The National Library of Nigeria (NLN) has said that henceforth, publishers who apply for the International Standard Book Number and International Standard Serial Number will be issued the number within 48 hours.
The Chief Librarian, Prof. Lenrie Aina, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to Aina, the Act establishing the national library stipulates that all publications emanating from Nigeria should comply with international standard through the issuance of ISBN for books and ISSN for journals, newspapers and magazines.
He said: “If you apply for ISSN ISBN, it involves a process; you come either to the headquarters in Abuja here or to any of our branches, we have 27 branches in Nigeria.
“You complete a form and do all kinds of things.
“It takes a minimum of 10 days to 30 days before you can get the number.
“And we are making it easier we are now saying that you don’t have to go to our branches.
“Go to our website, stay in your offices and you will get the ISSN/ISBN and within 48 hours you can get the number.”
Aina said failure of publishers to get the ISBN/ISSN had affected the operations of the national library as the National Bibliography of Nigeria could not be updated and circulated.
He said: “The latest bibliography was updated in 2014 and we are now in 2018 and we do not have anything to publish.
“The implication of this is that the authors will remain unknown nationally and internationally, if not issued with these international standards numbers and the publications deposited in the national library.
The library boss said publishers should visit the organisation’s website at: www.nin.gov.ng to obtain the numbers.
NAN.