Information acquisition mechanism of universities libraries: An empirical study of public university libraries in Ghana

This paper takes a critical look at how academic libraries in Ghana acquire their information/materials. The investigation was mainly based on interviews. The interviews were conducted in four Ghanaian public university libraries from January 2014 to March 2015. In all, 38 senior members were interviewed. The findings indicated among other that the libraries under study purchase their library materials through donations, purchase and legal deposits. Also, other ways of acquiring knowledge/information in the library were: the socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation of artefacts. The study recommended that the Procurement Law of Ghana must be reviewed to allow other key officers like the provost and deans to give approval for the library to purchase books on their behalf; clearing process from the port should be streamlined to reduce the number of days spent clearing containers of books from the port.   Key words: Gifts, donations, purchase, legal deposit, procurement law, socialisation, combination, externalisation.