Our History-KNUST Library

In January 1952, the library collection of the Teacher Training Department of Achimota College, numbering about 4,000 volumes, was transferred to the newly established Kumasi College of Technology, Science and Arts to form the nucleus of its library. That library was housed in a prefabricated building. By 1958, its book stock had increased to 19,000 volumes, while the journal holding stood at 580 titles.

In November 1961, when the Kumasi College of Technology, Science and Arts was elevated to the status of a full-fledge University and became known as the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, its library automatically became the University Library. Within that same year, the University Library moved into a new permanent building with a stock of 24,362 volumes. The new University Library, which was built to cater for 100,000 volumes and to provide seating for 250 readers, had been stretched to its elastic limit by the 1976/77 academic year. In 1979, the excavation and foundation works on extension to the library building commenced. However, it was not until 1999 that the project was completed and put to use.

The College Libraries together have a collection of 81,064 volumes. This brings the total collection of the University Library system to 293,164 volumes. The six College Libraries provide information from both print and electronic sources for the academic programmes each of them runs.

The University Library is the management centre for all library operations within the University. It provides staff and technical services as well as coordinates the activities of the College Libraries. The University Librarian is the administrative and technical head of the University Library System, which is made up of the University Library and the six college libraries. She is directly responsible to the Vice-Chancellor in all administrative, technical and professional matters concerning the libraries in the University.

The University Librarian is supported by a Deputy Librarian and six departmental heads in the effective and efficient running of the library. These heads of department are the means through which power and authority from the University Librarian flows down to the para-professionals and the Junior Library Assistants.

There are nineteen (19) professional librarians with the University Library System. Out of the number six (6) have been posted to head the College Libraries, while the rest remain in the Main Library. There are also nineteen (19) Para-professioinals, sixty-eight (68) Junior Library Assistants, four (4) administrative staff, twenty-one (21) cleaners, one (1) technician, three (3) tradesmen, two (2) drivers and eight ( 8) security personnel. Added up, the total workforce of the KNUST Library System stands at 145.

Departments

The University Library has seven functional departments; Administration, Acquisitions, Serials, Cataloguing, Lending, Reference and Research and Institutional Repository & Electronic Information Services.