied. The major constraints to ease of access and effective preservation of the heritage identified by the study were cost of digitization, inadequate infrastructural facilities and trained manpower. Based on the highlighted findings and problems, some recommendations were made

Availability and use of information resources by academics in science and engineering faculties in souther Nigeria universities

No Abstract. The Information Technologist Vol. 4 (2) 2007: pp. 175-18