Fund-raising tips

Surviving the austerity: the example of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Library, Bauchi, Nigeria

“…Anderson (1990) observed decreased funding for public supported universities and their libraries in Canada and USA between 1985 and 1990 and reported that following this "there is a clear trend towards a more sustained effort in development activities in order to raise supplementary funds to augment their regular publicly-supported budgets". Lynden (1991) agrees completely with Anderson on sustained supplementary efforts as he affirms that:…”

Alternative sources of funding Nigerian university libraries

“…Only three libraries, ATBU, University of Lagos and Federal University of Technology, Abeokuta have fairly formalized ways ‐ the office of the University Librarian, Readers’ Services and Circulation Departments respectively, for handling the generation of alternative income. Our university libraries need to listen to Jenkins and Person who, as quoted by Lynden[1], give as one of the ways to a successful financial development plan the appointment of a library staff member to co‐ordinate the activities. There is the need for Nigerian university libraries to therefore have full‐time suitably qualified officers who can work out the strategies and take steps to generate income through alternative sources.…”

“…Many compounding variables have made it expedient for libraries around the world to look outside their traditional sources of funding in order to raise additional funds to be able to sustain the level of services which, hitherto, normal funding was able take care of. Lynden[1], although writing with reference to the USA, ably captures the world situation with the statement that “…with rising material costs, a recession underway, the dollar eroding in value, government funding in peril, and university budgets becoming more constricted, it is increasingly necessary for libraries to be creative in fund‐raising”. Anderson[2] notes that publicly supported university libraries in the USA and Canada have, since the mid‐1980s, stepped up efforts to generate additional funds to add to their normal budgets because the level of support for them has continued to dwindle.…”