Background: Health library and information professionals need continuing professional development to update their skills and knowledge. There is very limited evidence on the training needs of medical librarians in Nigeria. Objectives: To identify the training needs of medical librarians in Nigeria, principally the content topics required, preferred formats of training, and barriers to training. Methods: An online questionnaire was distributed to 94 registered members of the Medical Library Association of Nigeria. Results: The majority of the 64 medical librarian respondents wanted training in information systems and technology usage. The respondents also indicated that they prefer participating in seminar/workshops and being involved in face-to-face courses. Very few of the respondents have attended any specialist training aimed at their work in the medical field. The foremost challenge identified is the high cost of training. Discussion: This study confirmed that the librarianship degree acquired from library schools only serves as a foundation for medical librarians, and it does not provide the specific subject training required to work successfully as medical librarians. Conclusion: There is a gap in knowledge base of medical librarians in Nigeria that needs to be filled by specific on-the-job training and courses which are affordable.

This paper focused on theoretical health information outreach which is a pivotal role of the medical librarian to citizenship health empowerment. Dissemination of medical information and access is the service required as the predictor of unhindered medicalinformation. Accessing the information as means of the outreach is where the problems lie. This article identified approaches to information outreach, its challenges in perspective and strategies to enhance health information outreach by medical librarians using the resources in the Libraries as a key to citizenry healthy nation.

Librarians across Africa have had to portray proactive measures in combating the spread of Corona Virus (COVID-19) pandemic. They were faced with the probability of how libraries would function amidst employees calling for closures while seeking for safety and looking for how to activate open access e-resources, minding workers’ rights and copyright guidelines on these e-resources. Their perception on providing health information sensitization to their immediate community, the challenges and facing the change agenda was the focus of this paper. Respondents were drawn from different libraries for the survey which adopted qualitative research methodology through interviews. The data collected were thematically analyzed to answer the research questions. Findings indicated that librarians perceived the COVID-19 sensitization as a challenge that could be overwhelming, but achievable with support from stakeholders, the government and non-governmental agencies. Recommendations were that the new normal has brought changes to information processing and dissemination. Librarians and libraries should thrive in this new reality and remain more responsive. Furthermore, enhanced impact assessment should be carried out to find out how the measures of sensitization on the pandemic became effective.