Advice to First Year Students in the Department Library and Information Science, IMSU

Advice to First Year Students in the Department Library and Information Science, IMSU

Welcome to the department of library and information science. The library and information science degree programme is an academic programme that prepares men and women, primarily, for professional career in libraries, information institutions and other communication agencies. You must know that it is both exiting and prestigious to be a Librarian.

Libraries and librarians support education, research and scholarship. They are also a vital link in the communication process because they facilitate the exchange and dissemination of recorded information. By electing to study Library and information science, you have enlisted into an army that fights ignorance, illiteracy, misinformation and falsehood which is why the slogan of the department’s student association (NALIS) is information is power. 

Recommended; Library and Information Science Course Description and Units, Imo State University, Owerri

Do not let anybody intimidate or make you feel inferior. Every course or discipline is important because the practitioners play distinct roles in different facets of the society.

Your admission marks the commencement of an academic sojourn that is expected to last for four years. How you conduct yourself will determine what you make out of this sojourn.

Experience shows that first year students are usually lost in the euphoria of their admission which launches them into the realm of campus life. On several instances, some have, unfortunately, the real thing. This is the time to get your bearing right. What you already have in mind as campus life – the minis, the bikinis and other body-exposing wears, the boy-girl dates, the parties, clubs and other  growing up activities are, in fact, distractions to the campus lifestyle.

The real campus life is a life of persistent study and in you case, the study of library and information science (LIS). The purpose of higher education is the acquisition of knowledge in broad and specific terms; broad, in the sense that you are expected to know little about everything, and specific, in the sense that you are expected to know much about your area of specialization (i.e. your course of study).

Perhaps, let me remind you that you have come to “MAHADUM” (mara ha dum – know it all).  How do you achieve this broad purpose of higher education if you join the bandwagon of shadow chasers? I advise that you begin now to sit tight on the chair and face the challenge ahead of you – to acquire broad learning. I wish to direct you at the outset to the library, which stocks assorted knowledge recorded in many sources.

It bothers me that young people come into campus and all too soon throw all family values to the winds falling prey to peer influences. But is is complex-sufferer that are usually victims They are those who are quick to accept or adopt the view-points of others even when these are not convenient in order not to be branded Jew Guys.

Related Article; Library and Information Science Programme Structure and Academic Regulations in IMSU

It takes self will, self discipline to stand on the right track and turn deaf ears to whatever name-calling your stance may attract. Somebody may dare to be different-may be you, the present reader. Shun unfaithful works of darkness as they are inimical to your purpose on campus.

Use the library extensively to achieve this purpose. Good enough you are studying LIS!

Is it necessary to remind you that by choosing to study LIS, you are treading on a professional part paved over the centuries by  renowned and celebrated scholars, intellectuals and bureaucrats. You need to make your own impression in the profession and of history through dedicated study and handwork. The fact that LIS may not be as popular as the other courses does not make it less important. On the contrary, librarians are important professionals playing their role and contributing their quota to the development and transformation of the human society. Libraries and librarians are so important that no tertiary institution would be established, licensed or accredited without a befitting of standard academic  library.

Courtesy; Dr Chidi Nwosu