Stirring e-Revolution with Ibom e-Library Project

Only a naysayer will say that a revolution is not taking place in Akwa Ibom State.

The once rural and tetchy state is now a staggeringly beautiful landscape open for business.

The administration of Godswill Akpabio, governor of the state has created faster, smarter and more streamlined government-to-business services and established a modern system of government.

His philosophy and his ability to grow his ideas from paper to infrastructure and service-delivery make him a baptized champion.

The most fascinating is the Akwa Ibom State’s e-library project; a brave new world of net delivered and assisted training platform that places the state at an educational advantaged level among its peers.

The project is part of the solution to the dearth of information and communications technology (ICT) ingredients in Nigeria’s educational curriculum.

Currently, Nigeria’s educational curriculum is wired to fail and produce half baked graduates.

The country’s system as it is today cannot create a knowledge driven economy or so called new economy in which the generation and the exploitation of knowledge play the major part in the creation of wealth.

Particularly disturbing is the fact that most Nigerian graduates leave institutions of higher learning without even touching a computer, leaving them without requisite skills to integrate into the ICT driven business environment.

Also, most school teachers from primary to tertiary also lack the skills to fully utilize technology in curriculum implementation hence the traditional chalk and duster approach still dominates in school pedagogy.

The way forward is to develop an effective curriculum and system  that includes communications, numeracy, information technology, and social skills units, with specific, specialized teaching of each.

That is why we are happy that Akwa Ibom state has blazed the trail in recognizing the compelling need to raise a new generation that is ICT driven.

The Akwa Ibom State’s e-library project brings knowledge to the state residents.

It is exciting and real.

The massive project comprises of a state of the art library complex and computerized library facility with electronic books and archives.

The foundation of the 1,000 user capacity e-library sitting on a 4.8 hectres of land was laid on September 25, 2007 and commissioned last year on July 27, by the President.

It is a five story building with a basement floor supported by internet access that covers five kilometers radius real time and has over 70,000 subscriptions for electronic materials. It also has an inbuilt smart class and language learning centre.

The edifice has an outstation facilities supported by 10 power generators as well as workshop and has over 30,000 materials that covers literature and facility for e-conferencing.

This is backed by an outstations supported by mobile library. At these outstations, users can hook up with the central station to obtain whatever material they needed.

To ensure that every user maximize the opportunity, every user is issued automated card for access. In case where books are stolen, an alarm will blow to alert the management.

The state must therefore guard this project with jealousy.

The management must also seek cooperation and collaborations within and outside the country to make the state a hub of the new knowledge era.

We believe that the value of this project is inestimable and can only be quantified by generations yet unborn.