The Status of Fourah Bay College Library Since Its Inception to Present Moment

INTRODUCTION

Fourah Bay College library arrived into existence in 1827 and it was affiliated with Durham in 1876. This affiliation plan enlarged the faculty regulations, and as a final result of this, new phases of growth were being introduced and involved in the advancement in the condition of the library. Its first Board of Curators was appointed and a regular offer of normal newspapers and other publications were being provided. Professor Richards was appointed Librarian-In-Demand with Mr. T. Taylor as Library Assistant.

Improvement OF FOURAH BAY College LIBRARY

Fourah bay College or university Library administration was almost recognized, and captivated important donations these as a special assortment donated in 1881 by Rev. H. Wright who served as Honorary Secretary to the Church Missionary Modern society. Afterwards in 1917 Bishop James Johnson bequeathed his set of 24 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica to the College or university Library.

In the course of the Planet War II period of time, that is 1939-1945, minor was completed about the improvement of the Faculty Library. By then the library was found at Mabang, and continued to manage a library which was at first intended to be an Agricultural Faculty. The College or university had couple of academics and a compact pupil population of about twenty learners. The situations of the war in the 1940’s brought on the library to be managed by college student librarians. The library was normally confronted with absence of sources in the war several years. In those people a long time the library negligible collections consisted largely of theological and literary is effective which was transferred to Mount Aureol. The elements was housed in quite a few properties such as the pupil eating corridor, the college or university Chapel, the University Bookshop, retailers and Online games and Sporting activities Workplace.

The library amenities of the college or university at this stage fashioned element of the higher education enhancement programme. The most space of precedence at Fourah Bay faculty was the advancement of Library. With the establishment of a steady info Centre, Fourah Bay School became an appealing venue for overseas money. In 1954, next a check out to the Fulton Commission which improved the position of the school, the library was awarded a grant of $8,000 by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, to be applied for the order of necessary reference and bibliographic elements. The British complemented this donation in 1955 with a grant of £15,000 from the Colonial Enhancement Welfare Resources. Two-thirds of individuals donations (£10,000) were being expended on guides and periodicals and the rest on gear. These grants and other donations led to an accelerated expansion of the library and fashioned the basis of a continuous progress for the duration of the 60s. It was at this critecal period that the library was assigned its rightful place as a priority affiliated college of the University of Durham.

In 1961, the 2nd expatriate Mr. R.S. Burkett, relinquished his appointment as School Librarian right after a time period of 4 and the fifty percent a long time. The 3rd expatriate librarian, the late Mr. Michael Jollife (following whom the library has been named), was appointed in 1961. He was in the beginning involved with the improvement of the bodily facilities of the library. In 1968, the university gained total college standing and with this elevation, the library also played leadership role in the enhancement of other librarians in Sierra Leone. In just the library itself, Mr. Jollife established the Reprographic and Micrographic sections. In his 1961/1962 once-a-year report, Mr. Jollife made the decision to the give funds below the British Complex Guidance Programme for the purchase of bindery machines and Mr. W.J Askew, a British E-book Binder was assigned this duty. He arrived in Sierra Leone in August 15, 1964. By then, there were being 10 thousand (10,000) guides and periodicals for binding and rebinding. Mr. S.T Browne, a Sierra Leonean craftsman succeeded Mr. Askew soon after his 3 many years tenure in April 1966 as Head Ebook Binder. Presently, the Bindery is headed by Mr. Patrick James. At the stop of March, 1970, Mr. Michael Jollife resigned his put up to come to be Librarian at Royal Halloway School, London and was succeeded by A.C. Butler who arrived in 1971. As a result, Mrs. Gladys Jusu-Sheriff was the first Sierra Leonean College or university Librarian immediately after Mr. Butler still left in 1972.

Fourah Bay College administration reacted to an acute lack of library staff in that period, and instituted a class for the City and Guilds of London Assistant Certification jointly organised by the higher education library and the Additional-Mural Division. Deficiencies in the library certification provided an clear long-phrase need for a library study course in Sierra Leone. This programme was a junior assistant’s qualification which was purely western program of library administration and there was an evident gap between the Town of Guilds and the ALA. There was a need to have to institute a programme domestically to present an intermediate qualification to bridge the hole amongst the junior clerical degree workers and whole experts. This introduced about the reaction for the formation of the Institute of Library, Archive and Data Reports in 1986 by the dynamic leadership of Mrs. Gladys Jusu-Sheriff who sooner or later turned the initial director. In November 1999 the Institute was merged with the Mass Conversation device in the Faculty of Arts to form the Institute of Library, Data and Interaction Reports (INSLICS) offering certification, diploma, degree and postgraduate skills.

The late Mrs. Deanna Thomas succeeded Mrs. Gladys Jusu-Sheriff as librarian of Fourah Bay Faculty library in 1990 but traveled out of the state in June 1997 all through the interregnum of Freetown. Mr. Oliver Harding acted as librarian in her absence until finally June 1998 when a extra senior officer in the University of Sierra Leone, the late Prof. L.N. M’Jamtu-Sie the then librarian of Faculty of Medication and Allied Well being Sciences (COMAHS) was appointed to supervise things to do in the library. She resigned in January 2005 and returned to COMAHS. Mr. Donald Davies acted until eventually August 2005 and was succeeded in an performing potential by Rev. Oliver Harding who returned to Sierra Leone from Nigeria right after he received a next master degree in Biblical Scientific tests from West Africa Theological Seminary, Lagos (an affiliate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka). He is nevertheless the recent Performing Librarian at Fourah Bay College Library with only 20-9(29) staff members. Of the 20-9 employees, only eight(8) are gurus. This in fact is a significant setback to Fourah Bay College Library which requirements to be rectified.

Now the library consists of a four-storey creating composed of the next sections: The reduce floor flooring consists of the Bindery and the Sierra Leone Selection. The Floor Floor is composed of the Reception Desk, Librarian’s Business, Concern Desk, Cataloguing Office and General Reference assortment, photocopying home, the American Cabinets and the United Nations Assortment. The initially ground is the Periodicals/Serials Selection, while the next flooring characterize the lending collection or the textbook selection and the 3rd flooring which initially housed lending library matarials is currently not performing owing to licking roof of the creating.

The pursuing are the various sections in the library and their features:

• Librarian’s Office environment & Acquisitions Division
• Cataloguing Section
• Challenge Desk
• Textbook Assortment
• Periodicals Division
• Sierra Leone Selection
• United Nations Selection
• The American Cabinets/Corner and
• The Bindery

The very first section is the Librarian’s Workplace which commonly controls all other places in the library. The office environment also serves as the Acquisition’s Department. This is wherever variety of library elements is finished. Lecturers are inspired to make selection of supplies to be acquired for their use. At the time the variety is created and bibliographic information are scrutinised, the inventory of the library to stay away from unwanted duplication of orders is checked. These resources are despatched to the library, and their aspects are checked from all those of the buy slips subsequent these supplies which are accessioned just before passing them about to the Cataloguing Office. There is also availability of audiovisual equipment this sort of as projector which the librarian works by using throughout orientation programmes and also utilised to perform lectures.

Library products on receipt from the Librarian’s office/Acquisitions Department are classified and catalogued in the 2nd section. This next part is not inside of sight or it is out of bounds. The organisation of elements into a established pattern of lessons facilitates the arrangement of these materials on the suitable shelves with materials on distinct subjects getting housed with each other in the same spot of the library. The excellence of the Catalogue is the pride of the library since as soon as a product is wrongly categorized and shelved, it does not keep with associates of its class and in some conditions, it is like a dropped materials. Fourah Bay School library presently utilise the 23rd edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification Plan and the AACR2 (Anglo American Cataloguing Regulations 2).

The 3rd portion is also known as the Circulations Division exactly where supplies that go out on financial loan are charged to patrons and discharged on return to the library. Information and facts about products not found on the shelves could be retrieved from the Circulations Section. Shelving arrangements are also below the supervision of the Circulations Area workers. This portion also process and situation learners library cards.

The forth area is at this time the most heavily employed area in Fourah Bay Higher education library. It is a closed obtain collection. This implies that supplies are not specifically readily available to viewers but issued out upon ask for. Elements in this part include different disciplines based mostly on the curriculum of the college or university. This assortment also residences past assessment papers of classes taken on campus. Messengers from the library are sent to examination halls with a formal letter from the Librarian requesting copies of assessment papers from invigilators. These are inevitably sorted out and sent to the bindery department to be bound into volumes.

The fifth section is also identified as the Journal/Serials Area. It homes quarterly, bi-quarterly, each year, semi-per year publications. These are publications of many volumes which occur about at normal intervals and intended to indefinitely proceed. Several authors contribute articles to them. They also have distinctive titles. At the close of the 12 months, back again challenges are sent to the bindery to be sure into volumes and stocked in the segment for researchers on various disciplines. This section can also classify and catalogue periodical elements to relieve function carried out by the Cataloguing Office.

As the name implies, this sixth section residences materials about Sierra Leone. Resources in this assortment are difficult to weed given that they sort aspect of the national bibliography of Sierra Leone. The unit also includes newspapers which are acquired day by day. This grey literature is special as the newspaper collection date-again to the 1930s to present working day.

The seventh part is situated in the Floor Ground of the library and is currently in a area renovated by the United Nations and stocked with desktops, printers, photocopiers which are applied by pupils, lecturers and administrative staff members. Having said that, this section is managed by a personal proprietor alternatively of FBC library.

The eighth segment is the American Shelve. This is found at the Floor Ground of the library. It was proven in July 2007, after a “Memorandum of Being familiar with” signed by the then U.S. Ambassador and the then Deputy Chancellor of Fourah Bay School. The intent was to encourage community diplomacy of the Embassy of the United States of America in Sierra Leone, that’s why its name the “American Shelves.” Materials housed in this selection are purely American. Collections include books, CD-ROM, Posters, Periodicals/magazines and other programming elements of the Embassy of the United States of The usa in Sierra Leone. The American Corner has a tv set. The guide selection is made up of materials in heritage, literature, training, wellbeing, economics, management, company, society and law of the United States of The usa. Funds are usually produced out there by the Community Affairs Sections of the United States Embassy in Sierra Leone to the library to undertake joint sensitisation programmes on applicable challenges to culture this kind of as black record day, democracy, human correct, the female baby and “Ebola”, in which keynote speakers are possibly presented by the Embassy or the library from local experts with regards the matter of dialogue. Online video reveals are also organised.

The ninth segment is found at the Reduced Ground Floor and is the financial nerve centre of the library. Paperbacks with significantly less than fifty web pages are taken care of as pamphlets and are processed and stocked in packing containers. Products with fifty internet pages and earlier mentioned are regarded as books and sent to the bindery for tough covers. Customers desirous of making use of this segment of the library will have to observe the next techniques:

• Safe proforma invoice for binding perform
• Settle invoice at Librarian’s business and collect receipt for volume paid out
• Accumulate bound function from bindery on presentation of a valid receipt
• Departmental work from FBC should be accompanied by an buy from respective heads of departments and paid for in income or cheque
• All cheques should really be designed payable to Fourah Bay Higher education.

Other types of work opportunities completed in the bindery include rebinding dissertations/theses, paperbacks, newspapers, engagement Bibles, ledgers and gold lettering. Nonetheless this sections is restricted with basic bindery products and facilities to bind and rebind the library elements.

Problems

It is crystal clear that Fourah Bay University Library has some challenges in controlling the library. Some of the worries are as thus: inadequate funding and existing resources insufficient sitting lodging insufficient properly trained and competent team and insufficient provision of photocopying machines. Of the different problems, the major being the inadequate sitting lodging and the inadequate funding and non-existing supplies.

The current condition of Details Management amidst the new management at Fourah Bay Higher education is that there is common ability supply which is attained from a few (3) sources, that is, the Energy Distribution and Source Authority (EDSA) a stand-by generator which is shared with the primary administrative building and a photo voltaic panel which only supplies the reduce and ground floors of the library. This has a whole lot of problems for the library as the other floors are presently out of electric power provide as the complete constructing is underneath refurbishment. There is availability of Web connectivity through hotspots, though its energy is really weak only people with sophisticated systems can have access to it. The developments of ICTs have provided Fourah Bay Library present and demanding option that requires it to react positively in all facets of their services and capabilities if they are to remain applicable in the new data age.

Recommendations

I propose that:

• the university administration should deliver much more sitting lodging by setting up far more library constructions.
• University should make use of far more qualified and capable expert librarians or instantly encourage the present workers that have currently long gone as a result of the librarianship education
• the university must provide more cash so that the previous substance be swap the currents types
• Sierra Leone Collection which hold a significance variety of gray literature must be digitised and develop on the internet database that need to be entry by scientists. The bindery section really should also be provided with fashionable machines for printing and binding publications on sensible price tag as is the cash flow creating segment of library
• the web connectivity should be more robust that the present 1
• energy power offer really should be continual
• lecturers-library staff romantic relationship ought to be potent in choosing library supplies base on the college or university curriculum and
• disaster management approach should really be supplied in case any hearth outbreak or flooding.

Conclusion

It is evident that Fourah Bay College or university Library around the many years has been crippling with inadequate skilled and qualified library expert because of to aging librarian disaster. The remaining expert staff members are not promoted immediately right after retirement of a retiree workers mainly because of too much forms/protocol in the administration system. Consequently the qualified and knowledgeable staff had to wait around for a long time or satisfy selected tutorial bench marks prior to they are promoted.