The National Library of Nigeria has received 2, 391 titles and 24, 539 volumes from authors and publishers from 2017 to March 2018 in keeping with legal deposits compliance.
Prof. Lenrie Aina, the National Librarian, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday.
The national librarian said the NLN had the mandate to serve as depository for books, journals, magazines, gazettes, newspaper pamphlets, postcards, maps, microfilm, CD-ROMs and electronic publication.
He said that the National Library Act of 1970 Section (4) clearly states legal deposit obligations and consequences for any infraction, adding that failure to comply attracts a fine of £50 or its equivalent upon conviction.
Aina said the National Library Act No. 29 of 1970 section (4) No 2 states that every publisher in Nigeria shall within one month after publication deliver at his own expense to the National Library certain number of copies of the published books.
According to him, legal deposit is a statutory provision, which is usually backed by law and legislation mandating the submission of every publication by every publisher to designated library or accredited institution in a country.
The national librarian attributed difficulty in arriving at the right estimate of the legal deposit compliance to the lack of reliable data on published materials.
He said that the challenges facing legal deposit compliance in Nigeria ranged from non-adherence to the time limit for submission of publications, non-submission of required copies and submission of imperfect copies.
Aina said other challenges were the un-cooperative attitudes of publishers, authors and some government agencies at all levels; ignorance on the part of the publishers/authors on legal deposit benefits and inadequate funding.
He said: “The private publishers as stated by law are expected to deposit three copies of their publication to the NLN; two copies will be kept in the NLN for permanent preservation and one copy sent to University of Ibadan.
“While the Federal and state governments and their agencies publishing houses are to deposit 25 and 10 copies of each publication respectively.
“It is not surprising that adequate data are not available for meaningful statistical inference to be drawn on level of compliance and its nature.
“The few data available are not enough to enable stakeholders monitor and track changes that reflect the outcomes of sensitisation efforts on legal deposit obligations.”
Aina, however, held the view that a proactive approach that involved commissioning of studies on many aspects of legal deposit compliance and cost-effectiveness of sensitisation programme would help to provide reliable empirical data.
He said that compliance to legal deposit provision would help save cost and make planning effective as money spent on enforcement could be better used on other competing needs of the library.
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