By Favour Nnabugwu

Chief Executive Officer of Librarians Registration Council of Nigeria (LRCN), Dr. Victoria Okojie, has said that programmes and institutional accreditation for library and information science sector will take place in the last quarter of 2012.

Okojie, who spoke at the opening of the national workshop on e-Library for Librarians and information workers in Lokoja, Kogi State recently, said the accreditation will be done in collaboration with the National Universities Commission (NUC) though the Council is developing the benchmarks for Library Information Service Programmes for tertiary institutions in the country and accreditation will be done based on compliance to the standards.

“By the last quarter of 2012, we will be carrying out institutional and programme accreditation in the library and information science sector.

“When the benchmark becomes operational, the functions of a librarian and qualities of a standard library would be explained while guidelines and processes for running professional examinations and starting registration of institutional libraries would be put in place.”

She stated that LRCN has developed a draft code of professional conduct for librarians; developed an interactive website; organised training workshops for teacher librarians; engaged actively with the LIS community in Nigeria; developed enduring partners outside Nigeria; and will set up a Librarians’ Investigation Panel and Disciplinary Committee.The workshop, organised in collaboration with US mission in Nigeria, had over 100 librarians from different parts of the country in attendance.