Introduction

The library is a major source of information in any educational institution. The place of the library is so important in any tertiary institution that it is commonly referred to as “the heartbeat of the university’’. Any attempt at disregarding the place of the library has adverse consequences. In fact, one of the major factors that can be blamed for the low reading culture and dwindling quality of education in developing countries is lack of well-equipped libraries. A reading nation is a developed nation and libraries encourage good reading culture. Library is dynamic and is presently experiencing a paradigm shift due to evolving technologies. Most libraries in the modern era have become digital for more effective and efficient service delivery. Libraries also want their users to access information with ease no matter their location at any time in line with education for all mandate of 2015. Modern libraries thus, ensure that the society has access to information regardless of age, education, language, income, physical limitation and geographical barriers.

Concept of NOUN Library

National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) is the largest single mode tertiary institution in the West Africa sub-region. Its mandate is to provide highly accessible and enhanced quality education through a comprehensive reach that transcends all barriers. NOUN has about 120,000 active students across the nation and beyond.

Comparison of NOUN Library with Conventional Universities

Libraries in conventional universities mainly focus on the collection, preservation, processing and dissemination of physical resources though due to increasing technological innovation on line resources are becoming imperative as part of their delivery services. This scenario is a little bit different in an open and distance learning institution. The NOUN library like any other library in an open and distance learning institution places more emphasis on building robust electronic resources. This is to enable them give their users, who are geographical spread across nations, have access to information resources. Most conventional libraries have on site central library, faculty libraries and departmental libraries. The reason for this is basically because their users are on site unlike the open and distance learning institutions like NOUN that have study centres across a geographical space which serve as mini campuses.

Therefore, the concept of a library is to have these study centres in NOUN have libraries of their own apart from the central library as well as the faculty libraries. Presently, NOUN has 108 study centres, and the concept therefore follows that all of these study centres must have a situated library space and functionality. However, practice has it that, it is an almost impossible task to have physical libraries in all these study centres. This is the reason NOUN library lays emphasis on electronic resources than the print resources. NOUN library therefore has a robust e-resources.