With effect from the 2018/2019 academic session, the Library Registration Council of Nigeria (LRCN) will commence compulsory certification of trained librarians at the point of graduation in order to boost the global competitiveness of Nigerian Librarians, Professor Michael Afolabi, the Registrar of LRCN has revealed.

Prof Afolabi who made the disclosure at the University of Nigeria during a national workshop organised by the council to up-skill certified librarians across the country. The Registrar said the council had secured the approval of the Ministry of Education to commence the compulsory registration exercise.

“We are determined to ensure that more graduates are certified in order to emerge as globally competitive professionals,” Afolabi said, maintaining that the Council would ensure that only certified librarians would be employed to manage libraries in the country.

The Registrar maintained that the point of registration initiative would help weed out quacks in the library profession.

He further disclosed that the council had written to employers of labour to recruit and promote only certified librarians as part of the measures to ensure that the profession is sanitised of quacks.

The registrar, who stated that the council had certified about 5437 librarians, called on all holders of degree in Library and Information Science to register with the council or be denied opportunity to practice as librarians.

He said the workshop tagged “Electronic Resource Management Systems in Libraries” was organised to build the capacity of librarians on contemporary issues in Library and Information Science to enable them perform better.

The Registrar said that the workshop was the second on the list of the Council’s workshop slated for 2018. The first workshop, according to him, was held at the Bayero University on Cloud-based services in the libraries, while the next workshop would be held at the University of Ibadan in November this year.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Prof Benjamin Ozumba, in his address at the workshop, thanked the Council for holding its national workshop in the University for the third time under his tenure.

“This has shown that the Council is really satisfied with the level of ICT development in the University as well as the ambience of our virtual library,” Ozumba, who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Administration, Prof Igwe said.

He said that his administration was committed to building a fully digitised library that would meet the present and future demand for teaching and learning.

Prof Ozumba said that the library was playing a crucial role in the newly accredited e-learning of the university, stating the commitment of his administration to making the institution’s library to be globally competitive.

•Photo shows, L-R; DVC Administration, UNN, Prof Charles Igwe, Registrar, Librarians Registration Council of Nigeria, Prof Michael Afolabi, University of Nigeria Librarian, Prof Chinwe Ezeani and Director in LRCN, Alhaji Jafero Abdulahi at the LRCN Workshop at UNN

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