DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES OF THE BALME LIBRARY
INTRODUCTION
The Balme library before attaining its modern and robust state had gone through several developments under different leaderships and regimes. The establishment of the University College of the Gold Coast in the 1947 necessitated the establishment of a central library which according to the then Principal of the College, Mr. David Balme was the nerve (strength) of the college.
Formally, the library was at the Achimota College occupying a single room with just about 3000 volumes of books for intermediate courses. Over a period of years, there was not enough space (room) to accommodate the growing collections and expansions. The then newly appointed Librarian Elise Walker made a plea for extra rooms and other facilities for the library and its staff. This motivated the building committee of the University College Council to plan a beautiful library with facilities for future expansion and began arrangements to allocate funds for the commencement of such an important project at Legon.
In 1959, the library finally moved from Achimota into its permanent premises at Legon with a capacity of 250, 000 books and 300 seating capacity. On the 23rd of January 1960, the official opening ceremony of the library was held and appropriately named after the first Principal David Balme. In addition a portrait bust of David Balme was unveiled. At the end of July 1960, the library had through the help of a capital grant and annual grants amounting to over £250,000 over 140, 000 collections of books, pamphlets and periodicals covering the various disciplines of study.
THE COMPOSITION OF THE BALME LIBRARY
With just five departmental libraries and a separate Law library during its early years, the Balme library is considered as the central and main library of the present University of Ghana Library System (UGLS). The UGLS comprises of the satellite libraries, Hall libraries, Departmental libraries located in all campuses of the University of Ghana with the Balme Library as its central library. The Balme library was strategically placed in the center of the university to provide easy access for the residence and faculty of the institution.
AUTOMATION OF THE BALME LIBRARY (UGLS)
The goal of libraries as influenced by the Information Technology (IT) shifted from collections development to access to information (Amekuedi, 2005). As the author rightly pointed out, academic libraries such as the Balme library has moved from the era of just being a custodian of books and other collections to service-oriented information provider. This drive has necessitated the need for libraries to adopt and use IT in all areas of activity. The Balme library in 2003, realizing the unavoidable need to accept and use these emerging innovative technologies began automating its services for several reasons.
Library automation according to Daniel, (1989), is the application of automatic or semi-automatic data processing equipment to perform library functions such as acquisition, circulation, cataloguing, reference service, and serial control. An OPAC is a database of bibliographic records describing the holdings usually of one particular library that allows searching by name, title and subject while offering online access through public terminals.
THE DIGITIZATION UNIT
The unit was established in 2011 following the decision of the library management at the time to save and extend the lifespan of some unique rare collections of the Balme library. Through a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the first digitization unit was set up to specifically digitize selected Africana Heritage Material. Furthermore, additional important collections such as theses, newspapers, microfilms and others were added to the project. Currently, the Digitization unit is currently digitizing all past questions with the intention of creating remote access to these mentioned collections of the library through an institutionally built database (Institutional Repository) called UGSpace (UGIR) which can be accessed world wide. The UGIR houses over ten thousand different collections including research articles by faculty of this Institution, Reports, journals, lectures and speeches, United Nations publications, Work in progress, policies and newsletters.
THE COMMONS
There are three different commons within the Balme library categorically designed for Faculty, Post-Graduate students as well as undergraduate students of this university.
THE RESEARCH COMMONS
The Research Commons is a research facility for postgraduate students with over 100 seating capacity that provides full internet access (both wired and wireless), printing, scanning and photocopy facilities as well as discussion rooms.
THE FACULTY RESEARCH COMMONS
Unlike the research commons, the FRC is strictly for lecturers and faculty members of this University. It has about 15 seating capacity with similar facilities as the Research commons except for a discussion room.
THE KNOWLEDGE COMMONS
The knowledge commons (KC) is designed specifically for undergraduate students of this institution. Like the RC, it has all facilities except for a discussion room. However, there is a separate Undergraduate discussion room designed for undergraduate group discussions at the African library.
THE GHANA-KOREA INFORMATION ACCESS CENTER (IAC)
The IAC is a similar facility like the commons but with other unique facilities such as training labs, video conferencing facility, internet lounge and four discussion rooms. Unlike the commons, the IAC is opened to the general public for research purposes.
THE RESOURCES OF THE BALME LIBRARY
The resources of the Balme library include print and electronic resources including microfilms. The Balme library has over 400, 000 print materials and millions of non-print materials through subscribed academic databases that contain, electronic books, journal articles and many others. These varied collections cover and support the various academic disciplines offered in this University.
THE 24-HOUR READING ROOM
In order that students will possibly continue their studies beyond library hours, the Balme library has provided additional reading space with about 60 seating capacity, wireless connectivity and enough security to assist students study beyond the operating hours of the library.
THE ACADEMIC COMPUTING UNIT (ACU)
This unit was previously called “The Electronic Support Unit” (ESU). The creation of University of Ghana Computing Systems (UGCS) led to the development of a new organogram which changed the name the unit to Academic Computing Unit (ACU) by outlining their basic responsibilities to the library by offering technical support in the use of Information Technology (IT) such as computer repairs, software and hardware installations, troubleshooting, training of staff and many others for the libraries within the University of Ghana Library System (UGLS). An initiative that was necessary because the library was on the way to becoming a fully automated library. They are situated in the central library (Balme library).
SERVICES
Amongst the services the Balme library provides include binding, printing, scanning, Photocopying, encapsulation, Course Reserves, Students with Special needs, and general reference service.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE LIBRARY SYSTEM.
The library has evolved from a purely traditional (manual) system of management and service provision to a hybrid academic/Public library. There has been several improvements and innovativeness in the Balme library which has expanded its capacity by integrating all satellite libraries within the University of Ghana. These libraries have form a system called the University of Ghana Library System (UGLS).
In 2003, after the lunch of “The Online Public Access Catalogue” (OPAC), the Balme library was able to migrate majority of its collections into the electronic catalogue together with the collections of departmental, hall and special libraries located at the various campuses. This has made it easier and faster for searching and retrieval of library materials. Services such as inter-library loan is now made possible.
WEB RESOURCES
The Balme library has a number useful web resources for its users. The library apart from its OPAC, has a chat system called “Ask the Librarian” that enables users from all over the world to remotely connect to Librarians in their respective disciplines of study for any enquiry. Another important resource worth mentioning is the Subject Guide where Librarians are assigned to the various subjects of study where selective and focused research guidance and assistance are given to students of those disciplines. My library is another web resource that enables students to access electronic books, journals and other digital materials through many subscribed electronic databases. Also, Students, faculty and researchers can request an article through the”Article Request ” tool.
The Institutional Repository of the University of Ghana (UGIR) is a database containing both digitized and born-digital documents such as theses, journals, lectures and speeches, policies, newsletters and newspapers, reports, University of Ghana readers etc.
THE STUDENTS’ REFERENCE LIBRARY (SRL)
The Students’ Reference Library (SRL) was set up in 1963 as an undergraduate collection. The idea was to have a separate collection within the Library to house textbooks and other relevant materials including pamphlets, chapters of books and photocopied documents which have been recommended by lecturers to be placed on reserve. The collection is directly linked to the courses taught and mainly supports the teaching, learning and research of both staff and students. The collection covers all subjects taught in the University. Within the SRL there is the student's reserve collection which was created in order to give equal opportunity to all students to use books due to the limited number of some particular books. students can only get access to those books using a valid students identification card. once upon a time the the students reserve collection was nicknamed the cold room,because that was the only place you could find air conditioner in the library.
THE AFRICANA LIBRARY
The Africana library was set up in 1962,at that time the african studies library was already in existence they had a lot of books on african literature. The Balme library thought they should have an african collection of their own hence the set up of the africana collection. It started with a lot of donations across the length and breath of the country and overseas. It houses all books related to Ghana and africa as a whole,within the Africana is the the rare room collection,as the name depicts, it houses books that are rare and some can not be found anywhere in the world. for instance the first history book on africa titled the “Ogilby” can be found in africana rare room collection which is a special collection for such materials. The africana collection also boast of a microfilm and preservation room.
ARABIC COLLECTION
The Arabic library collection is one of the special libraries within the balme library, was established in 1966 and re-organised in 1971. The collection consists mainly of works in Arabic scripts irrespective of their subject content.
The major source of the Arabic collection is through donors and some few recommended books from the Arabic Department. Currently, the Arabic collection is about 5,000 to 6,000 books and 500 manuscripts. The Arabic manuscripts collection was a project carried out by Institute of African Studies in the 1950’s and 60’s to collect Arabic manuscripts on the history of Arabic language in Ghana and other areas in West Africa. Themes which are dealt with in the documents include Islamic law, theology and philosophy, Arabic language and poetry.The collection is growing bigger except that there space is small to contain the growth.
Like other materials in the library, the titles are available in the UGCAT(ONLINE CATALOGUE) but in a transliterated form. Translations of works in Arabic are placed in the main library except the Qurans which are kept in the Arabic Library.
The Arabic Library is patronized mainly by undergraduate and postgraduate Arabic language students admitted by the University of Ghana and external researchers.
ACQUISITIONS UNIT
the acquisition unit was set up in the formative years of the library and was known as ORDERS. This unit was responsible for all the books that found their way into the library through donations and purchases.
UNITED NATIONS COLLECTION
In 1960 the United Nations library was set up as one of the depository collections to take care of publications from the united nations. This was just around the time the atomic energy department was established. the library is maintained by the united nations.The documents are sent under specified conditions for or maintenance.
Regular publications received in this Library are the UN publications in the English language and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) masthead documents. Presently, most UN publications may be accessed online freely from the UN website.
WORLD BANK COLLECTION/DEVELOPMENT INFORMATION CENTER (DIC)
world bank collection One of the depository libraries in balme library was set up in 1980.
this was mainly to house publications and other document both print and electronic on the world bank and its partners across the world.The name was later changed to the development information center.
THE CIRCULATION UNIT
This automated unit is responsible for handling inter-library loan services, lend books to student and faculty, charge and receive overdue fines.
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