As part of concerted efforts to promote IT in Nigerian schools, the National Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA), has said it would provide a virtual library to the University of Jos.
The Director General of NITDA, Dr. Isa Pantami made the disclosure in Abuja on Wednesday, when he received the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof Seddi Sebastian Maimako who led some staff of the institution to the corporate headquarters of NITDA to submit a letter of formal request for provision of the library.
While making the appeal, Prof Maimako said “The fire incident of October 2016 razed part of the University of Jos Library and consumed 60 percent of physical books in the library and the lack of functional library is hindering research and learning among the students and staff of the University. It has also made the idea of research and development a fiction.”
“Though, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund TETFund is helping to rehabilitate the library which will be completed by January 2019 but “there is need for us to move away from conventional library to virtual library for robust and conducive learning environment.
“We have heard about NITDA’s interventions in other institutions and we have identified virtual library as one of the things you can do for us, so we want to appeal to you to consider University of Jos for this project.” Prof Maimako submitted.
Responding to the request, Dr Pantami thanked the Vice Chancellor for bringing the letter personally to the agency and also described his effort as a “clear indication of commitment to the success of the school.”
He stated that the provision of virtual library to the school would go a long in aiding research and development. He said, “no physical book can take care of the increasing population of the school. I will make sure that the project is considered in this 2018 budget.
Dr. Pantami further urged the Vice Chancellor to encourage his staff to explore other interventions and benefit that they can get from NITDA.