Education has been defined as a complex of social processes of acquiring knowledge and experience, formally or otherwise. Ogunsheye (1981) states that it involves the total apparatus used for the development of the individual.
The library enables the individual to obtain spiritual, inspirational, and recreational activity through reading, and therefore the opportunity of interacting with the society’s wealth and accumulated knowledge (Omojuwa 1993). The library can be seen as an extension of education.
Library services are needed to keep the skills that have been acquired through literacy classes alive by the provision of good literature. If education is to have a greater share in the molding and building of a happier individual and a better society, the providers of education must go further than their roles as literacy facilitators to a more practical role of providing libraries for supporting the newly acquired skills of adult learners.
Organizing a library to aid education calls for an atmosphere of friendliness and a useful collection. Education facilitators should involve librarians in planning education programs and learners should be given library instruction.
‘Education’ and ‘Library’ are two inseparable indivisible concepts, both being fundamentally and synchronically related to and co-existent with each other. One cannot be separated from the other. None of them is an end in itself; rather both of them together are a means to an ultimate end. One dies as soon as the other perishes. One survives as long as the other exists. This inter-relation, co-existence, if you like, this dependence of one upon the other have been coming down from the birth of human civilization to the posterity through a process of evolution in accord with varied needs, changes, and circumstances of various stages of human life.
From the earlier definitions, education cannot exist alone in the absence of library and library has no meaning if it cannot impart education. A well equipped library is a sine qua non for the intellectual, moral, and spiritual advancement and elevation of the people of a community. It is an indispensable element of the absolute well being of the citizens and that of the nation at large. People acquire education through certain institutions, schools, agencies, welfare bodies, museums and organizations, and the library is the most outstanding of such institutions. A school, a club, and enterprise of a society can never alone impart education; each of them is dependent upon a library – a centre of wholesome education, and the quencher of thirst for concrete enormous, ultimate knowledge!
The concept of education for sustainable development and its relationship with Education for All is a new vision of sustainable development programme by UNESCO. In December 2002, resolution 57/254 on the United Nations Decade of Education for sustainable Development (2005-2014) was adopted by the UN General Assembly and UNESCO was designated lead agency for the promotion of the Decade.
Indeed, the establishment of the concept on education for sustainable development and its relationship with Education for All the United Nations Literacy Decade and the Millennium Development Goals clearly illustrate that quality education, a goal of the library, is a prerequisite for education for sustainable development at all levels and in all modalities of education. The Educational Policies and plans of UNESCO in the role of education and its development, poverty reduction, the promotion of universal human values and tolerance, and the challenges of new ICTs (library).
A Web definition for Education Development is the process of improving the effectiveness of educational provision through an ongoing review of relevant factors at all levels from teaching techniques and materials to institutional structures and policies, and the provision of mechanisms for progressive change.
It is evident from the aforementioned that the different types of libraries play a significant role in educating the citizenry of a nation. The inability of parents to purchase valuable books for their children can be checked with establishment of libraries – school libraries for primary and secondary education to wage a “war” or campaign this great lack for which education has remained handicapped and limited. Apart from this, the public libraries render a yeoman service in the adult education through extension services and audio-visual aids, viz; story hours, lectures, book exhibitions, displays, book weeks, and motion pictures, newsreels, film strips, music stores, phonorecords and the like. These aid mass education libraries also strengthen communication and collaboration between and among the research, business, government and educational communities in the society and contribute to the lifelong learning opportunities of all. Undoubtedly, the goals of the library are to promote literacy, provide services, materials, and opportunities for citizens. The establishment of more schools, training of teachers and curricula improvements, although, worthy efforts, may not just be all without a commensurate programme to establish and upgrade libraries which are not merely conservers of past events, experiences and knowledge, but have essential roles and close bearing on advancement of education and nationhood.
