To eat an elephant, first start from the ear— Yala proverb.
To hunt an elephant, firstly, learn how to catch rats. This is what Ayade and Ivara failed to understand.
The penultimate administration was manned by two erudite and ebullient scholars — both are professors of soil science and environmental microbiologist. Prof. Ivara Ejemot Esu was at a time, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar. Sir Benedict Ayade CON didn’t toil in the academia like his deputy. But, they’re well-known. Sadly, under their watch, the state library became a soft ground for rodents to burrow.
Thank God the current administration has restored its lost glory. The glory is glowing. Governor Bassey Otu deserves accolades, however, beyond the aesthetic, a modern library should have traditional library functions and digital technology.
On that note, we believe the remodeled library should provide the following: digital resources like e-books, e-journals, audiobooks, videos, databases, open access and subscription-based content.
Feature like online access like user-friendly websites, mobile apps, advanced search engines and filters, metadata and indexing for efficient retrieval.
Modern libraries use integrated library management system (ILMS) for automated cataloguing and users management. Hopefully, there’s cloud computing and storage features in the library. Finally, security and access control are important. Without the aforementioned features, the beauty of the library in question is in vain.
Comr. Ogar Emmanuel Oko
Writes from Calabar
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