Professor Layi Adebayo of the Library and Information Science at the Department of Library and Information Science, School of Library, Archival and Information Science at the Lagos State University (LASU) has demystified the age-long conventional rules guiding the administration and use of the library this digital age worldwide.

In his highly time-managed lecture titled: Invisible Users And The Regulation: Library Manager On A Sticky Wicket, the thorough-bred veteran teacher cum special breed of library scholar came up with convention-disruptive theories of library administration and facility use while delivering the 101st edition of inaugural lecture in LASU, the currently rated Best University in Sub-Regional Africa Tuesday, November 26, 2024 on the podium of the Buba Marwa Convocation Hall on the Ojo main campus of the varsity.

Coming out of a series of painstaking research, Prof Adebayo, discountenanced the age-long rule of not eating, talking or playing light music in the library facility even as the Oyo-born highly drilled professional teacher innuendoed that these routine-disruptive habits in a modern library constitute personal assimilation enhancement impetus.

The multiple award earning and widely travelled professor also discharged that gone were the days when the multitude of physical attendees of the library determined the volume of usage of the library facility.

Rather, these days, the invisible users have effectively taken over the more use of the modern library facility; thanks to the digital advancement of the contemporary age.

According to Adebayo, the real library users today are no more the actual readers. Rather, the effective library users are the resource users even as he presented visual evidence of digital resource tappers outside the building of a library.

The veteran teacher and archival guru also posited that today, the catalogue of any modern library could be used to access any other library and that books can be accessed and used anywhere, not necessarily in the library.

He also canvassed a reduced physical presence of library users in favour of enhanced facilities for invisible users for more effective management.

Giving kudos in particular to the Lagos State University administration for good funding of the varsity’s library, Adebayo made case for better funding of the library in citadels of learning so that the library managers could be better placed to discharge their duties more effectively and professionally.

Meanwhile, the vastly equipped scholar of archival experience has challenged library staff worldwide on the need to be more friendly with library users in order to keep attracting and ensuring sustained patronage of the library.

This is even as the renowned educationist and archival scholar of global repute advised library managers on decent but non-gorgeous dressing.

Much as Adebayo appreciated in his lecture that the giant size and architectural appeal of a library edifice go a long way to attract physical attendance and a sense of belonging to the users, such variables do not take precedence over the up-to-date and accessible facilities of the library.

“Our colleagues (library administrators) whose major concern is to ensure large patronages of their facilities are taking steps in the right direction but from what we have seen and heard today, those energies and mental exercises could be diverted to other impactful areas of developing the internet bandwidth and the electronic resources which the remote users can enjoy also, rather than clamouring for more seats and begging users to come in.”; Adebayo posited.