Bridging the gap between THEORY and PRACTICE has been the major reason of engaging students in student industrial work experience (SIWES) programme. The programme is designed to expose and prepare students of Nigerian tertiary institutions for the industrial workplace setting they are likely to come across after graduation. It’s on this note the University Library, as part of its duties saddled with the responsibility of training SIWES/IT students, specifically those from Library & Information Science department of Nigerian tertiary institutions.
Recently, the University Library engaged the first set of Library & Information Science students, Federal University Oye-Ekiti in rigorous hands-on training for several weeks on various library activities such as; cataloguing, classification, bibliographic description, circulation (charging and discharging system), accessioning, etc. More importantly, the library management software (LMS) – Koha adopted by the Library was equally introduced to students how it’s been used to manage various library activities as no 21st century academic library, expected to equip students with skills of maneuvering this science and technology driven world, can afford to operate without incorporating the emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs) in its activities, especially in the wake of the 4th industrial revolution (industry 4.0).
At the end of the training, the students were able to handle various library tools (Library of Congress Classification Scheme, Subject Heading, Worksheet, Accessioning machine, etc.) which they might not have access to in their departments. The training was anchored by Drs Isaac Busayo, Olabode Olajide and Mrs Bunmi Akinyede with the assistance of other library staff as well as ICT expert, Mr Kunle Adebayo, while the University Librarian, Dr Gboyega Adio offered relevant suggestions that led to the success of the programme.
