Introduction
The Public Services
Department is one of the professional departments of the National Library of Nigeria. Section (2) {b) of the National
Library decree 1970 provides for the establishment and maintenance of a branch of the National
Library in each of the states of the federation. This requirement was designed to bring library
services closer to the people.
In pursuance of the State Branch
Services objectives, presently, there are thirty-three {33) established
operational branches
located all over the six (6} geo-political zones of the country. The State
Branch system is organized into two Divisions: Public Services Department Southern Operations Division and Northern
Operations Division. These two divisions have operational units under them for the coordination of
the activities of the department.
The department
came to being as a result of the merger
of State Branch Services and Reference and Users Services Department. Since
then, the state branch system has undergone
two other significant changes. First, was the splitting up of the department into two (2} departments: The Public Services
Department (PSD South} and the Public Services Department (PSD North} - each of
the department headed by a Director to oversees, co-ordinates, set targets for
annual performance, plan specific
projects and supervises the state branches'
functional operations. Second was the subsequent merger of the two departments
as one but with creation of more divisions and units.