Medical Practice, Research and Training in Nigeria: THE CURRENT STATE OF INTERLIBRARY LOAN AND DOCUMENT SUPPLY

Librarians and co‐ordinators of library and information services in developed countries may not always appreciate the advantages that assured electric power and speedy communication provide in support of such activities as interlibrary loan and document supply (ILDS). Such infrastructures are less developed in many Third World countries,including Nigeria. That quite aside, the state of the collections in many Third World libraries are of dubious integrity. As finances available to many of these libraries for collection development are increasingly slender, any honest attempt to audit the collections would reveal that staleness, discontinuities and resultant document poverty are rife. Intends to be viewed as part of an ongoing effort towards sensitizing the “global village” to the awful deprivation of current and relevant publications that are endured in Nigeria and indeed in many other African states. Ways and means must be sought to heighten the profile of this vital aspect of information provision and service in Africa.