Beatrice Aboyade (born 24 August 1935), is a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

librarian and a retired professor of Library Studies at

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public research university in Ibadan, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1948 as University College Ibadan, one of many colleges within the University of London. It became an independent university in 196 ...

. Described as a pioneer in Librarianship in Nigeria by the ''World Encyclopedia of Library and Information Services.'' Aboyade has worked in the University of Ibadan and University of Ile-Ife Libraries.

Early life and education

Aboyade had her primary education at Christ's Church Primary School, Porogun, Ijebu Ode. She proceeded to

Queen's College, Lagos Queen's College, Lagos, is a government-owned girl's secondary (high) school with boarding facilities, situated in Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria. Often referred to as the "sister college" of King's College, Lagos, it was founded on October 10, 1927, when ...

, for her secondary education between 1948 and 1951. Between 1952 and 1953, she completed her high school at Queen's College, Ede. She earned her first degree in English from the

in 1960, then obtained further degrees from

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1964. In 1970, she completed her doctorate from University of Ibadan. She was married to Prof. Ojetunji Aboyade, professor of economics, from 1961 until his death in 1994.

Career

Aboyade did not immediately become a

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

, but spent a short time at the

Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation The Voice of Nigeria or VON is the official international broadcasting station of Nigeria. History Founded in 1961, the Voice of Nigeria began life as the External Service of the then Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (now Federal Radio Corpora ...

before she joined the University of Ibadan library as an Assistant librarian in 1962. She soon took up a new position as chief cataloger at the University of Ife in 1965. Three years later she returned to the University of Ibadan to lead their Reader Services. In 1972 she began to teach there when she became a University lecturer in the library science department. In 1978, she was promoted from senior lecturer when she was made a Professor of Library Studies at University of Ibadan, and She served as head of department of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the university. She also ran the Rural Development Information System (RUDIS), which increased information access to rural people in Africa. Her work with RUDIS revealed that Nigerian rural libraries primarily served a functional requirement. The library books were used to show how to improve utilities such as roads, electricity, finance and piped water. Readers would find out about non local employment opportunities as well as information about fertilizers and trading opportunities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aboyade, Beatrice 1935 births People from Ijebu Ode Academic staff of the University of Ibadan Nigerian women academics Nigerian librarians Women librarians Living people University of Michigan School of Information alumni Academic staff of Obafemi Awolowo University University of Ibadan alumni Nigerian expatriates in the United States Yoruba people