The Development of Mosque Library in Nigeria: The Southwest Perspective

Abstract

Mosque library is as important as every other type of library. This is because mosque library is essential for the preservation of books and other resources on religion and facilitates learning of religious ethics, guides, practices, and norms. If they are well developed and managed, they can help to prevent immoral and other social vices which Islam forbids. With the availability of a mosque library, Muslims can always go to this library to satisfy their religious and mundane information needs without being exposed to the immoral/haram activities that they are likely to encounter in other public, national, academic and some other types of library. This study aims to find out the awareness of southwestern Nigerians about mosque library, its existence in the region, level of use and challenges militating against its development. The survey research design was adopted for this study using the quantitative method of data collection with a semi-structured questionnaire as the research instrument. The sample population of the study includes 60 Nigerians from the southwest part of the country. The participants were purposively and randomly (nested sampling) selected. Upon analysis of the data collected, the results of the findings revealed that little is known about mosque library and its existence in the region while the available ones are those that are attached to the mosques in some academic tertiary institutions in the region. Some few other ones are in existence in some parts of the communities in the region but they are less developed and lack professional personnel to manage their resources. As such, the study concludes and recommends that relevant Islamic leaders and bodies in the region should divert their attention towards the development of mosque libraries and embark on publicity drive to increase the awareness of Muslims about the value and importance of mosque libraries.