A SURVEY ON LIBRARY SERVICES TO THE DISADVANTAGED USER GROUPS IN A PUBLIC LIBRARY (A CASE STUDY OF BAUCHI STATE PUBLIC LIBRARY)

ABSTRACT The Disadvantaged groups are people who are physically, mentally, socially, politically, economically, racially, culturally, religiously, and environmentally deprived of the privileges and rights due them from the government or the civil society. Information is a public goods which must not be denied anyone regardless of ‘age, race, gender, religion, disability, cultural identity, language, socio-economic status, lifestyle choice, political allegiance or social viewpoint. However, the Disadvantaged user groups are underserved of these essential commodities. The purpose of this research is to survey on library services to the disadvantaged user groups in Bauchi state public library. Related literatures were reviewed. Survey research method was adopted for the study. The users and the librarian were selected for the study. The respondents and the library staffs were from the general population of the Bauchi State Public Library Board. A total of 30 copies of the questionnaire were administered and they were all well filled and retrieved. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data collected in frequencies and percentages based on subject matter. The findings shows that children of the rural area within Bauchi Local Government Council, are faced with lack of library facilities and the condition of Bauchi state Public library is poor, it is therefore recommended that government should support and be committed with funding of public library in the state with adequate facilities to encourage disadvantaged children.