Abstract

Tire purpose of the study is to ascertain the level of awareness and management of electronic waste by Nigerian librarians. Specifically, the study looked into the reason for the generation and growth of electronic waste in 1111iversit1· libraries and also examined various ways electronic waste is /leing 111m10ged. Challenges .f they face in tlris 1>roce.u <111(/ .rtrategie.1 that can be used in averting these challenges. The study gave a critical review of literature on electronic waste, which provides a clarification of thr concepts related to the work. Furthermore, descriptive survey was adopted for the .w,dy: thl! pop11latio11 consists of 88 librarians in three Federal 1111iversity li/Jraries in Nigeria. (Questionnaire was used in the collection of daw from these libraries. Out of /OJ q11e.1tio111wires di.11rib111ed to librarians 88 were returned and found mable for the study. The result of the study on the a11·are11e.1.1 uf electronic waste among librarians showed that 9( 10%) of librarians. are aware of some mu/ I I( 12%) are uware of many of them. However, the swdy re1•ealed that 68(77%) of respondents are not aware of the toxic content of electronic wuste. Mca11whi/e, 55(6.5%) nf resp1111de111.1 chou dumping t/l(•ir ob.10/e1e electronic equipment permanently in a store, discarding them and collecting vital parts with 9(6.8l6), and dismantling them and taking ,·ital parts with 24(27.2%) as methods of disposing e-waste in libraries. Respondents with l1l<'llll score of 3.46 indicated that lack of knowledge in e-waste management with mean score of 3.46 as major challenges assocured with e-waste management in libraries. The stuttegies identified by respondents to avait these challenges include, organization of training sections on ewaste ·and management by university libraries! for librarians, attendance of international conferences on e-waste management by librarians, provision of lrgal frame work in Niguia that ,rill crmtuin re1le.1 t'.fpecteil by go1•ernmem 10 p(a_y on e-waste management in /ibrariC'.1. Tire implication i.f that if tlti.f is nm done e-waste management tn 11ni1·eni11• libraries i11 Nigeria will remt1i11 a perpetual prn/Jle111 in university libraries in Nigeria. Al.lo. libruriam will remain victims of e-waste toxicity und /rcult/r hazards. There should hr more awareness on e-waste and its management m libranes. This will .t1CJ111l as a medium of overcoming the environmental challenges that emanates fro electronic- ll'll.lte in /il>rarie.1. Tire vrigi,wlit_r of this study lies i11 the analysis in the knowledge of tire wxicit_v of £-waste and it.1 health hazards to individuals that /randies it. especially in libraries. Its values relates to its contribution to literature on management of e-waste by librarians in university libraries with specific reference• to environmental information in 1111i1>t>r.ti1y libraries of developing countries