By Dele Sobowale

“Contemplating a library, one feels as though in the presence of vast capital silently yielding incalculable interest”. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832.

(VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 129).

The great German philosopher could not be more right. During the years I laboured to produce the Vanguard Book of Quotations, libraries in every city and university I visited were my second homes.

And each time, I felt like someone invited to an endless buffet with all of his favourite dishes made available.

American liberal arts education with its unlimited lists of elective courses had opened my eyes to the limitless boundaries of knowledge.

Five courses per semester were sufficient to graduate; but I would sit in classes on Anthropology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, International Relations, Sociology, 13th and 14th Century Europe, World Wars I and II histories, Philosophy, and undertake courses in Comparative Religion and loads of literature even though my destination was a degree in Economics.

From that personal odyssey I arrived at a personal law of education, especially university education: “You can judge a university by the quality of its library”.

Nobody ever achieves anything worthwhile in academia without a prodigious use of libraries; you can depend on that. And, the better the library, the better the stuff you can get out of it.

Libraries, like human beings, can’t give what they don’t have.

Last week, followers of this series on varsities in Nigeria were informed that anyone establishing a varsity library in Nigeria today will be well advised to hop on a plane and go to Yola to meet the man responsible for putting Nigeria on the list of the best 20 libraries in the world – the incomparable Mr Amed Demirhan.

But, Amed did not perform that magic alone. Credits go to the President (Vice Chancellor if you like) Dr Margee Ensign and, most important of all, the Founder of American University in Nigeria, AUN, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President.

If Atiku promises to repeat the same magic in every facet of our lives in Nigeria as he did at AUN, he has my vote already. Here are the reasons why.

Last week, on my way to Uyo, I took the time to stop briefly at two universities, names withheld for now. But one is in Anambra State and the other in Akwa Ibom State.

Since the visits were brief and unofficial, what follows cannot be regarded as a full report. But, one thing was clear to me – those two varsities, which resemble the 27 others I have seen, are building ancient libraries to train leaders of tomorrow in Nigeria.

With 128 varsities now operating in Nigeria, even if each varsity collects only 10,000 books, not an impressive collection as will soon be demonstrated, the cost of purchasing and frequently replacing lost and vandalized books will be enormous on the aggregate.

Unfortunately, 10,000 books and manuscripts are not nearly enough for a university library.

This fact was brought home to me years ago when I was asked to go and interview Emeritus Professor Ade Ajayi, the great historian at his house in Ibadan.

An entire basement had shelves lined with books; the sitting room was also invaded with books and manuscripts.

So while waiting for the great man to attend to me, I quickly developed a metric to estimate the number of books in the place.

By my reckoning at least 6,000 books must be in that house. So, if a private collector and scholar, alone, can accumulate 6,000 or more books, it is easy to understand the challenges faced by those establishing varsities when it comes to equipping their libraries.

Fortunately, AUN, with the visionary leaderships of the people mentioned above, has found a way to minimize the cost of establishing libraries and keeping up to date with publications worldwide.

Next week, with their permission, we shall reproduce, together with picture, the story of Africa’s first digital library – right here in Yola, Nigeria. At least we should take pride in the knowledge that we are leading the continent in one crucial aspect of life.