Alhaji Habib Jato, the Chief Executive Officer, National Library of Nigeria (NLN), on Monday urged the Federal Government to ensure adequate funding of libraries at all levels.

Jato made the call at a book exhibition organised to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the United Nations in Abuja.

He also urged the three tiers of government to make money available for the procurement of books to stock the libraries, saying that this would encourage people to read more.

Jato said that the exhibition was designed to showcase the activities of UN through its various publications in the last five decades.

According to him, the exhibition also aims at bringing to the public the views UN publications which focus on peace and security, development and human rights.

He said that the major mandate of the National Library was to collect, document and preserve materials for posterity and to make such documents available for people to use.

“The NLN has been a repository of UN publications for more than five decades and has continuously been making these publications available to the general public free of charge.

“The involvement of Nigeria in prosecuting the aims and objectives of the UN in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the post-2015 development agenda are highly appreciable.”

He said adequate resources was needed to build e-library infrastructure to make it effective, noting that it would be easily accessible without going to a conventional library.

According to him, e-library has the potential to improve people’s reading habit, especially for the young ones. (NAN)

•Photo shows book shelve.

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