Abstract:
The end result of education as one of the instruments for national development is empowerment to make one useful and productive to the society. Polytechnic establishment is to enhance or encourage this through technological know-how and practical knowledge. Its objectives are tailored to meet working life but they are basically ill-equipped for this purpose. To ameliorate this, the sector is given impetus to a renewed investment in research that culminates in enormous growth in library resources. The growth usually generates problems of organization and consequently accessibility to information. There has to be proper organization of the materials before these can be adequate accessibility. Therefore as we prepare to meet the needs of library users, our expertise in resources organization is fervently needed. The main purpose of the investigation into this study is to examine the organization and use of the project reports in polytechnic libraries, identify problems militating against the professional practice and proffer suggestions that can improve the challenges identified. Six research questions were formulated to guide the study. The Organization and Use of Thesis in Polytechnics Questionnaire (OUTIPQ) was the instrument used to collect data for the study. Data was collected from the ten polytechnic libraries in North-Central of Nigeria. The study identified lack of professional handling-full cataloguing, indexing and abstracting services, lack of database creation, lack of bulletin and non-digitization of library resources and internet connectivity as problems militating against the professional services needed. But succor can be through adequate training of staff and deployment of user education with adequate funding for provision of necessary tools. With the availability of ICT, the development of internet, the availability of digitization equipments access and the formation of digital library software (DLS), to the potential users with no barriers globally. If we are not prepared to engage with technology to publicize these project reports, then we will do the future of public access to information a grave disservice.
