28-03-2012, 12:31 PM
ENHANCING INFORMATION NEEDS AND PERFORMANCES OF PARLIAMENTARIANS
Dr. Ottong - ENHANCING INFORMATION NEED & PERFORMANCE OF PARLIAMENTARIANS.doc (Size: 107.5 KB / Downloads: 40)
INTRODUCTION
Parliamentarians are members of Parliament or, in other words, representatives elected by the voters of an electoral district to parliament. They are legislators and monitors of government policies at the national, state, and local government levels, as well as the guardian of the public will and conscience, as elected representatives of the population (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2008). Parliamentarians, as legislators monitor government policies and programmes at all levels. As the decision-makers of policies, governmental plans and budgets, they are the main players in deciding on legislative democracy from the decision of the conference of the parties to the convention. They create, amend and ratify laws.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
In view of the importance of the parliamentary library playing a key role in meeting information needs of parliamentarians, the study seeks to investigate if members of House of Assembly in Cross River State use the resources and services of the library to satisfy their information needs. The study is organized around the following research objectives:
1) To identify the information needs of parliamentarians;
2) to identify library services provided to the members of the House;
3) to examine the availability of relevant library resources for members of Cross River State House of Assembly;
4) to find out the extent of parliamentarians use of the library resources/services; and
5) to find out the factors affecting the provision of adequate information to the parliamentarians.
JUSTIFICATION
The study is justified because of the importance of library and information to parliamentarians in Nigeria:
• The study is designed to create awareness for the need of information among parliamentarians.
• The study is designed to enhance the importance of the library and enable it play its role as the custodian of information.
• It is believe that the study will attract serious attention to the library and help beef up its resources and services in tune with other parliamentary libraries in the developed world.
THE SETTING AND METHODOLOGY
The empirical setting for the study is the Cross River State House of Assembly, which is the Parliament of the State legislators. The parliament is located in Calabar, the seat of the Government of Cross River State. The State House of Assembly is a bee hive of activities for the state parliamentarians, Government officials and the public. The building is a moderately massive complex which houses the parliament, the administrative wings, and wings for other services, including the library. The study focuses on the information needs of the parliamentarians and how the needs are met, zeroing in on the library as the main channel for achieving the purpose.
The Library and its Resources and Services
The Cross River State Parliament (i.e. the State House of Assembly) has a room in the building complex, which serves as the library. The room is not spacious enough to make allowance for a real functioning library. About 50 percent of the respondents consider the library not good enough, although almost 30 percent (29.6) consider what is provided as sufficient. The library is manned by a skeletal staff of 4 with only one somewhat trained librarian.
CONCLUSION
This study has established the need for a good and functional parliamentary library. Data from the study of the Cross River State House of Assembly Library have revealed the sordid state of the parliamentary library. There is however, a platform on which efficient library services could be mounted, in giving the parliamentarians a good boost for their work.