Promoting well-being for all at all ages is the third of 17 sustainable development goal agenda which aims to eradicate poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all by 2030. Nigerians and people in other parts of developing world face several health challenges and the negative impacts of communicable and non infectious diseases, the majority of which are preventable are increasingly becoming prominent. The Carnegie take home assignment studied the roles that academic institutions and libraries in Nigeria could play towards achieving the healthy living for all. The search strategies employed include relevant IFLA links on SDGs, search engines such as Google scholar and databases such as Science Direct. The findings show that academic institutions could be involved by using internal and external dialogue, institutional media and by integrating health issues in the curricular of students.
Librarians as custodians of information resources could disseminate health information by: engagement in research surveys to identify areas of health needs such that information disseminated would be based on need assessment. Collection Development and Repackaging of Information. teaching of information literacy skills. Partnership with organizations such as the Health Ministries and NGOs to deliver health information in a cost effective and sustainable basis. Outreach to meet information needs of rural dwellers and the less privileged. Presentations and talks on prevailing health challenges and Referral Services to lead people to agencies and information sources that address their health issues.
As a follow up, a survey carried out from April to June, 2017 assessed the involvement of 35 public and private institution libraries in South Western Nigeria in dissemination of health information. The findings show that the libraries have collections on health, but with little or no involvement in dissemination of health information. The respondents believed that they have a role to play in impacting positively on the achievement of health for all, but a few mentioned that this should be the duty of the public libraries. The challenges identified by the librarians in order of importance were poor funding, paucity of human resources and scarcity of health information materials with local contents.
A project initiated after my CPD Training was the organization and facilitation of TEEAL/AGORA Training- of- Trainers Workshop for selected Academic staff and graduate students of tertiary institutions in Ekiti State under the auspices of ITOCA, funded by Cornell University’s Albert R. Mann Library, ITOCA, South Africa from 25-27 April, 2016 at FUOYE. I served as Chairperson of the Local Organizing Committee and topics covered included Reference Management Mendeley, Copyright and Licensing Issues, Formulating Search Strategies. I crossed to the Department of Library and Information Science as a Lecturer in 2016 and my Carnegie training has made tremendous impact on the teaching of courses such as Information Literacy, Information Sources and Resources, and ICT Application in Library Services.
My CPD Training informed the recommendation and facilitation of health talk session in the 3-day Training/Workshop for Academic staff of FUOYE on ‘’Pedagogy in Higher Education Service Delivery’’ from 19-21 April, 2017. The Chief Medical Director, FUOYE Health Centre Dr Olawale Musibau delivered the lecture on “Lecturers Health, Life and Happiness”. As the Coordinator and later Ag. Head for my Department, I initiated and coordinate the yearly students’ educational tour to various libraries starting with the visit to four different libraries in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State in 2016/2017. An ongoing study is ‘’Pattern of use of social networking sites by FUOYE students’’ with a view to finding strategies to optimize its use for learning. Keywords: Health information, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Libraries, Academic institutions, Nigeria
