Library

LADIPO ADAMOLEKUN PUBLIC AFFAIRS LIBRARY

The Library was commissioned on Thursday, January 26, 2006 by the Rt. Rev Bolanle Gbonigi, a retired Bishop of Akure Diocese. The ceremony was witnessed by over thirty persons including Chief Olu Falae, a former minister of finance, Dr. Funke Oyebade, Registrar, Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) and Chief R. Fasoranti, acting leader of Afenifere (the pre-eminent Yoruba socio-cultural group). The event received considerable media coverage.

Background
About half-way through my career in academia in the late 1970s, I decided that a proposed bungalow to be built in my hometown would have the largest room serve as a library. A decade or so later, I resolved to build a stand-alone library. Although the two-storey library building was completed in the late 1990s, I decided that it would only be furnished and commissioned for use after my retirement. It has capacity for over 12,000 volumes and is called a public affairs library because the majority of the titles deal with different aspects of public affairs, covering the humanities and social and management sciences.

Users of the Library
Although the library is primarily a private collection of books and other documents for the owner, there is a limited public access. Specifically, it has a reading room for users that can seat 12 persons, and space for a library assistant.

The majority of users of the library are final year secondary school students and post-secondary school students preparing for entrance examinations into tertiary education institutions. Some other secondary school students also use the library from time to time. Undergraduates in the community use the library during their vacations and, to a lesser extent, some teachers in the community also use the library. Every year, there have been occasional users of the library from Iju’s neighbouring community, Itaogbolu.

The users of the library peak annually for about two months before the annual Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) entrance examinations to tertiary education institutions. During this period, there are usually more users than there are spaces on a daily basis, and a few could be found on benches provided ad hoc in-between shelves. Between July 2012 and March 2020, there were over 750 registered users of the library.   

Internet Facility
Free Internet facility is provided in the library since April 2010.