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The Nigerian Library Association (NLA) National Conference and 43rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) had as its theme "The challenges of libraries and information services delivery in an environment of change and reforms," when it met at Abeokuta, June 9-15, 2005. Over 400 delegates attended and they represented over 30 out of the 37 state chapters of the Association in Nigeria. It is interesting to observe that this conference took place in the home state of Olusegun Obasangjo, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The most valuable activities of the conference were the pre-conference seminars held simultaneously at various venues. At the conference venue, the paper on "Training the trainers on HIV/ Aids prevention," was presented by Elizabeth Akinbulumo, of the Public Affairs Information Service of the American Embassy, Abuja under the auspices of the Aids Information Centre International (AICI) NLA section, and Ruth Bature, National Library of Nigeria. The paper discussed the extent HIV/Aids has devastated the health of the young generation and recommended that the spread of the disease can be minimized by aggressive training of trainers who will educate the people on HIV/Aids prevention. This program dealt extensive on using libraries as agents of change in sensitizing people about the present status of Aids and how to manage or prevent the disease. It was more like an HIV/Aids sensitization seminar. One speaker was a person living with HIV/Aids who was at the seminar to address participants about her experiences coping with HIV/ Aids.
The other pre-conference seminar on "Internet researching skills for the twenty-first century librarian," was organized jointly by the US Consulate General, Lagos, the Nigerian Library Association (Information Technology section) and the South West Resource Centre, Abeokuta, where it was held. The resource persons were Wendy Simmons, Information Resource Officer, US Consulate General, Lagos and Samuel Eyitayo, Chairman, NLA (IT section) and who is the Information Resource Centre Specialist with the Whitney Young, Jr Information Centre in Lagos. The seminar highlighted various resources/services available on the internet which included news local, national and international, reports from all sources, electronic books, journals, reference sources: encyclopedia and handbooks, educational information, on line courses/tutorials, e-commerce, software, directories, business/medical/ government information, jobs/career issues and many more resources.
This was a very interesting seminar...