Zambezia (1982), X (i).THE LIBRARY IN THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY*S.M. MADEThe Library, University of ZimbabweTHE OCCASION OF this inaugural lecture provides an opportunity not only to learnfrom the review of the past but also to speculate on the future. Because social andtechnical change is accelerating, it has been suggested that learning must become alifelong process, which will not stop with graduation from university. If highereducation becomes more extensively involved with continuing education theimplications for a university library are rather obvious, although a considerableamount of work will be required to translate service objectives into terms ofspecialized-collection development, seating requirements, and budgetaryconsiderations.In his book, Universities: British, Indian, African, Sir Eric Ashby assertsthat the inspiration to create new university institutions in Britain's colonies had itssource in the reports of Currie in 1933 and Channon in 1943, and that its firstpractical consequences are embodied in the De La Warr report on Makerere,published in 1937. The Currae Report had called for an immediate and publiclyannounced programme of university development; in doing so it was stronglyinfluenced by political considerations. It saw serious political trouble and a veryreal danger of alienating enlightened African opinion unless adequate provisionwas made for the growing demand for higher education in Africa, and it regarded itas damaging to British prestige that an increasing number of Africans should beseeking training in foreign countries.1By 1943 the tide of the Second World War had turned, the British colonialservice was becoming reconciled to the price of development of the indigenouspeoples that they rale and there was at that time a Secretary of State, OliverStanley, appointed in 1942, who considered university education to be one of themost important questions in connection with the post-war reconstruction anddevelopment of the Empire. The idea necessary for creating colonial universitieshaving been supplied by Currie, De la Warr and Channon, what was now neededwas a strategy to turn ideas into accomplishments.Stanley announced in the House of Commons on 13 July 1943 that he wassetting up a commission under the chairmanship of Sir Cyril Asquith. Thiscommission published its report in 1945 and said that the chief objective onestablishing universities in the British colonies should be to create institutions towhich the colonies, after that first stage of development, would look for the*An inaugural lecture delivered before the University of Zimbabwe on 12 November 1981.'E. Ashby, Universities: British, Indian, African: A Study in the Ecology of Higher Education(London, Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 1966), 194.1THE LIBRARY IN THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITYproduction of men and women with standards of public service and capacity forleadership which self-rale would require. It regarded as practicable, and indeed asurgent, the immediate setting up of university colleges which would not beempowered to grant degrees but which would be created with the teaching strength,buildings and other elements of the material background which would place themon an equal footing with the Western universities.2 Among the elements of thematerial background of great importance to the universities were obviously theuniversity libraries, about which A.M. Carr-Saunders remarked in 1963:To any university the importance of its library is central, but to overseasuniversities and colleges their libraries are of even greater importance than towestern universities. In all subjects members of staff must depend almostwholly on the library provision made by their institutions. Such publiclibraries as exist are very seldom of any use to them, and few even serve theneeds of the students,3For a dozen years after its publication, the Asquith Report remained the basisof British policy for higher education in the colonial territories, and the institutionsestablished under the arrangements proposed in the Report became known asAsquith Colleges. Between 1946 and 1949 the University of London had enteredinto special relationships with colleges in the Sudan, Nigeria, the Gold Coast, andUganda, In Central Africa, the major outcome of the Asquith plan was areport, published in 195 3, of the Carr-Saunders commission on higher education inCentral Africa which had been appointed by the Central African Council to drawup a plan for a university college to serve the then Southern Rhodesia, NorthernRhodesia and Nyasaland.4 The report was in favour of an interracial college. Thusonly one university institution was originally established in British CentralAfricaŠthe University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland; and it was inaccordance with the recommendations of the Asquith Commission, which urgedthe creation of universities and colleges so situated that, as far as was compatiblewith geography, the remaining areas of the Colonial Empire should be served byone of them. The University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was to serve anarea which in 1953 became the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland till itsdissolution in 1963. In resources British Central Africa was potentially very richand was beginning to enjoy the benefit of their exploitation. It was therefore evidentthat, so far as these matters were relevant to the founding of a university institutionin Central Africa, the necessary conditions existed.52 Great Britain, Report of the Commission on Higher Education in the Colonies, 1944-45 [Cmd.6647; Chairman: Mr Justice Asquith), 104,Ł'Quoted in J. Harris, 'The library in the expanding African university', Nigerian Libraries(1967), III, 40-6."Central African Council, Report of the Commission of Higher Education for Africans inCentral Africa, 1953 (Chairman: A.M. Carr-Saunders], 105,5S.M. Made, 'University libraries in English-speaking Central Africa', Journal of Librarianship(1969), I, 239.S.M. MADEThe University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was the last to beestablished on the Asquith model. That there are now three university institutionsserving the same area is a result of the gaining of political independence byZambia and Malawi after the breakup of the Federation.Whatever evils can be attributed to British imperialism, there can be nothingbut praise for its legacy to libraries in the new universities established in the last fewdays of its rule. Firmly written into the constitutions of the universities at Accra,Ibadan, Khartoum, Salisbury, as well as outside Africa in Malaysia, the WestIndies and Hong Kong, is the practical recognition of a library as essential to eachuniversity's aims and function, and a status for the librarian as one of the seniorofficers of the institution. It was an immense advance on what prevailed at the timein most Commonwealth universities. This matter of legislation in the universitybecomes more important than ever in a continent which has no establisheduniversity traditions. The library is in most of our universities the only source ofsupply to staff and students. It alone must meet all their library demands. This is sodifferent from the position in the developed countries, with their multitude ofpublic, special and national libraries, that it is not generally appreciated. AsHarris says:Africa has been largely a continent without books. They are still indesperately short supply throughout most communities. The result is that ouruniversity libraries experience abnormal pressures from readers not onlyfrom within the university but from outside as well. This forces us to interestourselves in the whole range of book resources and of agencies supplying thebooks. A bookshop on the university campus, a public library system for ourcommunity, libraries for teachers in schools, reference libraries for govern-ment departmentsŠall these are as essential to our continued existence as OUTown collections.6In our African setting, there are several factors which tend to influence thegeneral trend in university library development which may not be experienced inthe developed countries. To take library material, in developed countries theuniversity library stock is reinforced by the existence of public, special and nationallibraries from which students can borrow to supplement their reading. In Africa theuniversity's owe library is the only source of book supply available to staff andstudents. This, therefore, implies that, as Harris points out, special attention shouldbe directed toward the consequential need for a higher ratio of library to totaluniversity expenditure than in other parts of the world.7The question of efficient manpower leads the university libraries to givespecial consideration to the recruitment of qualified and dedicated library staff.Perhaps of greatest importance, the urge to improve the economic, social and'Harris, 'The library in the expanding African university', 43.7 Ibid.THE LIBRARY IN THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITYcultural conditions in their area produces a pressing need for the university librariesin Africa to support the teaching and research programmes which the universitieshave designed to suit the social, political, economic and cultural needs of Africa.All this is bound to influence the university libraries' policy decisions in a numberof ways. As Varley said in his inaugural lecture at this university in 1962,the emergent states [in Africa] desperately need the information on which tobase their developing economies, and the investment in organized knowledge... Outside aid will not last for ever. The interchange of information about oneanother's publications, scientific research, administrative experience, trainingmethods, reliable and up-to-date documentation centres, using the latesttechniques of the library worldŠall these are the business of the librarian aswell as of the administrators.8Another librarian has described libraries as follows:The library may be said to resemble the institutional memory of man. It is anarchive of collective wisdom and folly, as well as an active agency whichattempts to identify the informational needs of its constituents and to developcollections and services accordingly. The library is a fragile organism, subjectto crippling damage as a consequence of easily afflicted wounds, be theyphysical or financial. It must, at once, accommodate the Nobel Laureate andthe most immature beginning student. It must attempt to match the infiniteexpectations of its readers with the realities of a very finite budget for books,staff, and space, and it must maintain its credibility with the administrationlest it be thought of as simply another unit of the University completelydedicated to the absorption of institutional funds. Most difficult of all, thelibrarian must convince each of several hundred faculty members that theonly reason for which the library exists is to minister to their personalbibliographic needs and wants.9He continued by saying that in supporting the teaching and research activitiesof the university the library must accumulate historical manuscripts, economicpapers from other developing countries, ephemeral literature from radical politicalorganizations, census data, and books and periodicals of all time and in alllanguages of the world. These must be carefully selected from a large mass ofavailable publications and brought together in an organized collection. Thedevelopment of new fields of knowledge spawns new academic programmes whichare estimated to double every twelve to fifteen years. These pressures, plusincreases in publishers' prices, result in obvious pressures, not only on the librarybudget but also on available space. This, then, is the general environment in whichthe university library finds itself today. It has little to say about the academic8D.H. Varley, The Role of the Librarian in New Africa (London, Oxford University Press,1962), 20.9J.E. Skipper, 'The academic library and the future', in University Library Problems:Proceedings of a Symposium in Library Science on the Occasion of the 350th Anniversary of theUppsala University Library (Uppsala, Acta Bibliothecae R. Universitatis Upsaliensis 19, 1975), 15,S.M. MADEprogrammes which it is called upon to support, it has slight influence in controllingthe number of students and faculties it must serve; it exercises practically no effectin influencing either the amount or the bibliographic integrity of the products whichit must acquire and service; and it is hostage to the fortunes of budget allocation andinflation of prices. The character and efficiency of a university may be gauged by itstreatment of its central organ the library. The British University Grants Committeein 1921 said:We regard the fullest provision for library maintenance as the primary andmost vital need in the equipment of a university. Ae adequate library is notonly the basis of all teaching and study; it is the essential condition of research,without which additions cannot be made to the sum of human knowledge.10A university library has a twofold function, of supporting, on the one hand, theteaching of undergraduates and, on the other hand, the creative work in scholarshipand science by the postgraduate students and members of the university staff.Library provision for the undergraduate may be considered under the heads ofspecial education and general education. So far as its speciality is concerned, a wellchosen collection of books related to the teaching courses may be sufficient, and tofurnish a total collection suitable for undergraduates in all departments andfaculties is not, in principle, an unduly formidable task. That this total collectionshould be considered a separate entity is reasonable, but perhaps not to the extentof relegating it to a separate building. The library should present to ail, and not leastto undergraduates, the unity and not the fragmentation of knowledge.The initiative of the library is no less important in connection with generaleducation. Every student should leam the efficient use of printed sources ofinformation, and students who have the privilege of a university education and thushave spread before them every day for three years or more a large and variedcollection of books, should not lack encouragement to use this opportunity to theutmost. There are indeed students who, of their own accord, will make themselvesat home in a large library, but it is only too true that the majority place themselves asnear as they can to the books in their chosen subjects and do not stray from, say.Economics to Physics or vice versa, and they might be hard put to it to tell youwhere was to be found Who's Who or the British National Bibliography or evenThe Times Higher Education Supplement,The provision of a good undergraduate library is, though by no means an easyor mechanical task, nevertheless a manageable and controllable one, Research onthe contrary requires by its very nature a virtually limitless amount of material:fundamental research is exhypothesi unpredictable, and the best collection ofbooks is that which can answer the greatest number of unseen questions, respond tothe greatest number of emergencies. Literary research and scientific research do, of°Ibid., 15-16.THE LIBRARY IN THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITYcourse, present an Important difference in that, for the former, books anddocuments generally are the raw materials, while for the latter they are records ofprogress and the form which they take is that of periodical publications. A scientistwill largely be satisfied if a library possesses complete runs of every relevantperiodical in every major language: a classical scholar or a medieval historian maywant any book published since the invention of printing, as well as manuscripts andarchives. Literary and historical research is handicapped at every turn by gaps inthe collections.Emphasis on research does not deny or minimize the needs of theundergraduates: it is, in fact, the only way to ensure that the teaching which theyreceive is of university quality, the alternative is memorably expressed by Gibbonwhen he said of the teachers of Constantinople that 'They held in their lifelesshands the riches of their fathers, without inheriting the spirit which has created andimproved that sacred patrimony: they read, the praised, they compiled ... asuccession of patient disciples became in their turn the dogmatic teachers of thenext servile generation,'The book-stock position today is perhaps most difficult of all to estimate, andthis is paradoxical since it seems to be most susceptible of simple measurement.When evaluating book-stock it is important to bear in mind the differing levels ofreader demand made on a university library. It is not enough to make simplecomparisons between the population size and book-stock of particular institutions.To provide library services to an undergraduate body, irrespective of its size,requires first of all a basic collection related primarily to the teaching programmebut providing also sufficient background, Integrative and non-teaching material tomake of the library an educative instrument in the widest sense. Opinions differ onthe optimum size of such a collection and economy in book-stock might be possiblein an institution severely limited in its areas of teaching, but anything less than100,000 volumes hardly provides sufficient scope for the intelligent student to gainreal benefit from 'reading' for a degree, or for the conscientious lecturer tointroduce sufficient variety and challenge into his lectures or assijpimeiit work.Allowing for serial titles and minimal duplication, such a collection would after allbe unlikely to include as many as 50,000 separate titles.Given this basic collection, the size of the student population now becomes animportant factor, since bitter experience has shown that the effectiveness of thelibrary will be preserved only so long as a sufficient number of copies of much usedtitles is available to meet the demands of large classes.Any reduction below this point drives the library into the staff-expensive andlibrary-negating system of extensive closed reserves, or stimulates reader delin-quency. This last expresses itself in rising loss rates and, more despicably, in a rashof book mutilation, A virtual breakdown in service can occur almost overnight, atthe point where marginal offenders, or previously moral library users, are suddenlyforced, in the desperation of self defence, to compete with the dedicated delinquent«Ł wS.M. MADEon Ms own ground. To the basic collection then, must be added an adequate numberof multiple copies, to the order of certainly no less than an average O¥er the wholerange of university studies of one copy per twenty students enrolled In the particularcourse for which a book in question is in demand.Such a mechanically adjusted collection, its overall size dictated byundergraduate numbers, gives us, however, no more than the working stock forfirst-degree education. We must now face the problem of providing for research, aproblem which arises, in library terms and so far as students only are concerned, assoon as the institution involved offers honours courses to the first degree. Itbecomes increasingly difficult as the university moves into the higher degree fieldand it tends to dominate book-stock planning once doctoral degrees are offered.But the library may not be able to wait for students to be required to work to aresearch pattern. In any university today practically every academic member ofstaff will expect facilities for the pursuit of his private research, in part because thisdesire to contribute to knowledge is basic to the true scholar and, perhaps morepractically, because the road to academic promotion is taken, all too frequentlyperhaps, on the stepping stones of original publication.It is practically certain in fact that no librarian starting ad initio today to builda university collection could ever advance systematically as suggested even if theavailability of books, particularly ageing titles, was such that he could really pickand choose. Within the first books that he selects will be some whose use, whilemarginal for the undergraduate, is vital for the research worker; and so from his firstpurchases the librarian will be committing himself to collecting in some depth insome field or other.With regard to research workers, the position is even less satisfactory thanwith undergraduates. It is quite impossible to determine from the figures of annualaccessions the extent to which these present a real increase in the research potentialof the libraries concerned, but it is indisputable that African scholars are still at adecided disadvantage compared with their colleagues overseas.The considerable enlargement of book-stocks will be usable to maximumeffect only if satisfactorily housed. By the same token more increases in staff, andeven improvements in staff quality, will not be reflected to the full in increased andimproved services to readers unless library buildings provide attractive andefficient space both for readers and for the staffs work areas.Our university is still young and its character is being moulded by theexigencies of a rapidly changing world. Its function, and the function of alluniversities, is to integrate progress with tradition, and especially intellectualadventure with established human values. In the fulfilment of that function, thelibrary is an indispensable instrument. So we must believe, is the librarian.There is a need for librarians to serve their public ie the intangible yetimportant way of being the same kind of person, and this need is vital in the societyof a university. The senior posts in the university library require not merely goodTHE LIBRARY IN THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITYgraduates, but men and women who can understand by direct participation, thehabits, the prejudices, the enthusiasms of the scholar and the scientist. Candidatesof this type are not commonŠor not common enough among those seriouslycontemplating librarian ship as a career; and if the university library is to besuccessful ie attracting them, it must offer far better facilities than at presentavailable Š more time, more opportunities for travel, as well as eligibility forbursaries and fellowships, since those who have a genuine capacity for research areproperly anxious to do research. A university stands or falls by its encouragementand use of creative talent, and a university library cannot play its full part without ashare of that talent.As the library is part of the university and according to someŠchieflylibrarians, but on occasion even vice-chancellorsŠthe heart of the university,its relation to the university is important. If the heart stops beating the life goes out,and certainly if there were no library there could not be a university, unless eachprofessor and student had his own private library. That has never been reallypossible or sufficient, and so the univesity library came into being as the corporatelibrary of the university.The librarian is often concerned about Ms own place within the universitycommunity. It has sometimes been very uncertain and in some cases it still is. It isclear that if the librarian is to hold the keys of the library, of the university, and if heshould ideally feel himself in relation with the library and with the university, thenhe should have the same quality and the same honour and freedom as any otherprofessor of the university. I do not say he should claim it but that it should beaccorded to him as a thing natural and right and befitting a university.The librarian must have a life other than that of a librarian, and that within theuniversity itself. He must have the disposition and the leisure not to be a librarian allthe time for 'the virtue of leisure is not that the functionary should functionfaultlessly and without a breakdown, but that the functionary should continue to bea man, and that means that he should not be wholly absorbed in the clear-cut milieuof his strictly limited function'.11The relation of the library to the members of Senate and the faculties is ofprimary importance. It is they who largely determine the policy of the universityand so of the library, and the librarian must study their ideas and temperament withthe greatest care and sympathy. That is not to say he will always agree with thembut if his point is of real importance to him and the library, they will listen andconsider attentively.One distinguished librarian said that as the librarian needs the co-operation ofhis colleagues of the faculty his first aim should be to make everything agreeable tothem, and himself indispensable to them, if possible. This may be shrewd advice,110. Osundina. 'The university library in Nigeria and the need for public relations', NigerianLibraries (1969), V, 56.S.M. MADEbut it suggests a state of insecurity in the librarian regarding his relation to theacademic staff of the university. The librarian should certainly make himselfagreeable to them, but not necessarily everything else. He must try to hold thebalance fairly between the academic staff and the scholars and the library itself.There is the danger on both sides if one regards the academic staff as the party ofpower and therefore to be appeased.The library must work closely with the professor in book selection, even inseminar work, in exhibitions of special interest to him and his students, in jointguidance of the student in the use of the library, and in many other fields. Inparticular, it would be appropriate to combine with the teaching staff of somedepartments to house a special exhibition, or tour and exhibition combined, for thebenefit of the honours students, to illustrate the bibliography and reference side ofthe subject, and to include in it not only the technical books and periodicals but ahistorical exhibition of the focal books in past scholarship and of the rare books andmanuscripts that the library possesses in the field of interest.This immediately brings the library into friendly co-operation with bothlecturers and students. The library assistant who represents the library, whether inClassics, History, English, Mathematics or Medicine, becomes more intimatelypart of the university, comes to know not only the lecturer who works with him, andwith whom he shares knowledge, but he comes to know the students, their abilitiesand difficulties, and offers to them a person in the library to whom they can go forguidance and friendship.The librarian must have students very much on Ms mind. How far should he,train them in the use of the library? Courses in the use of libraries are apt to becomejust an addition to other courses. The library can be learned only as one leams thecityŠby curiosity and consequent explorationŠbut every student should beshown around the library on first joining and all the library staff should beencouraged to go out of their way to help any questing student in a difficulty inwhich they can be of use. The treasures of the library should be displayed freely ingeneral and special exhibitions so that the student may be conscious of Ms heritage.The aim should be to let the student feel that he is a member of a scholarlycommunity and that he is welcome and Ms place is honourable.Just as the librarian is concerned with his own relation with the university sohe must ask himself what kind of relation there is between himself and his staff. Thisis a very delicate matter for it includes grading and salaries, working conditions,lines of authority, and the development of special abilities.The qualities of Ms first assistants are the qualities expected of the librarianhimself. They must be scholars or have the potentiality of scholarship, and theymust have the possibility of being more than mere functionaries. There is muchmore that we can do to encourage our best assistants to widen their interests. Alibrary is no longer a closed corporation sufficient unto itself. Assistants should beencouraged to visit other libraries and to meet other librarians. For this,10THE LIBRARY IN THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITYconferences are a help and more than one asistant should have a chance to go. Theymeet other librarians and other scholars to their common benefit. Valuable also arethe special courses such as bibliographical courses where assistants of a like qualityand similar interests are in residence for some period. The library schools andsummer schools give more than mere professional training. There should be moretravel abroad especially for assistants in book selection. It would be valuable tothem to visit the booksellers whom they contact mostly by letter or agent, and tostudy the reference books and bibliographical aids commonly used in the librariesof the country. The small expense involved could be allowed for in the librarybudget if there is not a special fund for this.Exchanges of staff with other libraries at home and abroad are profitable toboth parties and should be encouraged. One would like to see more researchfellowships for librarians for special projects that are forced to halt for lack of anassistant with enough time at Ms disposal. We should also encourage our assistantsto make use of such university classes as would increase their usefulness in theirposts. There is no need to lament the fact that we have no assistant with aknowledge of some language not commonly taught at school. If the language istaught at the university, it is easy to find a volunteer to leam it at least in theelementary stage. Heads of departments are eager to help and so new and friendlylinks are forged.We should look also for signs that an assistant is getting stale in his work andgive Mm a ran in another department. Cataloguers can often refresh themselvesfrom their close and exacting work by reading a few reviews for book selection or byoffering an hour or so at the Readers' Service. There are cataloguers with specialknowledge of a subject and others who are willing to take a subject outside theirtraining and acquire at least a librarian's knowledge of it in the course of time. Astaff that has varied interests will feel much more satisfied than if they are boggeddown in routine.The idea of public relations applies to university libraries just as it does toother organizations. Also, it will be wrong to assume that libraries need less ofpublic relations than any other organization. In developing countries, such asZimbabwe, where, because of the limited book publishing business and bookmarkets, people have to rely on libraries rather than on their private collections, onecannot possibly divorce public relations from successful library service planning.In our small university libraries, the staff tend to adopt the attitude that the readerwho already has some knowledge of the ways of the particular library he uses is themost deserving of attention. This tendency is both wrong and misleading. It alsonegates the very principle of modem library trends. Thus the reserve collection ofthe library is tapped mainly by those readers who are accustomed to consultinglibrary catalogues and information bulletins. The best resources are therefore bestexploited by those who have visited it regularly. As Oyeni Osundina says,S.M. MADE11The situation, therefore, Is that effective services are given to those who needlittle, and to those who need much nothing is given. It is a dangerous tendencybecause, in the long ran, bad public relations will have been unconsciouslyperpetuated in the stead of good public relations.12In fact, the role of public relations in the university library is more than justserving the university community. The university library owes it as a duty to arousereading interest in the whole community; it owes it as a duty to teach students andstaff how to use the library collection effectively.As a service organization, the university library has distinctive relationshipswith its patrons and clients. These relationships, if properly handled and directedcan do much to increase the university library's effectiveness. Efforts not onlyshould be directed to giving adequate services to those who are regular users, butalso should be doubled to enlist the interests of others. The university librarianshould maintain a regular evaluation of objectives, and should use friends-of-the-library in the university community to promote the interests of the library.The inclusion of the Librarian in our University Act and our statutes providesthe basis for a sound administrative policy for the University Library and impliesthat specific relationships must exist between the Librarian and various groups inthe University community. The Librarian, like the Registrar, is a principal officer ofthe University and is involved in the implementation of university policy, so far asthat can be effected by the Library. Anything contrary to these concepts cannotyield any realistic results.Perhaps the most important public relations asset of any university library is astaff which mixes freely on a friendly basis. Personal communication betweenlibrary staff and users is one of the most important considerations of a successfulpublic relations programme. It is the duty of the librarian to go out and meetmembers of the university community, to estimate their needs in order to securetheir confidence in the value of the library service. It is important that publicrelations should be carried out continuously.The relations of the librarian with students is usually indirect. His contactwith them is largely through others, particularly through those members of his staffresponsible for the operation of the general information and circulation desks,special reading and reference rooms and special collections. In order that students*use of the library may be educationally profitable, good public relations demandsthat the university librarian should ensure that certain students do not limit the useof the library for other students by the infringement of library rales.The annual orientation course for new students is a real opportunity for theuniversity library to demonstrate its quality and to demonstrate that the library is afriendly and indispensable part of the institution. This is an important aspect ofpublic relations which the university library in non-library-conscious areas ought to"Ibid., 57.12THE LIBRARY IN THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITYrely upon. Such an orientation course in the university library should attain agreater importance than the usual traditional 'rash rush' introduction to the library.For one thing, most high school graduates who enter university yearly have verylittle or no opportunity of learning how to use the library. Orientation coursesshould therefore be designed to do several things:(a) to make students feel committed to use the library in their own interest;(b) to make them feel that the university library is not maintained tochampion the cause of indigent students only;(c) to make students realize and fully accept that academic work without theuniversity library is impossible;(d) to make them cultivate advantageous reading habits; and(e) to portray the library as a place to be frequented.If after an orientation course the university library has succeeded in achievingthese objectives, the library has gone some way to building a good image which isthe result of a good public relations programme.Perhaps the most ignored relations are aids and guides to every comer of thelibrary. Nothing done in this direction is too much to help the reader who enters thelibrary. The reader is entitled to be guided to the catalogue, to the reading rooms,the reference room, the librarian's office and any special collection. A very goodguide is the graphic representation of all the comers of the library. This should bedisplayed conspicuously where everyone coming in should see it. When efforts aremade to expand the collections, equal efforts should be spared to provide intelligentaids to readers. Anything to the contrary renders efforts in the reading roomsuseless.A common assumption by university libraries in the still developing countrieslike ours is that all prospective readers know what they need and how to get it.This assumption seems to make a rather narrow view of the general status ofeducation in these countries. A librarian who feels that an undergraduate studenthas enough library orientation is not aware of the fundamental issues involved.Most people in this country are from localities with no library facilities at all,most secondary schools cannot claim to ran collections of any value to the students,some headmasters have not the least idea of the value of libraries to their students.Even those members of the faculties in the university who had their education inconservative institutions fail to realize that the university library is their onlyreservoir of reading material for the students. These are reasons why sincere effortsshould be made by the university library to provide guides that will educate andassist the undergraduate, the teacher and the external enquirer.In conclusion, the University Library is committed not only to providing books tostudents and staff, but also to making them read for continued education on leavingthe walls of the University.