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LIBRARY
ACTIVITIES
NIIA Library
News January 2010
Welcome to the library department of the Nigerian Institute of
International Affairs in 2010.The Institute started the year off on
a busy note, and the library was not left out.
NIIA in collaboration with the High Commission of India invited
India’s Minister for Commerce and Industry, His Excellency Anand
Sharma, to deliver a speech on the ‘Significance of Africa-India
Partnership in Emerging World Order’, on the 14th of
January 2010.
The Library put up an exhibition on Nigeria-India relations, which
featured books, press clippings, and journals, highlighting India’s
history, India and Africa relations, and India’s relations in the
World. A photo exhibition featuring former events held at the NIIA
with the Indian community in Nigeria was also on display.
A
two-day conference on, ‘Nigeria’s Non-Permanent membership of the
United Nations Security Council: An Agenda’, was held at the
Institute, from 21-22 January 2010. An exhibition featuring press
clippings on Nigeria’s participation at the UN Security Council and
UN organs, books on the UN and its various organs, pictures of past
and present Nigerian permanent representatives at the UN were on
display. A unique addition was added to this exhibition by way of
video shows on the UN Security Council: how it works and the various
peacekeeping missions undertaken under the auspices of the Council
were shown.
NIIA
LIBRARY NEWS (May - September 2009)
Mrs. A.
S. Dada, Deputy Director Library and Documentation Services (DDLDS),
was elected Chairman of the Nigerian Library Association, Lagos
State Chapter, on the 1st of April 2009, for a term of
two years in the first instance. Her first assignment as the
Chairman was to organize the NLA Lagos Chapter, Annual Lecture, in
conjunction with the NIIA on the 27th of May 2009 at the
Lecture Theatre of the NIIA, Lagos. The theme of the lecture was
‘Digital Library and Resources: Access and Use For Research’, was
delivered by Ms Wunmi Segun.
‘Advancing Desktop Publishing and Graphic Design’, organized by
COINMAC International in Ibadan, Oyo State from the 1st –
12th of June 2009, was attended by two departmental
secretaries; Mrs. Ann Obiapi, and Mrs. Priscilla Ike
The
Director of Library and Documentation Services. Mrs. Q.F. Coker
.The Deputy Director Library and Documentation Services, Mrs. A. S.
Dada, The Deputy Director Technical Services, Mr. J. A. Oni and The
Principal Librarian Technical Services, Mrs. Favor Okafor, all
attended the 47th Nigerian Library Association National
Conference, and Annual General Meeting in Ibadan, from the 24th-31st
July 2009. (Oyo2009). The theme of the conference was ‘Libraries
Create Futures: Building On Cultural Heritage’. At the meeting the
old National Officers were retained to run the affairs of the
association. NLA awards were given to deserving members of the
association.
The
Director of Library and Documentation Services, Mrs. Q. F. Coker,
attended the World Library and Information Congress: 75th
IFLA General Conference and Assembly in Milan, Italy from the 23rd-27th
of August 2009. The theme of the conference was ‘Library Create
Futures: Building on Cultural Heritage’. The same theme with the NLA
AGM.
The
International Federation of Library Association (IFLA) is the
leading International body representing the interest of the Library
and Information Services and their users. It is the global voice of
the Library and information process. NIIA Library is a member of
this prestigious world body , as well as a member of the Nigerian
Library Association
At the
conference, Mrs. Coker, was able to meet and exchange ideas with
information professionals from all over the world. Such topics like
the ‘Recognition of qualifications and quality of Library and
information science education in a global world’ were discussed
among others.
A
workshop on “Readers Services In Library”, organized by COINMAC
International in Ibadan, Oyo State, from7th-18th
September 2009, was attended by Senior Executive Officers from the
Library; Mr. Peter Oduh, Mr. Rex-Lawson Anamaeje, From Readers and
Bibliographic Services, and Mr. Ignatius Chisnum and Mr. James Agbo,
from the Press Library. Earlier on Mr. Joseph Daniel from the Press
Library attended the same course from the 6th of July –17th
of July 2009
The NIIA
Library known for its ability to put exquisite exhibitions
regularly, an any given theme. Lived up to expectations, when the
Research Department of the NIIA had a two –day workshop on
‘Reciprocity in International Relations: Nigeria’s Foreign Policy in
Retrospect’, from9th-10th September 2009.The Exhibition
featured Books Press Clippings, Pictures on the subject of the
workshop, spanning from Independence to the present day Nigeria.
The
Library is known for its very rich collection, mainly in the field
of the social sciences, It was further enriched by the following
Books and Journals, which were processed and are presently in the
Library.
NIIA LIBRARY NEWS-29/10/09
The first National workshop on ‘RE-Inventing the Public Service for
Vision 2020 and the MDGs’, was attended by Mrs. Pamela Ogwuazor
Momah, the Deputy Director Readers and Bibliographic Services, at
ASCON Badagry Lagos from June 15-18, 2009
The
following report emanated from the workshop:
Public
service reform, in whatever form or scope has only one basic
objective: to strengthen, remold, refocus, retune and reposition the
public service to meet present and future challenges, which the
government has set for itself, because a reformed public service is
a basic requirement for a vibrant economy.
The strategic direction of the current reform agenda of the
Yar’Adua administration was instigated by the Millennium Development
Goals (MDG’s)
The Millennium Development Goals are as follows:
(1) Eradication of poverty and hunger.
(2)
Achieve universal primary education.
(3)
Promote gender equality and empower women.
(4)
Reduce Child mortality.
(5)
Improve maternal health.
(6)
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and polio, TB etc.
(7)
Ensure environmental sustainability.
(8)
Develop a global partnership for development.
These MDG’s are to be achieved between 2000-2015.Nigeria is a
signatory to the MDG’s, and is committed to achieving the MDG’S in
2015.
A strategic framework for actualizing these time bound goals by
Nigeria led to the development of NEEDS 1 in 2003, and its
counterpart-SEEDS and LEEDS.
Under NEEDS 1, various policy thrusts were initiated by the
government, to achieve the MDG’s. e.g. Institutional
rationalization, Universal Basic Education, National Policy on
Women, The National Health Insurance Scheme, National Environmental
Sanitation Policy, Exiting from the Paris and London clubs of
creditors etc.
The apparent poor performance of Nigeria, with regards to the MDG’s
became a challenge for Yar’Adua’s administration. In response to
this challenge the Yar’Adua administration instituted NEEDS 2, 7
-Point-Agenda, and vision 20:2020.
The 7-Point-Agenda sets the sectorial priorities for implementing
NEEDS 2, refocusing the policy priorities as articulated in NEEDS 2,
in a way that will sustain the gains of the economic reforms. It
will also fast track the process of achieving higher standards of
living and better quality of life for most Nigerians.
The Federal Government also initiated a vision of making Nigeria
one of the largest 20 economies in the world by the year 2020.This
vision is the framework for ensuring economic transformation, that
could create sustainable conditions for financing human development
in Nigeria.
The workshop examined if Nigeria has the requisite human and:
institutional capacities to deliver these development aspirations,
and it also looked at the pivotal role the Nigerian Public Service
has to play in the fast realization of these goals of vision 20:2020
and the MDG’s.
The Civil Service is the main instrument through which government
carries out it business .The Public Service plays a vital role in
the formulation of government policies. It also provides a
facilitative and lead role for the performance of other sectors of
the economy. Therefore a Public Service that is modern, effective
and efficient is critical to the success and performance of
government, and it’s programmes. Like vision 20:2020.Thus the
achievement of the country’s set targets for vision 20:2020 will
depend on the efficiency of the Public Service.
The fundamental question is how well prepared are the various Public
Service organizations to respond to, and implement these changes?
Time will tell.
Mrs. Pamela Ogwuazor Momah- Deputy Director(R&BS)-22/6/09 Library
Department.
The advanced French class of the Institute made a three-day
academic visit to the Republic of Benin republic, from the October
1– 4, 2009. Miss Ejide Ukelonu, Mrs. Pamela Ogwuazor Momah, Mrs.
Christie Okorafor, Mr. Eyo, Mr.Peter Oduh from the Library
department were part of this excursion. Visits to historic sites,
museums, and markets were made. The participants also visited
different cities in The Republic of Benin, like Port Novo, Cotounu,
and Ouidah. But, the ancient slave route was a sorrowful sight to
behold.
Mrs. Janet E. Edet, Chief Typist in the Technical services division
of the Library, Mrs. Aina, Mr. Effiong and Mr. Adebule from the
Printing division of the Library all attended the ‘Advanced Desktop
Publishing and Graphic Design’ workshop, organized by COINMAC
International Ltd. Ibadan, from 12th- 23rd
October, 2009.Various aspects of Desktop publishing and graphic
designing were looked into.
NIIA
LIBRARY NEWS-ACTIVITIES UP TO 22ND OCTOBER
The third workshop on library and Information Technology Today,
with the theme, ‘Managing and Building Digital Collection’ took
place at Nsukka from the 11th- 16th October
2009. The workshop was well attended by Librarians from all over the
Federation. The NIIA Library was not left out of this important
event. Librarians from the Institute were in attendance, Mrs. C. N.
Okorafor, Principal Librarian Readers Services, Mr. J. B. Lanade,
Chief Executive Library Officer Press Library, Mr. E. O. Eyo,
Assistant Executive Officer Technical Services and Mr. C. Akor,
Higher Executive Officer Technical Services, all attended the
workshop. They were able to learn and exchange ideas with the
participants at the workshop. This workshop is of great significance
to the NIIA library as we are about fully digitize our Press Library
Collection, which is a vital part of the Library collection due to
its ability to provide very current and topical information that
cannot be found anywhere else due to its currency. The keynote
address, titled ‘The world at our feet: roles, responsibilities of
information professional in the digital age’ was delivered by the
University Librarian, Dr Charles Omekwu. The whole concept of
Digitization, its management, developing institutional policy,
Digitizing software etc, was fully examined. The proceedings of the
workshop are available for consultation at the Library.
The students of the Department of History and Diplomatic Studies,
from Babcock University, were on an excursion visit to the Institute
on the 15th of October 2009. They visited the Library
after the lecture by the Research Department. They were taken on a
guided tour to various divisions of the Library and were shown the
various resources, electronic and non-electronic resources held by
the Library also services highlighted. It was made quite clear to
them that with a letter of introduction from their Head of
Department and their current ID card, they would be allowed to use
the Library for their various projects.
NIIA LIBRARY NEWS – 5TH NOVEMBER 2009
Covenant University Library in continuation with its tradition for
robust intellectual discourse, aimed at capacity building and
professional vibrancy, held its monthly departmental seminar, on the
3rd of November 2009, at the Centre for Learning
Resource, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun state. The topic of the
seminar was ‘Information Communications Technology for Community
Development: ‘The Role of Academic Libraries’. The presenter, Miss
Etoromi Victoria said that academic libraries, as institutions that
are trustworthy knowledge providers can help communities develop
through the use of information communication technology. From her
survey it was found that there is still much problem enlightenment
work to be done in communities around higher Institutions of
learning with regard to Library awareness, Library usage skills, and
workshop/training on the use of Library.
The Deputy Director Readers Services, Mrs. Pamela Ogwuazor Momah,
and the Higher Library Officer Technical Services Mr. Clement Akor
attended the seminar.
NIIA LIBRARY NEWS – 12 NOVEMBER, 2009
The Library’s rich collection, mainly in the field of the social
sciences, is vital to the work of the Research Department: the
heartbeat of the Institute. It is in the light of this knowledge
that management deemed it fit to send two of its Library security
staff. Mr. John Lebo and Mr. Benjamin Akpan, for a two weeks
security training workshop, at Ibadan, from the 26th of
October 2009 – the 6th of November 2009 at COINMAC
training Institute. The workshop examined various security issues,
crime prevention and detection and modern techniques and gadgets
used for surveillance.
LIBRARY NEWS-19TH NOVEMBER 2009
Primary School Children from Tender Grapes International School
Gbagada Lagos visited the Institute on the 12th of
November 2009. They were given an educational tour of the Library
and were acquainted with the various resources available.
The NIIA Library is an automated Library, where virtually all are
materials can be sourced for on-line. The Library software making it
possible is the Alice Software by Soft Link. To be able to make
proper use of this software and maximize its usage the Management of
the Institute organized a four-day training workshop for all the
staff of the Institute, from the 10th –13th of
November 2009.Ms Wumi Segun, a Library consultant came in to do the
training. The workshop started up with a general introduction and
overview of Alice Software, then the Cataloguing Module was
examined, followed by Circulation Module and finally by the
Periodical Module. At the end of the workshop the Library staff were
much better informed.
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