1 “The State of School Libraries in Nigeria,” Fredrick Olatunji Ajegbomogun, Mulikat O. Salaam, Ph.D. PNLA Quarterly 75:3 (Spring 2011) PNLA Quarterly, the official publication of the Pacific Northwest Library Association Volume 75, no. 3 (Spring 2011) www.pnla.org The State of School Libraries in Nigeria Fredrick Olatunji Ajegbomogun Mulikat O. Salaam, PhD Fredrick Olatunji Ajegbomogun is Readers’ Services Librarian at Nimbe Adedipe Library, University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. He can be reached at: ajegbomo@yahoo.com. Mulikat O. Salaam, PhD, is Deputy University Librarian Nimbe Adedipe Library, University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. She can be reached at: reachabdel@yahoo.com. Introduction Education has been proven to be a weapon for the development of attitudes and values which are capable of building a nation. Commenting, Bamigbola (1990) stressed that education today is an important legacy which any responsible nation must strive to bequeath to its citizens; For schools to be meaningful and purposeful, they must be adequately equipped and staffed. A nation is incapable of growing if illiterates outnumber those who are literate pupils. Dike (1998) points out that illiterate parent do not own books or consult them. They cannot serve as reading models or share books with children. Furthermore, with such high illiteracy, the whole nation has a weak intellectual culture and spirit of inquiry; With such problems school libraries face a heavy responsibility to provide services that will satisfy the educational and recreational information needs of the society. Ontario, Canada’s former Minister of Education Gerard Kennedy recognized the critical role of school libraries in society when he announced the grant of $17 million in March 31, 2005, to improve school library collections so as to improve student achievement. He stated that libraries have a powerful influence on stimulating interest in reading and strengthening research and critical-thinking skills of students (Rosenfeld, 2005) Operating in a primary, junior or senior secondary school, it involves collections of books and other learning materials organized by trained professionals and placed in one or two big rooms in the school for the use of the pupils and teachers. The objectives of school libraries according to Ezinwa (1993) is to acquire, process and make available to pupils and students, a wide range of books and A/V materials to supplement and enrich the teaching and learning situation in schools. Adefarati (2002) identifies the objectives of the school library as follows: