Acquisition patterns in academic libraries: A case study of Michael Otedola College of Primary Education, Noforija Epe Lagos State

This study investigates the acquisition pattern in Michael Otedola College of Primary Education, College Library, Noforija-Epe. The study covers a period of twenty years, from 1995 when the College was established in 2014. The study revealed that two methods of materials acquisition were employed in the library. They are purchase and gift; purchase accounted for 48.5 and 51.5% was acquired through gift in the library. Also it could be elicited that 52.2% of the books in the library were through gift, 47.8% were acquired through purchase, while 51.9% of the journals were acquired through purchase and 48% through gift, Book Aids International offered the highest gift of 32.3% to assist in building the library collection. The collection development pattern in the college library is low compared with the population the library is serving. Recommendations were made for improvement.


INTRODUCTION
Acquiring information resources is a core activity of libraries. Libraries all over the world still acquire and maintain massive book collections while managing other formats. Despite prophecies of vanishing print collections and emergence of the digital format, printed books still have a central role in library collections and publishing industry (Carr, 2007). The library's mission statement guides materials selection in the development of the collection and the allocation of funds. The objective behind the establishment of any academic library is to satisfy the needs of its clientele by providing informative materials to support the aims and objectives of the institution through selection, acquisition, organization and storage of materials required by the users. The task of academic libraries is to select, maintain and provide access to relevant and information resources. This can be achieved through adequate collection development. Collection development can be described as the ways of building up and improving upon a library's information resources (Horava, 2005).
Lamb (2004) stated that the major benefit of good library collection is that it helps the libraries to review the strength and the weaknesses of their collection. Showing the importance of collection development in libraries, Ranganathan's 5th law stated that 'the library is a growing organism' (Khurshid, 2000). This indicates that the library is expected to build its collection to meet the information needs of its various users. Horava (2005) stressed the importance of collection development as an important aspect of library service that promotes libraries. Therefore academic libraries need to be alive with their responsibility by providing up-to-day materials capable of supporting teaching, learning and research, and also for community services. Collection development is the vehicle through which library activities can be measured by the users. Nnadozie (2006) defined collection development as a planned, continuous and cost effective acquisition of quality and relevant materials to meet the needs of the users and objectives of the university libraries.
The library recognizes that materials are controversial and that every material has its user, and every user needs materials. Decisions are not made on the basis of any anticipated approval or disapproval, but solely on the title in relation to building the collection and serving customers' interests. Collection development is one essential function of the library which involves the practices of selection and acquiring information materials into the library. Selection is the process of choosing library materials to satisfy the user's needs. Book selection is the art of choosing items to be acquired from a list of publication in every library of any university. There should be a specific policy with regard to selection of materials which specifies the type and range of items to be selected and acquired and reflect the objectives of the parents' institution. Acquisition can be defined as the process of obtaining library materials to satisfy the needs of users, and its work. It is a means by which books and non-books materials are added to the library (Nnadozie, 2006).
Academic libraries acquire their materials through gift, direct purchase and exchange. Selection and acquisition of library materials depend on the kind of library since each library is interested in serving primarily its clientele which could be homogenous or heterogonous (Attama and Ezema, 2002). Anyanwu et al. (2006) identified the channels or methods of acquisition of library materials as, purchase, gift and exchange, legal deposit, professional associations. Imam et al. (2008) identified six methods of acquiring materials into the library, which include; purchase, exchange, gift, donation, bequest and legal deposit. Ugwuanyi (1998) stated that, in Nigeria, the main problem of acquisition is associated with the fact that most library materials are produced outside the country. The procurement of foreign books and other materials continually exposes Nigerian libraries to foreign exchange problems. He also identified some other basic problems of collection development in Nigerian libraries some of which include; underdeveloped book industries, censorship, poor funding, lack of collection development policy, unavailability of bibliographies, government fiscal measures. Khurshid (2000) includes a chapter on book Adesanya 41 production in Pakistan and problems of library purchases. It concludes that better mutual relationships between the book industry and libraries are crucial for both of them. Mirza (1990), a prominent bookseller and importer, discusses the problems of supplying books to libraries. Due to this fact majority of libraries continue to depend on local vendors to build their book collections.

Brief history of Michael Otedola College of Primary Education
Pursuant to the new National Policy on Education, which among other things stipulates the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) as the basic qualification for teaching in Nigeria by the year 2000; coupled with the need to provide functional and qualitative education that is predicated upon well trained and sound professional manpower to the citizenry of the state, Lagos State Government in December, 1994 established the Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCPED) for pre-service training and certification of manpower for the primary school system MOCPED, situated at Noforija near Epe in Epe Local Government Area of Lagos State, is the first tertiary institution in Nigeria to be dedicated strictly to the training and certification of manpower for the primary school system. The college formally took off by 1st December, 1994 at the Government Guest House, Epe with the appointment of the provost and three other principal officers, by the Provisional Governing Council. The College has now moved to its permanent site at Noforija, Epe.

Statement of the problem
The quality of information provided by the library is determined to a large extent by the process of acquisition. Acquisition of library resources should not be lopsided.
The relevance and quality of library materials is at stake if gift forms the major mode of acquisition. This is because the process of separating such materials may be compromised by the need to fill the shelves with books. In the last twenty years, the tendency to depend more on gift has increased as book votes for libraries becomes small to cope with high cost of books, more especially the imported ones.

Objectives of the study
Consequently on the above background, the study aims at examining how MOCPED library has been able to build its collection over the last twenty (20) years and determine the emerging trend, that is, acquisition by purchase or over-dependence on gifts and donations.

Research Questions
The study sought to provide answer to the following questions: 1. What is the major method of acquiring materials in college library? 2. What is the percentage of journals to books in the library? 3. What is the total acquired materials in the college by year? 4. What is the difference in the acquisition method of books and journals?

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study uses a multi-method approach which includes observation of collection development procedure, unstructured interview with the library staff and acquisition records examination. The researcher conducted an in-dept study of the acquisition records of the library using the book ordering list and the accession register which contain information on book order and supplies over the period under examination and accessioned materials for the study.
The study is limited to the period of twenty years, this is between 1995 to 2014. Data collected were analyzed using simple percentage calculation, simple average calculation (mean) and standard deviation (SD).  Table 2 shows the acquisition of journals in the college library. It could be seen that higher quantity of journal materials was acquired through purchase 1836 (51.9%), while 1700 (48.1%) was acquired through gift. The table also revealed that higher parentage of journals acquired in the library in the years 1995,1996,2005,2007 through 2014 were through purchase. While in 1998 through 2004 and 2006, they were through purchase. Although out of the twenty year examined, for eleven year higher number of materials acquired in the library was through purchase, for nine years higher number of materials were acquired through gift, but higher percentage of journals acquired were through purchase.   Table 4, it could be observed that while there was increase in the titles of books acquired by the library in the first three years of inception, between 1998 and 2000, materials acquired dropped to 187,163 and 171 title, respectively. The situation was worse in 2006 when acquisition dropped to 63 titles, in 2008, 2007 and 2011; 197, 134 and 194 titles of materials were acquired.

DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
Also the library Education has 346 (6.7%) titles in Art and Social Sciences, 348 (6.7%) titles in Vocational Education, 489 (9.5%) titles in Languages, 719 (13.9%) titles in Sciences, 1140 (22.1%) in literature, 1471 (28.5%) titles in Education, 437 (8.5%) titles in General studies and 212 (4.1%) title on other related fields. In the entire library have 5162 titles in her collection. Table 5 shows the sources of gift materials to the library, Rankfurly otherwise known as Book Aids International gave a total of 2883 (32.3%) books to the library. A total of 2382 (26.7%) books gift were from individuals/ organizations, while 1809 (20.3%) books were from other institutions, Eko Club Florida branch library, a total of 742 (8.3%) books. Book gift from USSIS, Authors/Publishers, NCCE/World Bank, and Government Agencies are 375(4.2%), 321 (3.6%), 231(2.6%), 160 (1.8%) respectively and colleague in the college gave 12(0.1%) books. This implies that Book Aids International is the major source of gift in the library. This is in line with Egunjobi and Olanrewaju (2002)'s findings in Gani Bello Library, Abeokuta. Table 6 shows the library expenditure on materials acquisition over the examined period. It was noted that the library did not purchase any material in , 2005. While, acquisition in 1997, 2007, 2009 and 2010 runs into millions of naira. Other years were in thousands and amount spent on purchase for 2011 to 2014 was not available at the time of compilation.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
From the findings above, it could be concluded that gift and purchase are the most popular means of acquisition in the library. This is common in other College of resources sharing to reduce the cost of acquiring library materials and exchange of professional ideas with fellow colleagues. 5. The library should have a standing policy on collection development which will guide the acquisition of materials in the library.