Trends in acquisiton and their impact on library services at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) library

Abstract

The paper evaluated the various categories of acquisition of library materials over a period of seven years (1997/98-2003/04) in the KNUST Library. The methods of acquisition involved in the study were: purchase; donation; legal deposit theses and exchange. The study showed that the University Library has not been adequately resourced financially and therefore relied heavily on donation, which does not allow the Library full participation in the selection of library materials. This has brought imbalance in the collection, which does not support postgraduate programmes and research pursued in the university. It also came out that most of the donations were print resources with only a small percentage of electronic resources. Good connectivity and effective utilisation of e-resources in and outside the Library were therefore proposed. The paper concluded that the University Library be well resourced to enable it purchase library materials especially core text and journals, which are mostly lacking among donated ones to support teaching, learning and research in the university.