IS THE LIBRARY FACING COMPETITION?

The answer to the above question is YES. It is true that libraries are facing serious oppositions and competitors in the business of information services. While some librarians may not mind the threat that such competition pose to the existence of the Library, Lee Hisle (2002) noted that “the rise of the Web as the first choice for student and faculty researchers represents a departure from traditional scholarly research patterns”. Unfortunately, most libraries are yet to depart from the traditional methods of information service delivery. Furthermore, Matthews (2011) wrote: "Nowhere is change more evident than in the librarian profession. We are; seeing commercial competition for information access and delivery services arise routinely, making ineffective attempts to serve young library customers whose needs we don’t understand, being inundated with technology beyond our capacity to keep pace, while knowing our younger customers are more technologically savvy than we. We are experiencing library closures everywhere and rampant privatization of library management, regardless of our best achievements. Affects on libraries are obviously more than just the bad economy based on daily reports of unforeseen changes in all of the external factors that influence libraries and librarians." There are strong indications that if libraries does not change, it may lose out because the competitors in the information sector (library domain) are highly prepared, using available online tools to outwit their opponent (libraries). Their effort is to relegate libraries to the background in order to remain in business. Regrettably, most librarians are not aware of this. It will interest librarians to know that some of the strategies utilized by these competitors are not far-fetched. Therefore, we are joining forces with the IT section of the Nigerian Library Association (NLA) to call for action and to revolutionize library services through the use of online tools in order to increase visibility, awareness and marketing of library services for competitive advantage. We are ready to offer services to interested librarians/libraries by introducing customized e-resources such as Blogs and Institutional Repositories (IR) among others. This will be hosted 24/7 on the Internet and will be accessible to potential and current library users. Advantages: 1. It will serve as a current awareness platform for the library to notify its potential and current users about new collections that are being added. 2. It will provide immediate access to information and will draw users to the library. 3. It will be a point of call for information search and retrieval. 4. It may be used as a library’s webpage which can be linked to the University’s website. 5. It will support publication of institutionally based research findings. 6. It will help in the ranking of the affected University. 7. It may attract grant for the affected university. 8. It will serve as a feedback mechanism for the library for improvement in services being rendered to the users. 9. It will capture the needs of potential and current library users thereby given librarians opportunity to quickly respond to them. Technical support Support services will be duly provided to interested libraries. It will be managed by a systems librarian of the University Library. It is modifiable and customizable which will represent and display the affected Library/University identity. A close sample of this is found on http://babcockuniversitylibrary.blogspot.com.ng/ Note that this site was created long ago and we have gone beyond this to enabling site with apps, tabs and drop down menus for more options. Interested librarians/libraries should please contact: Saturday U. Omeluzor on +2348068403268 or send an email to someluzor@yahoo.com or someluzor@gmail.com Acknowledgement: Lee Hisle, W. (2002). Top issues facing academic libraries: A report of the Focus on the Future Task Force. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/proftools/recruiting/topissuesfacing Matthews, K. (2011). Five challenges every Librarians must face. Retrieved from http://21stcenturylibrary.com/2011/10/12/five-challenges-every-librarian-must-face/