Leveraging Medical Libraries for health information Resources and Services in Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract

The study investigates how Nigerian medical libraries can be more effectively leveraged to support health information provision within academic and teaching hospital contexts. Grounded in socio-technical systems theory, it adopts a mixed-method, cross-sectional design combining resource audits, and surveys of 115 users across eight institutions, and qualitative interviews and focus groups with librarians, clinicians, students, and health administrators. Quantitative findings show collections dominated by print textbooks with moderate quality ratings, limited current journals, and uneven provision of electronic databases, computers, and internet access, resulting in relatively higher satisfaction with print than with digital resources. Service portfolios remain largely conventional, centered on basic reference and circulation, with low uptake of selective dissemination, training in literature searching, clinical outreach, and public-facing health information services. Qualitative data highlight chronic underfunding, weak ICT infrastructure, bureaucratic constraints, and insufficient specialist training for medical librarians as key structural, technological, and professional barriers. Taken together, the findings reveal a persistent misalignment between global expectations for evidence-based, digitally mediated health information and the realities of Nigerian medical libraries, which remain under-resourced and under-integrated into clinical and educational workflows. The study proposes a context-sensitive framework that emphasizes resource diversification, sustained ICT investment, professional capacity-building, user-centered and clinically embedded services, and stronger policy support to reposition medical libraries as active knowledge infrastructures within Nigeria’s health system.​