Lagos digital library opens to all, says Ambode

The Lagos state governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, has said that the newly opened state’s digital library was for everyone in and outside the state.

He stated this while unveiling the portal to the library, www.educatelagos.com last Friday at the Landmark Event Centre in Victoria Island, Lagos.

Represented at the event by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Tunji Bello, the governor explained that the digital library, which he described as the first- of- its- kind in the country, was part of government’s efforts to provide access, free of charge, to learning materials, especially to students and researchers, through the collection of digital contents using online portal.

He noted that the library was designed to complement the state government’s quest to make Lagos an Africa’s model megacity and a global economic and financial hub in a nearest future possible.

According to him, the digital library will provide a repository of contents which include 2,000 study aids on core subjects like mathematics, English language, sciences etc from primary to senior secondary school curriculum, over 1,600 tutorials, instructional videos and selected e-books for primary to SS3 approved textbooks, Lagos history, online forum, podcasts and exam-mate (A Test Resource).

“There will also be access to quality research papers from the state’s owned tertiary institutions on a wide range of topics, vocational videos, entrepreneurship contents, history lessons and online courses on coding,” he added.

The governor therefore urged students, researchers and everyone that is interested in knowledge acquisition to make use of the library which can be accessed via internet connection on a range of devices including desktop computers, laptop, feature phones and so forth at anytime and anywhere around the world.

Earlier in his remark, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh whose office the project is domiciled described the digital library as one of the largest learning platforms in Africa, saying the effort was to ensure that no one especially the student and the researcher in the state has any excuse for not having material to study.

He said the platform was rich in all topics and subjects learning in schools from primary to tertiary schools and useful materials including Lagos history for researchers and other users.

He explained that the digital library just like Code Lagos, Adopt – a- library and the adult literacy projects were all parts of Ambode’s government innovations to increase access to quantitative and quality education for the people of the state.

He however pointed out that the initiatives were being carried out in collaboration with the private sector and were all yielding the desired results.