Collection Development
This service takes care of the management of the entire life cycle of library resources (print and non-print) from selection and acquisition to preservation and archiving or disposal (where necessary). Key activities and strategies involved in the collection development process are:
- Acquisitions
- Subject Profiles
- Collection Assessment Plan
For detailed information on the above, kindly refer to our Collection Development Policy under Policies.
Cataloging and Classification
One of the cornerstones of the Library’s efforts is to provide rapid and easy access to the library’s collections and other resources through the provision of resource descriptions for items in its collections. This is achieved through a wide range of resource discovery mechanisms. The library’s resources are classified using a hybrid of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and Library of Congress (LC) classification schemes.
For detailed information on the above, kindly refer to our Cataloguing Policy and Procedure under Policies.
Circulation
This service embodies:
- Reference Services
- Literature Exploration
- Borrowing and Renewals
- Interlibrary Loans (ILL)
For detailed information on the above, kindly refer to our Circulation Policy and Procedure under Policies.
Training
The Library’s training programme aims at integrating library instruction into course plans. There is collaboration between faculty and library staff to create the best and most effective instruction sessions with focus on information literacy, library resources advanced tools and research methods.
- Information Literacy skills (a structured curriculum taught to freshmen and women of the university. It is one of the university’s ancillary courses.)
- Library Guide
Library Orientation
A library tour comprising face-to-face interactions is organized for all new members in the user community including faculty, students and visiting researchers.
Workshops
The library also runs a series of capacity enhancing workshops for staff and other patrons on a variety of topics and new technologies for teaching, learning and research.
Research
Reference Management
The library guides research by protecting intellectual property rights and promoting ethical use of information resources through the teaching of citation management and the proper integration of knowledge. Among the cutting-edge solutions taught to library clients are Mendeley, Zotero and EndNote for organising information sources and formatting citations and references effectively.
Current Awareness
Depending on the profile and information needs of patrons, the library informs users of current and relevant materials and also selectively disseminates information to them.
Research Guides
Introduction to Research: Research needs and requirements vary with each project, paper or assignment. Although there is no single way to conduct research certain elements and skills can make research efforts more effective and efficient. Some of these elements include:
- Choosing and developing a research topic
- Finding the books, articles and other relevant materials
- Evaluating the materials
- Citing the sources
The Library supports research efforts by providing assistance with the above stages of research development to patrons.