Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln

 

Date of this Version

1-23-2020

Abstract

Designing Child-Friendly School Libraries and Media Center for a Sustainable Reading Development amongst Nigerian Children

By

Chigozie Blessing Mba

Dominican University Ibadan, Ibadan Nigeria

Email: chigozieblessing@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Aesthetic considerations are pivotal in designing a child-friendly or ‘developmental library’. This paper explored how inadequate educational funding at all levels of government, and the failure of many school managements to meet the aesthetic imperatives of a developmental library in Nigeria, as well as the unwillingness to prioritise the development of child-friendly libraries/media resource centers have conspired with an apathetic reading public to alienate young and impressionable minds from the library. This study deployed Sullivan’s (2011) intrinsic and extrinsic theory of library design to examine the extent to which the adoption of an aesthetically reinvented library practices are critical to the development and sustenance of child-friendly libraries, which is in turn is crucial to the evolution of a reading culture in Nigeria. The study found out that a playground ambiance, technological accessories, craft works and other intrinsic and extrinsic elements of library design which are definitive of aesthetically sensitive libraries are important to not just an improved academic performance among pupils, but have also been pivotal to evolving a reading culture among Nigerian children. Therefore, aesthetic considerations in the design of libraries are imperative to the evolution of a reading culture among Nigerian children.

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