With the increasing number of library users resulting from yearly student in-take and the annual book stock, the University was faced with the challenge of expanding the existing library structure. Fortunately through the Government funding and fundraising from well-wishers a storeyed library building was commissioned by His Excellency Yoweri Museveni in 1998. By 2001 the building was completed and functioning. This is in manifestation of fifth law of Library Science as stated by Dr Ranganathan (1891) who is referred to as the “Father.” of Librarianship that a “Library is a growing organism.”
Today the library has a collection of over 85,000 monographs with annual addition of about 2800 textbooks and subscribes to electronic information resources such as; e- databases of scholarly journals, CD-ROM, among others. There is also a book bank system with a collection of basic textbooks for the taught courses. It has a sitting capacity of 700 readers, but still there is need to extend the existing library building to create more reading space for the increasing number of students and staff.
However, in the meantime departmental libraries have been established e.g. Pharmacy, IITR, Management Science, among others to minimize the challenge of space shortage. There are 9 qualified members of staff i.e. 2 holding Masters, 2 Bachelors, 2 Diplomas, and 3 Certificates in Library and information studies
In long term, the University has secured money from African Development Bank (ADB) to construct a 1,500 seater library at the new site at Kihumuro. The architectural design is in place and construction work is expected to start early next year (2015). According to the plan the library structure is expected to provide enough reading space, space for shelves and stacks, seminar rooms, offices, technical room, Archive, among others. This will also come with its challenges but we shall cross the bridge when we reach it.
Mission
MUST library draws its strength in terms of information resources from being a member of the Consortium of Uganda University libraries, who negotiates for low cost electronic information resources, such as international databases, e-books, and scholarly on-line journal articles covering various subjects. This has enhanced access to up – to date peer reviewed literature. Today a total no. of 90 computers is connected to internet. The library collection is accessed through on-line public access catalogue (OPAC) locally designed and KOHA library management system in which data entry is ongoing.
The University library has local and International development partners such as Lund University, Cornell University, British library, among others. This partnership has enhanced service delivery through services like electronic document delivery where documents that are not available in the library are obtained from our partner libraries. The library has donor support such as SIDA –SAREC, Book Aid International (BAI) and American Embassy-Uganda among others.
However, there are challenges and threats which the library is facing and will continue to face but service delivery must continue. SUCCEED WE MUST
Vision:
A centre of excellence in provision of information services for the advancement of knowledge.
Mission Statement:
The Mission of Mbarara University Library is to support and supplement the teaching and research activities of the University through provision of information and other services.
