Library

The University Library

The Christ Apostolic Church established Joseph Ayo Babalola University in 2006, following divine instructions, under the visionary leadership of Pastor (Dr) E.H.L. Olusheye, the church’s then-president. This private, conventional university engages in scientific research and innovation that add value to human existence. It is the first entrepreneurial university in Nigeria.

The library stands to provide resources and services that foster intellectual growth, make information available in various forms of media outlets, and leverage modern technologies to support effective teaching, learning, and research.

The university library is where information sources for all academic programmes offered are stored and used for intellectual development. In our collections, we have current books, journals, monographs, reference works, annual reports, electronic resources, and more. Our primary audience is the staff and students of the university. The library also serves as a reference point for information acquisition to other sister institutions around us and the community in general.

Library Rules and Regulations

• Registration on prescribed forms is required of every library user as a condition for admission to use the library.
• Library users will be checked at the security checkpoint both on entering and leaving the library.
• The student library pass is a prerequisite to gaining entrance into the library and must be produced on demand while in the library.
• A Reader’s Library pass is not transferable. Readers are liable for all transactions made on their library pass.
• Perfect silence must be maintained in and around the library premises.
• Receiving calls in the library is not allowed.
• Mutilation, marking, defacement, or willful damage to library materials in any form is a serious offence punishable by suspension of all library privileges and other severe disciplinary measures, as necessary.
• Stealing library materials is a serious offence that, if proven, attracts severe punishment or total dismissal from the university.
• The University Librarian reserves the right to suspend users who violate any of these regulations and to refer cases of violation to the appropriate authorities for further disciplinary action.
• Briefcases, handbags, raincoats, umbrellas, etc. must be dropped at the receptacles or places provided for them at the entrance of the library.

Administrative Department

The office of the university librarian is the policy-making nerve centre of the library. It is headed by the University Librarian. This department is responsible for the smooth administration and successful management of the library.

Technical Services Department

The Technical Services Department is headed by a senior librarian. This department is referred to as the “engine room” of the library because it is the department that is responsible for the acquisition and processing of all library materials. To achieve the effectiveness of the aforementioned, the technical department of the library has the following sections:

1. Acquisitions Section: This is a section that is saddled with the responsibility of how books and other library materials are acquired for the library. So it seeks and solicits the cooperation of the academic staff as well as students in its crucial task of stock building.

2. Cataloguing and Classification Section: This is the section that provides a means of bringing all books on the same subject together in one place. The staff is responsible for the cataloguing and classification of all the library materials at JABU using the Library of Congress Classification Scheme (LC), Resource Description and Access (RDA), Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), online cataloguing and the MARC 21 exchange format.

Readers’ Service Department

The Readers’ Services Department of the library assists library users with effective, efficient, and easier access to and retrieval of library materials for use. The readers’ services are customer-centered. The staff sees and ensures the satisfaction of the library users to promote the image of the library among the university community. Sections in the Readers’ Services include:

1. Circulation Section: The circulation section is the first point of contact between library users and library staff. It is usually referred to as the “image maker” of the library because it is the point where users have direct interactions with the library staff. It offers lending services as well as facilities for returning loaned items. User registrations are handled at the circulation desk. Users are allowed to borrow books from this section. Undergraduate students are permitted to borrow four titles for two weeks, postgraduates six titles for three weeks, and academic staff can borrow 10 titles for one month.

2. Reference Section: This section houses the library’s reference materials, which include: Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Bibliographies, Atlas, Who is Who, Year Book, Central Bank Publications, Reports, Curriculum Studies, Women in Today’s World, General History of Africa, etc. These are the materials that are not intended to be read from front to back cover. For example, an encyclopedia is a collection of short, factual entries, often written by different contributors who are knowledgeable about the topic. A reference service is the one-on-one assistance provided by a reference librarian to library patrons who are looking for information for whatever reason.

3. Serials Section: This section is headed by a librarian who sees the smooth running of the activities and services rendered in this section. Current and backlog issues of both foreign and local journals, magazines, newspapers, special collections such as government publications, inaugural lecture series, rare books, conference proceedings, annual proceedings, university publications, news reports, and other significant collections such as daily newspapers such as Tribune, Guardian, and Punch are included in the serials section.

Automation Department/Virtual Library

We strive to keep pace with technological progress and improve the efficiency of service provision in this digital age. The automation of libraries commenced in April 2010 with the installation of library-integrated management software (KOHA), which has the base features needed to run the library services.

Our e-library has thirty laptops in the main library. Twenty laptops are in the law library and fifteen in the health science library, making a total of sixty-five workstations that are connected to the internet and access to e-resources for free. We subscribe to electronic academic journals such as Research4Life (Hinari, AGORA, OARE, ARDI, GOALI). ProQuest, EBSCOhost, Science Direct, Springer, and other e-journal services like AJOL JSTOR, DOAJ, DOAB, and SCRIP, which are aggregated databases that provide links and access to full-text articles and abstracts. Other online free-access electronic databases that are commonly used in the JABU library include www.pdfdrive.net (over 88 million e-books) and www.getfreeebooks.com.

Offline Information-Based Resources

We have a full-text and searchable database of articles from more than 325 high-quality research journals in agriculture and related sciences and other e-book management databases.

1. Transforming the JABU Library Through Social Media: Connecting the library through social media provides timely and useful information about resources and services and engages users in the new trends of IT. For instance, sites like Facebook, Linkedin, Hi5, WhatsApp, and MySpace allow users to build and customise their profiles and communicate with friends. The slogan “Ask a Librarian” assists students in finding information on research assignments and thesis writing and builds discussion groups and collaborative work among users. The AI will soon be added to library service delivery.

2. College Libraries: Bringing library services closer to the doorstep of the College is to let the lecturers and students know about the resources and services from which they might feel alienated. Hence, the importance of college libraries is paramount. Presently, we have five college libraries: the College of Law Library, the College of Health Science Library, Collethe ge of Social, Humanities and Management Sciences, the College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences and the College of Environmental Sciences, while others will soon come up.

3. Services Provided in the Library

• Chat Room: the provision of TV and DSTV is basically for world and local news.
• Coffee Shop: snacks and soft drinks are available here.
• Conference/Seminar Rooms: for undergraduate and postgraduate students and staff.

• Alert Services: for Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) and Current Awareness Services (CAS).

• The Library: will create a place to provide services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and has an uncontrollable reading room for both day and night.
• Inter-Library Loans: Partnerships and collaborations with sister libraries to source urgent information that is not readily available in our library.
• Interactive Room: for knowledge sharing, collaboration and discussion among serious students.
• Reprographic Unit: the library has a photocopy unit where students can make copies of needed materials at a subsidized rate (both colour and black and white copies will be available in the library). Our reprographic unit will continue to cater for students’ projects and the maintenance of the library’s materials, such as binding and rebinding of mutilated books, with reasonable charges.

Technical Services Department

The Technical Services Department is headed by a senior librarian. This department is referred to as the “engine room” of the library because it is the department that is responsible for the acquisition and processing of all library materials. To achieve the effectiveness of the aforementioned, the technical department of the library has the following sections:

1. Acquisitions Section: This is a section that is saddled with the responsibility of how books and other library materials are acquired for the library. So it seeks and solicits the cooperation of the academic staff as well as students in its crucial task of stock building.

2. Cataloguing and Classification Section: This is the section that provides a means of bringing all books on the same subject together in one place. The staff is responsible for the cataloguing and classification of all the library materials at JABU using the Library of Congress Classification Scheme (LC), Resource Description and Access (RDA), Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), online cataloguing and the MARC 21 exchange format.

Readers’ Service Department

The Readers’ Services Department of the library assists library users with effective, efficient, and easier access to and retrieval of library materials for use. The readers’ services are customer-centered. The staff sees and ensures the satisfaction of the library users to promote the image of the library among the university community. Sections in the Readers’ Services include:

1. Circulation Section: The circulation section is the first point of contact between library users and library staff. It is usually referred to as the “image maker” of the library because it is the point where users have direct interactions with the library staff. It offers lending services as well as facilities for returning loaned items. User registrations are handled at the circulation desk. Users are allowed to borrow books from this section. Undergraduate students are permitted to borrow four titles for two weeks, postgraduates six titles for three weeks, and academic staff can borrow 10 titles for one month.

2. Reference Section: This section houses the library’s reference materials, which include: Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Bibliographies, Atlas, Who is Who, Year Book, Central Bank Publications, Reports, Curriculum Studies, Women in Today’s World, General History of Africa, etc. These are the materials that are not intended to be read from front to back cover. For example, an encyclopedia is a collection of short, factual entries, often written by different contributors who are knowledgeable about the topic. A reference service is the one-on-one assistance provided by a reference librarian to library patrons who are looking for information for whatever reason.

3. Serials Section: This section is headed by a librarian who sees the smooth running of the activities and services rendered in this section. Current and backlog issues of both foreign and local journals, magazines, newspapers, special collections such as government publications, inaugural lecture series, rare books, conference proceedings, annual proceedings, university publications, news reports, and other significant collections such as daily newspapers such as Tribune, Guardian, and Punch are included in the serials section.

Automation Department/Virtual Library

We strive to keep pace with technological progress and improve the efficiency of service provision in this digital age. The automation of libraries commenced in April 2010 with the installation of library-integrated management software (KOHA), which has the base features needed to run the library services.

Our e-library has thirty laptops in the main library. Twenty laptops are in the law library and fifteen in the health science library, making a total of sixty-five workstations that are connected to the internet and access to e-resources for free. We subscribe to electronic academic journals such as Research4Life (Hinari, AGORA, OARE, ARDI, GOALI). ProQuest, EBSCOhost, Science Direct, Springer, and other e-journal services like AJOL JSTOR, DOAJ, DOAB, and SCRIP, which are aggregated databases that provide links and access to full-text articles and abstracts. Other online free-access electronic databases that are commonly used in the JABU library include www.pdfdrive.net (over 88 million e-books) and www.getfreeebooks.com.