Inst. of Prof. Status

The Institute of Professional Status at Legon (IPS) is a public university specializing in business, finance, and marketing. It is one of six public universities in Ghana and has an enrollment of only about 2,000 students. The Library staff includes one full librarian, one assistant librarian, and about seven library staff. One of these staff members, the information technology specialist named Jeffrey, gave me a tour and answered my questions. Unfortunately I could not take photos for a number of reasons. The librarian was not available for me to ask permission and the library was so small that it would have been too intrusive for the patrons studying.

The first thing I noticed was how up-to-date the books were on the shelves. Jeffrey says they do a lot of weeding of older materials due to the small size of the library and that Marketing, Computer, and Business publications quickly go out of date as opposed to literature, history etc. The library does receive funds to purchase books, selection decisions are made by a committee. The library also receives donations from BAI but these books are often out-of-date. Another purchasing option is for the librarians to visit The Book Trust here in Accra, an NGO that sells books (used and new) at low prices.

The library is currently undergoing conversion from a card catalog to an online library catalog using Heritage software. All books are classified using Library of Congress call numbers. They have also created a database that includes theses and research from the students at IPS, currently available in-house only.

Miscellaneous information-- IPS is a lending library; photocopiers available; computer lab with five computers and connections for laptops; currently purchasing more materials to bolster the collection for two newly added Masters degrees, Global Leadership and Auditing/Accounting; no literature is available at the IPS library (I guess businessmen don't read for fun?).