Availability of Policies and Information Resources in the Legislative Libraries of State Houses of Assembly in Nigeria

Abstract

Availability of policies and information resources were believed to remain the hubs through which legislative libraries could achieve their objectives of meeting the information needs of legislators. This paper investigated the availability of policies
and information resources in the legislative libraries of State Houses of Assembly in Nigeria. The population of the study was (31) librarians from which a sample was drawn based on geo-political zones. Purposive sampling technique was used to select (12) librarians. Unstructured interview was used to collect data. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings of the study showed that only three libraries had a written policy, while majority (9) used the unwritten policy. The result showed that different types of information resources were available but mostly in print format in all the libraries. It is concluded from the study that legislative libraries that provide information services base on policy guidelines were better than those that did not. Hence, adoption of policies would make it easier for the legislative libraries in most cases to provide information resources in line with the lagistator's information requirement. The study recommended among others, the need for strict policy by all the legislative libraries. This is because the existence of documented polices would positively improve the services they rendered to legislators.