Abstract
This paper examined the training gap in Nigeria's Defence library workforce, with particular focus
on the absence of a dedicated military Library and Information Science (LIS) programme. The
study was motivated by the fact that Nigeria's Defence institutions hold classified archives,
doctrine repositories, and intelligence documentation, yet the librarians who staff them are
trained through the same civilian LIS pipeline used for public, academic, and special libraries, a
pipeline never built with that kind of material in mind. An opinion-based, conceptual and
analytical approach was adopted, relying on the review and synthesis of literature on Defence
librarianship, LIS education in Nigeria, and the role of libraries in national security, together with
a comparative review of how other countries at very different resource levels have built military
library and information training. Findings revealed that nothing comparable exists in the National
Universities Commission (NUC) and Librarians' Registration Council of Nigeria (LRCN) regulated
curriculum about classified-document handling, Defence archives management, or doctrinesupport
research, leaving a largely unexamined vulnerability in Nigeria's Defence knowledge
infrastructure. The paper further identified strategies for improvement, including a tiered military
LIS programme designed jointly across the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), the Air Force
Institute of Technology (AFIT), and the Nigerian Army University, Biu (NAUB). The study
concluded that the gap lies in the curriculum itself and not in the capability of individual
librarians, and that it can be closed incrementally without new regulatory bodies or Western-scale
budgets.
Keywords: Defence Libraries, Knowledge Infrastructure, Library and Information Science
Education, Military Librarianship, Nigerian Military Institutions.
Publication Date: 2026-10-31