A survey of the awareness of the 2030 agenda : A case of libraries and librarians in Osun State , Nigeria

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) in this study includes those dedicated to eradicating poverty, promoting gender equality and empowering women, ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all as well as developing a global partnership for development, all of which cannot be achieved without equitable access to information and freedom of expression. This study examines awareness of libraries and librarians on the importance of attainment of SDGs in Osun State, Nigeria. The study population comprised 100 library and information personnel from all local governments in the state who were randomly selected by convenient sampling. The instruments used to collect data for the study were questionnaire and personal observation. Data were analyzed using descriptive research method. The findings revealed that many library and information personnel are aware of the sustainable development goals but are not conversant with the details and modalities for its attainment. Many of them are not familiar with the main contents of SDGs. None of the libraries examined have any immediate or long term plans for the attainment of SDGs neither do they have relevant programmes for the awareness of SDGs. It was recommended that libraries engage in information repackaging, awareness campaign, mobile library and outreach services and capacity building to ensure quality library service for the attainment of SDGs by 2030. Also, government at all levels and nongovernmental organisations should provide increased budgetary allocation to support public and state libraries to enhance their effective library and information services.


INTRODUCTION
The United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its theme of achieving a better balance between the economic, social and environmental dimensions has remained a hot subject of discourse, especially among librarians since the last quarter of 2015.
Decisions agreed upon by the 193 Member States of the UN, culminated in the new agenda, Transforming Our World: 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which consists of a Declaration of 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets (WHO, 2015).
The importance of this subject necessitates our attention as librarians and information providers and mediators in information access and national advocacy.Librarians and indeed their libraries must take a proactive stance on the pertinent aspects of the sustainable development initiative by keeping the populace well informed about issues involving the United Nations" new order and developing a culture of information seeking in tandem with global realities.Providing adequate information to the local and academic communities on sustainable development relating to government policies and their inclusion in development planning especially at the local level are all crucial steps towards the realisation of the UN 2030 sustainable development agenda.
Poor information cripples people"s ability to engage relevant government stakeholders on responsiveness, accountability and transparency which facilitate and reinforce any development agenda at the grassroots.We need sustainable library communities to achieve all this.Increased access to information and knowledge, underpinned by universal literacy, is an essential pillar of sustainable development (IFLA, 2014a(IFLA, , 2014b)).
Access to information is pivotal to the achievements of these goals both in the short and long terms.Lyon declaration of 2014 on access to information and development with an ambitious goal of creating a "world where everyone has access to information and knowledge, underpinned by universal literacy" is a crucial proactive step in this direction.
Among other things, the declaration underscores the need to increase access to information and knowledge across society, assisted by the availability of information and communications technologies (ICTs), to support sustainable development and improve the lives of people.The declaration stressed that the right to information could engender transformational effects by empowering people, especially marginalised people and those living in poverty, to: (1) Exercise their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
(3) Learn and apply new skills.(4) Enrich cultural identity and expression.
(5) Take part in decision-making and participate in an active and engaged civil society.Librarians must be accountable to the society for providing the needed data and information on the attainability of the sustainable development goals.As pointed out by Janus and Keijzer (2015), accountability Okunlola et al. 29 refers to the obligation of an actor (for example, person, group, institution) to justify decisions or actions taken.They went further to say accountability to the 2030 sustainable development agenda should promote compliance with agreed actions and stimulate learning on how to realise those goals that are less clearly defined and/or require collective action under imperfect global frameworks.
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) recognized the interdependence between growth, poverty reduction and sustainable development so that achieving one of them can be expected to contribute to achieving others, for example, reducing the percentage of people living in extreme poverty would certainly help to deal with the health and education challenges but achieving health and education goals would also contribute to the fight against poverty (Soubbtina, 2004).
Information is a vital tool to development.For any nation to develop, it needs to have and provide relevant, updated and adequate information on food security, democracy, health, education, gender equality etc. Libraries can provide such access to information that would enable people lead gainful lives as they are skilled at acquiring, organizing, offering for use and publicly preserving materials irrespective of the form in which it is packaged in such a way that when it is needed it can be found and put to use (Karki, 2006), and therefore bridging the gap in information divide and achievement of development goals.This balance will be different for each component of the agenda, as "solutions" for certain goals may be pre-determined, whereas others require learningby-doing.
To demonstrate these efforts, all stakeholders of the post-2015/2030 agenda should take part in a regular process of reporting as well as in review and follow-up cycles conducted under the roof of a post-2015 accountability framework, especially by information providers.This is where the importance of librarians and information managers must be carefully observed as most aspects of the agenda is dependent on relevant data and timely information especially to the youths and people in remote places.
According to Janus and Keijzer (2015), the targets are generally well-formulated and ambitious.Their operationalisation, however, is quite challenging.Building public awareness should be understood as a first step towards a participatory process in implementing the 2030 Agenda.Genuine participation and access to information are cornerstones of empowerment; participation having many instrumental gains as a result of using local knowledge, exposing local preferences, raising resource allocation efficiency, and maximizing ownership and sustainability of development (United Nations Development Group, 2015).
In order to end poverty, hunger, insurgency and promote equitable and quality education, lifelong learning of the 2030 agenda must be upheld by relevant stakeholders like librarians and information providers.This paper is aimed at drawing libraries and librarians" attention to the crucial role of access to information for building an informed and participatory society, especially as it relates to the 2030 sustainable development agenda in Nigeria.And if librarians who are expected to be flagships of the development network through access and utilisation of information for purposeful development are not aware of the sustainable development goals then their statutory role will be lacking and a huge chunk of the development effort will be jeopardised.Libraries and librarians in Nigeria must continue to demonstrate their relevance by making important contributions to local, national and international development.

Objectives of the study
The objectives of the study are to: (1) Determine the level of awareness of libraries about the UN 2030 sustainable development goals in Osun State.
(2) Investigate the level of awareness of librarians about the UN 2030 sustainable development agenda in Osun State.
(3) Examine librarians" opinion of their relevance to the sustainable development agenda in the Nigerian situation in Osun State.(4) Evaluate the librarians" opinion of the relevance of the library in the achievement of the sustainable development goals in Osun State.
(5) Assess the librarians" perception of the attainability of the sustainable development goals in Osun State, Nigeria.

Research questions
The study seeks to find answers to the following research questions: (

METHODOLOGY
This study investigated the awareness of libraries and librarians on the attainment of the 2030 sustainable development agenda in Osun State, Nigeria.Five objectives were set.Four research questions were raised and relevant literatures were reviewed for the purpose of the study.Descriptive survey research method was adopted for the study.The respondents comprised one hundred library and information staff across all the local governments in the state.The study population comprised 100 library and information personnel from all local governments in the state who were randomly selected by convenient sampling.Structured questionnaire was the major instrument used.Questionnaire was administered by the authors to fellow librarians in the state.The result of the study was analysed using descriptive statistics of frequencies ranking and simple percentages in charts.

FINDINGS
Research question 1: Are librarians and information managers in Osun State aware of the UN 2030 sustainable development agenda.
Table 1 shows the level of awareness of librarians and information managers of the UN 2030 sustainable development agenda.The results showed that 78% of the librarians and information managers in Osun state are aware of the UN 2030 sustainable development agenda, 17% are not aware while 5.% of them or do not know about such agenda.Also, 41% of them are very interested and actively involved, 50% of them are interested but not actively involved, whereas, 9.0% of them are interested a little.As regards government"s responsibility towards the achievement of the 2030 goals, 9.0% of the librarians and information managers in the state were of opinion that the government has provided enough political support for its achievement, 51% shared a contrary opinion while 40% of them did not know Research question 2: What is the general perception of librarians in Osun State in the attainability of the sustainable development goals?
Table 2 shows the general perception of librarians in Osun State in the attainability of the sustainable development goals?It can be observed that 44.0 and 32.0% of the librarians indicated very likely and fairly likely that the UN 2030 agenda and the sustainable development goals would have reduced the proportion of extremely poor Nigerians by half, whereas, 14.0 and 10.0% of them respectively indicated not very likely and not at all likely.This item has the mean value of 3.1.That the UN 2030 agenda and the sustainable development goals would have reduced the proportion of Nigerians who suffer from hunger by half, 20.0 and 54.0% of the librarians indicated very likely and fairly likely while 22.0 and 4.0% of them indicated not very likely and not at all likely.
Also, 37.0 and 40.0% of the librarians respectively indicated very likely and likely that all young adults will have access to education and literacy whereas, 15.0 and 8.0% of them indicated not very likely and not at all likely."Reduce inequality within and among countries" had 14.0 and 52.0% of the librarians who indicated very likely and fairly likely respectively while 26.0 and 8.0% of them indicated not very likely and not at all likely.As regards making cities and human settlement inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, 14.0 and 51.0% of the librarians indicated very likely and fairly likely while 25.0 and 10.0% of them respectively were of the opinion that such is not very likely and not at all likely.
Combating climate change and its impact on our society had 33.0% each of the librarians who were of opinion that such is very likely as well as fairly likely whereas, 20.0 and 14.0% of them indicated not very likely and not at all likely.It is also believed by 11.0 and 44.0% of the librarians that such goal could end poverty in all its forms everywhere while 32.0 and 13.0% of them shared contrary opinion."Ensure healthy living and promote well-being for all at all ages" had 41.0% as well as 38.0% of the librarians who indicated very likely and fairly likely while 15.0 and 6.0% of them indicated not very likely and not likely at all.While 44.0 and 32.0% of

Chart title
Series1 the librarians were of opinion that the UN 2030 agenda and the sustainable development goals is very likely and fairly likely in achieving gender equality and empower all women and girls, 13.0 and 11.0% of them indicated not very likely and not at all likely.Finally, 15.0 and 61.0% of the librarians respectively indicated very likely and fairly likely that such goal could protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests and combat desertification, 11.0 and 13.0% of them indicated not very likely and not at all likely.
Objective 3: Evaluate the librarians" opinion of the relevance of the library in the achievement of the sustainable development goals in Osun State.
Research question 3: What is the librarians" opinion of the relevance of the library in the achievement of the sustainable development goals in Osun State?Table 3 and Figure 1 show the librarians" opinion of the relevance of the library in the achievement of the sustainable development goals in Osun State.The result indicates that 45.0% of the librarians considered the library as very relevant in the achievement of the sustainable development goals, 30.0% of them considered library as relevant, 12.0% of them as slightly relevant while 13.0% of the librarians considered library as not relevant at all in the achievement of the sustainable development goals.
Objective 4: Investigate the implementation process of this agenda by the Library across the State.
Research question 4: Has the Library across the State started implementation of the UN 2030 sustainable development agenda?Table 4 and Figure 2 show the implementation level of UN 2030 sustainable development agenda by the library across the State.As shown in the result, 17.0% of the librarians indicated that their libraries have started implementing the goals as enunciated in the agenda.Also, 46.0% of them indicated that their libraries are yet to implement that policy while 37.0% of the librarians did not know if such is in the offing in their respective libraries.

Conclusions and Recommendations
In view of the results generated from this study, the following conclusions are made:  (1) Many librarians in the state are aware of the 2030 sustainable development agenda but lack any in depth knowledge of it or are simply nonchalant about it.
(2) Librarians believe that Library and information services are relevant to the attainment of the sustainable development goals in the state and the nation as a whole.
(3) Libraries are not making any strategic plan to keep library users abreast of current developmental trends.Strategic information access efforts in terms of information repacking, awareness campaign, human resources development, mobile library and outreach services and capacity building must be employed to sensitise the populace.
(4) From personal observations made, it does not seem that relevant information materials on sustainable development goals and the 2030 agenda are available in libraries in Osun State.
(5) Some librarians still need to be sensitised and educated about their relevance in the attainability of the 2030 sustainable development agenda.
It is therefore recommended that there is a need to further sensitise and educate librarians and information providers on the importance of the 2030 sustainable development agenda, and their relevance in the achievement of the agenda.Realisation of the sustainable development goals in Osun state as well as in Nigeria requires a collective action by professionals, private organizations, non-governmental agencies and the government at all levels to achieve the development agenda.
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are proffered.All libraries in Osun state, especially public and state owned libraries should be mandated to have clearly written and implementable policies on information access regarding the sustainable development goals.The Osun state government and other governmental and non-governmental agencies should be ready to sponsor library programmes and events bordering on the sustainable development goals.SDG agencies should begin to partner with library and information centers, and librarians towards the attainment of SDGs related education.
Private organizations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) should invest in public and school libraries in Osun State.There should be provision of adequate budgetary allocation to both public and state libraries to enhance their effective library and information services.Functional ICT and internet facilities should be put in place in all the public and state libraries across Osun state to facilitate information access and youth empowerment.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Librarians" opinion of the relevance of the library in the achievement of the sustainable development goals.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Implementation level of UN 2030 sustainable development agenda.

Table 1 .
Level of awareness of librarians and information managers of the UN 2030 sustainable development agenda.

Table 2 .
General perception of librarians in Osun State in the attainability of the sustainable development goals.

Table 3 .
Librarians" opinion of the relevance of the library in the achievement of the sustainable development goals.

Table 4 .
Implementation level of UN 2030 sustainable development agenda.