In order to ensure that global standards are attained in Nigeria’s publishing industry, the federal government is making moves to enforce the compulsory deposition of published books with the National Library of Nigeria, NLN. NLN would soon hold a series of workshops across the country in order to sensitise Nigerians, especially those in the publishing industry, on the global standards required of all publications.
National Librarian and Chief Executive Officer of NLN Professor Lenrie Olatokunbo Aina recently said “the government has considered it right for us to ensure publications emanating from Nigeria equally meet global standards of publications as obtained in advanced countries.”
The workshops will focus on acquisition of International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN), International Standard Serial Numbers (ISSN) and the mandatory deposition by publishers, non-governmental organizations, faith-based groups, the private sector, state and federal government agencies of all published titles with NLN.
Legal deposit is the mandatory or statutory submission of every publication by every publisher in a designated library or accredited institution in a country and involves an organised collation of all printed materials in an approved facility for the purpose of storage or safekeeping. This depository can be a national, state or university library and any institutions including national archives, museums and other national institutions so accredited for the purpose. These include books, journals, magazines, gazettes, newspapers, pamphlets, postcards, maps, microfilms, architectural or regional plans, sheet music and posters and more recently film, video and audio recordings on CD-ROMs and other electronic materials.
In Nigeria, legal depository formally began in April 1950, four hundred and thirteen years after the Ordinance of Montpellier. It was known as Nigeria Publication Ordinance No. 13 of 1950, later amended to Publication Act 29 of 1951, which culminated in the promulgation of the National Library Act No. 29 of 1970. Enforcing global standard is good news for publishers as they grapple with preventing piracy. There are millions of pirated books online and many publishers have begun to go after the pirates either by shutting them down or blocking access to their websites via an ISP.
The advent of the internet has revolutionized the processes of book publishing. This advantage should be taken into cognizance but because of lack of proper record there are thousands of books published in Nigeria for which NLN is not even aware. This should not be so. Among the problems confronting the work of bibliographic control of published works include slow pace in embracing ICT, publishers and printers’ non-compliance, lack of suitable automation software, weak legal deposit laws, poor funding of ICT projects and underfunding or insufficient budgeting.
Other problems include the unwieldy nature of the publishing industry, mushrooming of publishing concerns and printing presses, non-compliance of publishers and distributors aided by officialdom and the cost implication of delivery, especially of bulky publications. Also, publishers and printers are required to deposit rather than sell their publications at their own cost without any incentives to encourage depositors. For this reason we call for the revival or establishment of local government area libraries as reading centres and designation as first ports of legal deposit. Writers should be able to submit manuscripts from the comfort of their homes or offices.
Furthermore, apart from proper tracking record e.g. through catalogues, there should be a review of the National Library of Nigeria Decree No. 29 of 1970 which requires defaulters to pay a paltry fine of N100, enforcing the submission of publishers’ annual stock lists for ease of reference and collection as well as training of workforce in information literacy i.e. harnessing the advantage of the digital divide. Due to lack of trust in some publishers and bureaucracy at NLN, this mass mobilisation of the various stakeholders as envisaged by NLN becomes necessary. We must all collaborate in the sensitization project to bring our publishing industry up to global standards.
