Management of University Libraries: Kenyan

Case
By Otike Fredrick Wawire

A library plays a central role in the University; their primary responsibility is

to assist its users in the process of transforming information to knowledge.
Despite their importance, the development of libraries and information
services in developing countries is generally perceived to be inadequate and
inputs into library development have been typically small scale, piecemeal
and lacking in co-ordination. At the same time university libraries have
remained central to the management of scholarly communication and for
centuries they have been repository of the written record and a powerful
symbol of human intellectual achievement. Although traditionally libraries
have been the most important of the university facilities in supporting
advanced scholarship, today, perhaps as never before fundamental
questions are being raised concerning their nature and purpose as
institutions.

A number of issues are at play. First, there is the explosion in the quantity of
desirable published material and secondly rapid escalation of unit prices of
these items. These jeopardize the traditional research mission of the
university library of creating and maintaining large self-sufficient collections
for their users. The third is the rapid emergence and development of
electronic information technologies which make it possible to envision
radically more efficient ways of organizing and managing collections but
which present a big challenge of adaptation.

In Africa, it has been observed that the university library has become just
one among the several sources of information available to the academic
community. In a recent study, Rosenberg has observed that since mid 1980s,
in Africa the relative value of local university libraries has declined to a near
total loss of faith in their own existence, which has led to their
marginalization from the teaching, learning and research process in the
university.

The state and prospects of university libraries in developing countries has

been examined against a background of severe economic challenges facing
the continent and in particular in the context of deterioration in the higher
education sector. It is also noted that limited space and declining budget
levels prevent universities from servicing the growing demand for education.
As a result, universities in Sub-Saharan Africa suffer from low numbers of
trained faculty, virtually non-existent levels of research, poor quality
educational facilities including libraries, laboratories and outmoded
programs.
In spite of the recognition that libraries play a key role in development and
success of higher education, in many parts of the developing world there is a
near total collapse of university library and information services.

According to UNESCO, the economic situation in many developing countries

is such that many libraries have not had the resources to purchase any
books for the past five to ten years which has had very negative and
damaging effect on training and research capacities and has also seriously
limited the possibilities for good policy analysis and planning based on the
most up to date information. Therefore in spite of the fact that there are
many public institutions of higher education and others supported by
international and private agencies in developing countries such as Kenya,
they have to cope with the challenge of an increasing demand without
compromising the quality and relevance of teaching and research.

Increasingly, academics and in particular senior faculty members in Kenya

have adopted strategies to obtain information, other than using the
university library.8 These include: personal contacts in the first world to
obtain reports and journal articles, writing for reprints, travel outside the
country and development of personal libraries, the purchase of key texts and
subscription to journals. For undergraduates there is increasing dependence
on lecture notes and handouts as well as purchase of textbooks, methods
that are felt to be in the end more reliable than depending on the university
library. Amongst the academics in Kenyatta University (KU) and Moi
University (MU) (Kenya) 50% and 75% respectively of the academic staff
reportedly never enter the library.9 At the same time there is widely held
opinion that the library remains highly cost-effective in providing information
service to the university community especially in Africa.10 The alternative
information strategies used in obtaining scholarly information among
academicians in Kenya rely on “invisible funding”, the goodwill of friends in
the first world and heavy cost of travel, which are both erratic and
unsustainable. Although the senior academics are able to survive without
library provision, for junior academics and students who have no network of
research contacts life is obviously difficult.

This apathy towards university libraries in Kenya has been partly attributed
to the alienation and deteriorating quality of library services in the country
resulting from poor funding by their parent organizations. This is true
especially of public universities. Teaching methods, which do not support
independent study by students and which devalue the role of libraries as well
as poor management practices on the part of librarians have also been
blamed for the poor state of affairs. The overall impact of deteriorating
university libraries is poor teaching and research in the universities
themselves and if the trend continues unchecked the quality of university
education in Kenyan will be in jeopardy.