ENHANCING PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICES IN OSUN STATE: ADDRESSING CHALLENGES AND IMPLEMENTING EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES

Abstract

In Nigeria, public libraries are designed to satisfy the demands of the populace for free information by offering resources and services. This paper focuses on the public library services in Osun State in the face of best practices in a bid to identify the challenges and propose effective strategies. These services include those related to education, information awareness, children's libraries, and other services. However, a number of issues were found to be hindering public libraries in Nigeria's efforts to offer patrons effective services, including insufficient funding, unfavorable service and employment conditions for staff, inadequate JCT infrastructure, and limited JCT skills. The suggested solutions to address the aforementioned difficulties are to encourage non-governmental organizations to provide help to Nigerian public libraries; the staff conditions of service should be upwardly reviewed in terms of salaries, allowances, employment processes, retirement, and others to motivate the staff and also make public library jobs more attractive. Strategies to fortify the public library for effective and efficient mandate delivery were also spelled out in this paper.