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This chapter explores the role of cultural activity within prison libraries for not only the general wellbeing of prisoners, but also as a form of indirect intervention for addressing unrecognised and/or unaddressed information needs amongst prisoners; particularly important needs of a more sensitive nature often repressed (e.g. remorse, mental health, relationships). Drawing on research to date, the authors discuss the information needs of prisoners, the associated benefits of cultural activity for information need recognition and understanding, and the support role of the prison library; and in relation, identify opportunities for further development of the library as a key change agent in the progressive rehabilitation of prisoners.

Nigeria’s quest to industrialize has received major attention in recent times. Special economic zones (SEZs) are thus recognized as capable of providing opportunities for firms to improve innovation capability and export performance. Limited empirical evidence exists on their economic impacts, particularly in terms of promoting innovation and exporting. This makes it difficult to provide accurate impact estimates or identify the channels through which the SEZ affects firm behavior. This study aims to specifically establish the Nigerian pattern of firm behavior in SEZs to improve the understanding of African SEZs and the appropriate incentives that can foster industrialization.

The study used primary data from a survey of firms in Nigeria’s active SEZs and in-depth interviews of major stakeholders. The primary data was collected through a semi-structured questionnaire administered to firms within the selected SEZs and an in-depth interview guide. The sampled SEZs were in Lagos, Ogun, Kano and Cross River States. In-depth interviews were conducted with the zone management, Nigerian Export Processing Zones Authority officials and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, content analyses of policy documents, principal component analysis, logit regression and two-stage least squares regression.

The results suggest that the number of incentives offered to SEZ firms does not matter for improved firm performance in terms of innovation and exports. Firms’ export performance is poor because firms do not comply with the basic tenet of SEZ as an area dedicated to free trade and consequent mandatory export of manufactures and services from the free trade enclave. Although firms in the Nigerian SEZs are considered to be fairly innovative, it is important to note that there is no evidence of innovation that is new to the world among these firms.

The research team could not visit the zones in the Northeast region of the country due to insecurity. Some of the zones had also become inactive at the time of the survey, and the response rate from firms was very low. This limited the number of sampled firms.

The findings imply that the NEPZA Act needs to be revised to reflect the contextual realities of SEZs in Nigeria. The policies and details of each incentive offered by the government should be made clear to investors. For example, the permission given for SEZ firms to sell 100% of their manufactured, assembled or imported goods into the domestic market should be revisited as it obviously affects innovation and exports negatively. This would tremendously help SEZ firms fulfill their mandate of promoting exports, improving FDI attraction, enhancing industrialization and promoting economic competitiveness.

Previous studies have either focused on how SEZs affect innovation or influence export performance without accounting for the role of incentives in shaping innovation and export performance. This study fills this knowledge gap by providing evidence on the type of incentives for firms in Nigeria’s SEZs, investigating their effects (or otherwise) on innovation activities at the firm level and ascertaining how improvement in innovation capacity arising from the incentives affects firms’ export performance.

This study aimed to assess the rural libraries and information services for rural development in Delta State, Nigeria.

The study adopted both descriptive and exploratory research designs. Questionnaire, observation and structured interview guide were the major instruments for data collection. Total enumeration was used to gather data from respondents in 16 functional rural libraries in Delta State.

The study revealed the challenges that surround the rural people in accessing information in rural libraries. It showed that only 16 rural libraries were established and functional in 16 communities within the 25 local government areas. Findings also showed that the rural libraries were not able to fulfil their roles. It was evident that the information needs of the rural people which made them to access the library were not adequately met because of some hindrances such as inadequate up-to-date information materials, lack of awareness, illiteracy, language barrier, inadequate skilled personnel and inadequate infrastructure and facilities.

The important finding in this study is that rural libraries are the most relevant institution to disseminate information about government policies, inculcating reading habits and developing skill and knowledge of people. Therefore, underdevelopment of rural libraries and inadequate information sources and facilities will hinder access to information and development of the people who need them.

This research is the first of its kind to assess rural libraries and information services for the development of rural people in the 16 rural libraries in Delta State of Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate socio‐economic factors (such as gender, age, marital status, educational qualification, job tenure, monthly salary); job satisfaction and locus of control as they determine organizational commitment of records management personnel in Nigerian private universities.

The research design adopted for the study was ex‐post facto type. A questionnaire was used for data collection from a sample of 240 records management personnel from a population of 310 in 24 private universities in Nigeria. A total of 220 of these responded and the copies of their questionnaire were found valid for analysis. The response rate realized was 91.7 percent.

The study revealed that there was significant multiple correlation between socio‐economic factors, job satisfaction, locus of control and organizational commitment of the respondents. In addition, socio‐economic factors, job satisfaction and locus of control significantly determined organizational commitment of the respondents.

It is recommended that the administrators in private universities in Nigeria should take into consideration the socio‐economic variables, job satisfaction and the locus of control of records management personnel when planning to improve their organizational commitment.

The paper provides information on the organizational commitment of records management personnel in private universities in Nigeria.

Discusses the information needs and services of health consumers in Nigeria. The cluster‐quota sampling technique with a questionnaire instrument was used for data collection on 260 subjects out of which 250 responded and their questionnaires were found to be usable for analysis. The study found that there was a significant relationship between the levels of education of the health consumers and sources of information used. Books/reports, medical laboratories, film houses and medical library/records office were rarely used when they were searching for pertinent information on health care services. Also, their specific areas of health information needs and services were found to be health institutions service quality, child and maternal care, drugs administration, and family planning. The available health information systems failed to meet the demands made of them.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible result of librarians’ professional commitment on the delivery of quality library services. Thus, the aim is to investigate the relationship between professional commitment and library customers’ perceived service quality of the respective libraries.

This is a quantitative study which based on questionnaire survey. A cross-sectional design was adopted for this study in which data were collected from two different populations (i.e. professional librarians and their library customers) having a common facet that is library.

Overall, librarians were found committed on the professional commitment scale (PCS). The studied professional librarians showed higher commitment on the affective commitment dimension than that of continuance commitment of PCS. A positively significant relationship was appeared between professional commitment and library service quality.

No such cross-sectional study can be found that addressed the relationship between professional commitment and library service quality, particularly, in Pakistani library and information science research.

Spirituality in the workplace is a concept that has been emphasized a lot in recent years. However, the relationship of this concept with gender and discrimination has not been adequately addressed. Individual and organizational positive outcomes of spirituality in the workplace cannot be obtained when discrimination is in question. This is because the concepts of spirituality and discrimination in the workplace are completely opposite to each other. In order to prevent discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, race, age, religion, disability and to establish spirituality in the workplace, organizations should follow awareness and training programs to eliminate prejudices of their management and employees, give importance to differences, develop an understanding of democracy and justice within the organization and development egalitarian and anti-discrimination policies and application. In this direction, while the differences are managed correctly, spirituality will be established in the workplace.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the dissatisfaction of library users and the manager of each federal university library vis‐à‐vis the complaint of the librarians working in those libraries on inadequate funding, lack of promotion, poor condition of service and lack of recognition which affected their career commitment.

Questionnaires were used to gather data from a population of 381 librarians in the 24 federal university Libraries in Nigeria. A total of 363 of them responded and their questionnaires were found to be valid for analysis. The response rate achieved was 95.3 percent.

The study found that job satisfaction has significant influence on career commitment of librarians working in the federal university libraries (F (9; 352) = 11.058, p < 0.05). The study also revealed that demographic variables and job satisfaction accounted for 20 percent (adj. R² = 0.2000) in variability of career commitment of the respondents.

The study ought to have generated data on demographic variables and job satisfaction as they affect career commitment of library paraprofessionals (library officers, library attendants and assistants) since they all carry essential library function.

It is recommended that the library administrators and the managers of the university libraries should consider the demographic variables and job satisfaction of librarians when planning and making decisions on their career commitment.

The library managers and administrators in federal university libraries in Nigeria should formulate job satisfaction policies such as adequate provision of working facilities, provision of conducive working environment, work incentives (car loan, housing loan, study leave allowance, etc) for improving career commitment of their librarians.

The paper provides valuable information on the career commitment of librarians in federal university libraries in Nigeria.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the growth of academic librarians’ research output in Nigeria; it examined their research productivity and determined the authorship pattern and degree of collaboration.

A total of 1,106 articles were retrieved from Current index to Journals in Education and Library, Information Science and Technology Abstract databases for the period 2000-March 2018.

The study revealed that only few authors are productive in the field of Library and Information Science in Nigeria during the period under study. The author productivity pattern is, therefore, in agreement with Lotka’s Law of inverse square. Top journals in which the academic librarians in Nigeria publish their works were identified. Of the 153 recognized universities in Nigeria, the study revealed that only few universities are productive. The years 2011 and 2012 recorded the highest contributions by the academic librarians. The findings also showed a high level of teamwork with most publications being produced jointly.

The limitation of this study is that it only retrieved articles that were indexed by Current index to Journals in Education and Library, Information Science and Technology Abstract. Secondly, articles published by the academic librarians in local journals in Nigeria that are not indexed and not visible are not included in the study.

The findings call for researchers in developing countries to recognize that it is important to publish a substantial number of papers in journals that are indexed and are widely visible.

This study investigates how university libraries in Nigeria are staffed and presents staff development opportunities and learning activities that sustain staff.

A survey research design was adopted. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 46 universities and 400 respondents consisting of 46 heads of libraries and 354 professionals from federal, state, and private universities. Content of the instrument was based on literature comprising six questions. The 327 (92.4%) usable responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented in simple frequency tables.

The study showed that library workforce in Nigerian universities included different categories of professionals and para-professionals having diversified job opportunities and duties. Most libraries had staff development budget and respondents received various forms of assistance to foster learning. Although all nontransferable skills recorded high mean, respondents accorded less importance to nonlibrary personal skills that can be used to leverage the expectations of recruitment, retention, and sustainability.

The study was limited to practicing professionals but has staffing implications for all libraries across Nigeria.

Many professionals may lack the appropriate multi-skills that would enhance exploring new approaches and breaking out of traditional ways of operation in the different library and outside library settings.

The study contributes to knowledge about sustaining library staff in relation to adopting the recommended skills on a broad scale, and assessing how their acquisition can change the perception of professionals to its immense contributions to sustaining them in the workforce.