By Dayo Johnson, Akure
FORMER Minister of Defense, Dr Olu Agunloye has advocated for the introduction of Information Communication Technology (ICT) into the library system in the nation education sector.

Dr Agunloye however allayed the fears of loss of jobs by librarians with the introduction of digital library.
Addressing the 30th Annual Seminar of the Nigerian Library Association (cataloguing, classification and indexing section) in Akure, the former Minister said the “country should move away from physical to virtual library if she wants to meet with her counterpart in developing world.

The seminar was attended by librarians across the country.Agunloye said unlike physical library, “e-library provided access to growing collection of thousands of e-books, journals, articles and working papers from the world most authoritative sources on development as they are published.

According to him “traditional libraries are limited by storage space; digital libraries have the potential to store much more information, simply because digital information requires very little physical space to contain it. As such, the cost of maintaining a digital library is much lower than that of traditional library.”

Dr Agunloye pointed out that “there would be reduction in cost of paying for staff, book maintenance, rent and additional books if digital library was adopted by the relevant authorities in education sector.

The former minister advised the nation’s universities to “move to the digital library environment for true and sustainable development.”
The Chairman of the association, Dr Ibidapo Oketunji said there was need for updating the skills of librarians as the introduction of digital library might erode their services.