About Library

 

The College Library, Federal College of Education, Katsina

General Information

The College Library system Federal College of Education , Katsina is made up of the Main Library which houses a collection of carefully selected books and periodicals in all the subject areas of programs offered by the College.  It also complements its services with e-Library facilities comprising more than One Hundred Lap-top and Desk-top computers fully connected to the internet and offline data.  In addition to the Main Library resources, there are also departmental resource under the supervision of their Heads of Department.

The Main Library has a major lending section which serves the entire College community.  The Library was established with the establishment of the College in 1975.The Library served as the Readers’ Services area for the College community; with a nucleus collection of textbooks, reference sources and supplementary reading materials to support the programs offered.

Specific Information

The Library contains over 50,000 volumes and seats 500 readers.  It is open to all senior staff, and students of the College as well as Alumni of the College.   Anyone else with serious reasons for using the Library may also be admitted to use it for study and reference purposes only, provided s/he has a letter of introduction from a recognized College official (HOD/Dean), or a designated authority from the visitor’s school or organization.

  1. Opening Hours

(i)  During Session:

Monday – Friday                            8.00 a.m. – 10.00 p.m.

Saturday                                         9:00 a.m –   1.00 p.m.

Sunday          –                               Closed

(ii) During Semester Break and Long Vacation:

Monday to Friday   –                    8.00 a.m.  –   6.00 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday                    Closed

  1. Registration

All readers must be registered before they can make use of the Library.  Registration is valid for the current academic year only and must be renewed thereafter.  Every registered reader is issued with Reader’s Tickets, and library ID card which he/she is required to bring along whenever he/she comes to use the Library. Readers’ tickets are not transferable and they must be presented, on demand, to any member of the Library staff.

  1. Arrangement of the Library

The Library comprises the sections as follows:

  1. section a

Main Reading Area

Reserve Section and Arabic and Islamic Studies Section

Students Toilets

  1. section b

Staff Offices

Serial Section

Toilets

General Reading Room

Undergraduate reference collection; current issues of journals on display; latest issues of newspapers; general reading collection; recent accessions; College calendars and prospectuses. The General Reading Room is mainly for consultation of reference work and reading of current work, current journals and newspapers.

Special Collections (Reserve/Arabic Section)

These are mostly research materials shelved in the Research Library and in other parts of the Library:

  1. Arabic Books and Manuscript Collection
  2. Government Publications
  3. Manuscript Collection
  4. Rare Book Collection
  5. Theses Collection
  6. Staff Publications.

Materials from the Special Collections can be consulted on application at the Control Desk of the Research Library.

Classification Schemes Used:

Books and Periodicals (with the exception of certain special collections) are arranged by subject according to two classification schemes – The Dewey Decimal Classification and of recent The Library of Congress Classification Scheme. The main classes of these schemes are outlined below

Synopsis of Dewey Decimal Classification:

000-099           Generalities

100-199           Philosophy

200-299           Religion

300-399           Social Sciences

400-499           Languages

500-599           Pure Sciences

600-699           Applied Science

700-799           The Arts

800-899           Literature

900-999           History and Geography

Synopsis   Library of Congress

A             General Works, Polygraphs

B-B          Philosophy, Psychology

BL-BX      Religion

C             Auxiliary Sciences of History

D             History: General and Old World

E-F          History: North and South America

G             Geography, Anthropology,

Folklore, Manners

And Customs, Recreation

H             Social Science

J             Political Science

K             Law (Moys)

L             Education

M            Music, Books on Music

N             Fine Arts

P             Philosophy and Literature

Q            Science

R             Medicine

S             Agriculture

T             Technology

U             Military Science

V             Naval Science

Z             Bibliography, Library Science

Library Services and Facilities

Loans:

  1. a) The normal loan period is 4 weeks for staff and 2 weeks for students.  Teaching and research staff and research students with special reasons for doing so may request longer periods but all books must be returned before the end of the academic year in which they are borrowed. Staff are requested to state clearly the length of loan required if they desire more than the normal fortnight.
  2. b) Visiting research students, fellows and occasional students who are in the College for less than one academic year are accorded reference privileges only, i.e. borrowing facilities are not extended to them.
  3. c) A loan may be renewed on application for one further period of a fortnight as long as no one else wants it.  After that, it must be returned.
  4. d) For undergraduate students, the maximum number of books permitted for a loan period of two weeks is only four.
  5. e) Only two books may be borrowed by any one reader for the long vacation for which application must be made to the College Librarian.
  6. f) Only the senior staff is allowed to borrow 2 bound volumes of journals at a time for a maximum period of two weeks.
  7. g) Failure to return on demand an overdue book or journal will result in suspension of borrowing privileges.
  8. h) Fines at the rate of fifty kobo per day must be paid for each day a book is overdue.  Books lost or damaged should be reported immediately and paid for at the estimated cost of replacement.  Cases of stealing, mutilation or defacing of materials are regarded as serious offenses and the offenders are dealt with very severely.

 

The College Librarian reserves the right to suspend or withdraw all Library privileges from persons who contravene these regulations, and to report such cases to the appropriate College authorities for further disciplinary action.

Reservations:

Books in constant demand by readers, especially heavily used textbooks, are removed from the open shelves and placed in a controlled access collection in the Reservation Book Room on the ground floor of the main building.  Special materials from the Research Library required for undergraduate reading are also kept in the reserve for use under supervision.  Academic staff must send in advance to the Library, copies of all reading lists for students, and particularly titles of works, which are specially recommended for the attention of classes. This enables the Library to obtain those materials, which are not already in stock.  The course and the desired duration of reservation must be indicated, so that reserved books may not be kept indefinitely out of circulation to other Library users.  An indication of the number of students requiring the books helps in determining the number of extra copies to be provided.

Students themselves are welcome to recommend books to be put on reserve.  Finally, it is important that teaching staff confer periodically with the Circulation Librarian about this service.

Reference Service

Readers are free to consult the Reference Librarian on any problem they may encounter in their use of the reference collection in particular and the entire Library collection in general.  Reference inquiries such as how to locate a material, and where to find a piece of information and other research questions are welcome at all times.

Readers wanting to obtain some documents not in the Library should apply to the Reference Librarian.  Requests for material not in the Library should be made in writing on the forms provided at the control desk to the Librarian, in person, so as to make any necessary explanation.  Usually, it is possible for the Library to:

  1. a) Locate the document in Nigeria and borrow it for the person concerned;
  2. b) obtain a copy of the original;
  3. c) obtain a Photostat or microfilm copy from a library in another  country.

Reprographic Services

The Library is equipped both for the use and the production of photocopies.  Application for  photocopies are made at the Control Desk. Reference materials from other libraries and from overseas, articles from journals, etc. are regularly obtained on request.  Application, with full details on the forms provided should be directed to the Reference Librarian

The reprographic services available in the Library’s studios include: enlargement of photographic prints from both color and black/white negatives of all sizes. High-grade copy work for book illustration can also be undertaken.  Electrostatic copying machines are available for making reduced or facsimiles of simple documents such as certificates, diagrams, scientific formulae, and journal articles, cheaply and quickly.

A list of standard charges and order forms can be obtained from the Circulation Desk.  Advice and estimates of costs can be obtained from the Reprographic Technician or Deputy College Librarian.  Consultation is essential before any extensive work of a non-routine nature is put in hand.

  1. Bindery Services

The Library has its own bindery.  It should be noted, however, that owing to pressure of work, jobs from outside the Library are undertaken only in very exceptional cases.

vii. Special Services

The Library has CD-ROM (Compact Disk Read Only Memory) facilities which offer literature searches in agriculture and medical databases at minimal charges.  This service is for lecturers and postgraduate students for their research work.

  1. Regulations
  2. i) All readers must fill-in registration cards, renewable each session, before making use of the Library.  This is the only formality for members of the College, i.e. senior staff and students and for senior staff of the College.
  3. ii) Persons who wish to make regular use of the Library and who are not eligible under the clause above, must make personal application to the College Librarian for permission.  Demands on Library facilities from within the College make it increasingly necessary to grant this only in exceptional cases.  The claims of scholarship and research will be given first consideration.

iii)        Registration is valid for the current academic year only and must be renewed thereafter.

  1. iv) Readers must submit any books or journals they are carrying while leaving the Library for checking at the checkpoints.
  2. v) All correspondence from the Library should be attended to promptly. The Library will accept no responsibility for correspondence sent to old or incorrect addresses.
  3. vi) Sometimes there is power failure in the night; students can come to the Library with battery-operated torches, not candles or any other form of naked light.

vii)       Refreshments or snacks of all kinds are prohibited in the    Library.

viii)      Smoking is prohibited in the Library.