Lagos is the state with the largest population and the commercial nerve of Nigeria and it has a high number of the uneducated.
In other to address the challenge of illiteracy and encourage the reading culture in the people the government decided to build schools, libraries and other educational institutions.
The idea of setting up libraries is good but the aim of establishing them haven't been met and cannot be met for the following reasons.
1. Pubic Libraries are too few.
There are less than twenty state libraries in Lagos, hence some states cannot boast of a single library. Even if a state were to have a library, this too would be greatly inadequate.
2. Few Operational Hour.
A typical Library in Lagos works for just 9 hours or less 8am -4pm. In addition to that, they work only on week days.
3. Old and Outdated Books
Books in most public libraries are outdated and the information in them are outdated. Imagine reading a book on geography in which it is written that there nine planets.
4. Inaccessibility of libraries
Public Libraries operate for few hours that even a student in secondary school who closes from school at 4pm week days won't be able to mak use them let alone those of us in the working class.
5. Poor Staff Motivation
The staff in state libraries are poorly motivated and a lackadaisical. I visited the library in Amuwo- Odofin. On one of my numerous visits to go through the dailies I was told that papers were not supplied to them that day. they also have few newspaper for users.
6. Late Arrival of Newspapers. Taking Amuwo Odofin library as a case study, Newspaper dont arrive most times untill 12noon.
As a nation it is high time we addressed the above problem by the following:
Modernization of our Libraries
Our libraries should be made modern and digitized. Modern library should have modern facilities such as computer, free WiFi for users, current books among others. This will lead us in the right path to greatness.