The National Library’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Professor Chinwe Veronica Anunobi, said Nigeria contributes to the global AI infrastructure.
Anunobi, who spoke at her administration’s third annual press conference recently in Abuja, said that beyond the nation’s digital economy, the national library, through its various activities/platforms, contributes to building the global AI infrastructure.
Clearing the layman’s misconceptions that AI produces knowledge, Anunobi said AI instead collates information imputed into it to produce well-researched knowledge.
Anunobi said that by opening information on the apex library’s repository and virtual library, Nigeria contributes to the growth of global artificial intelligence.
The National Repository of Nigeria holds publications (books, newspapers, journals) about Nigeria authored by Nigerians within and outside the country, pre- and post-independence to date.
Over the past five decades, the library has been digitising its repository to ensure it is accessible online.
As part of the library’s effort to maintain global standards and engender an informed public, it launched the National Virtual Library of Nigeria, an internet version of the library, which offers services similar to those in its physical spaces at the federal and state branches.
Users can acquire International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) and International Standard Serial Numbers (ISSN) and browse through its Bibliography, Newly Acquired Publications, and free and open-to-public publications. Users can now pay to access restricted publications via its Pro-Quest page or access the full text of Nigerian publications without copyright issues. They can also find abstracts of newspaper publications on the Index to Nigeria Newspaper page.
The library recently reopened the issuance of the International Standard Music Number (ISBN). Just as the ISBN increases a book’s visibility and makes for easier inventory control, ordering, and sales reporting, the ISMN does the same for notated music publications. ISMNs aid the industry in the sale and distribution of notated music.
“There is a difference between the music code and the ISMN. Musicians get the code when they want to produce their music. But when they compile/notate their music, they are supposed to give it an international standard number. Just as some people publish books without the ISBN, many musicians publish their music without the ISMN. However, with recent sensitisation by the library, musicians are coming for the ISBN.”
Anunobi said the library is collaborating with the National Academy of Science (NAS) to make its prestigious research studies and reports available online to enhance its contributions to AI.
“The academy has done so much in the area of research. The academy’s greatest strength is its research reports.”
In the meantime, the library is set to celebrate its 6th anniversary this year. Founded in 1964, the national library is mandated to serve as the giant memory of the nation, its intellectual storehouse and data bank for its learning and remembering process.
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