Abstract:
In the recent past, indigenous knowledge (IK) has become a global term because people from
different cultures have indigenous knowledge and skills that are unique to them. Such knowledge
and skills could be innovations as well as sources of livelihood. The IK is an age-long knowledge
which has been passed on from generation to generation. However, the knowledge of these skills is
fast fading away owing to the death of practitioners. The inability to acquire, preserve, and access
this knowledge by future generations is gradually becoming an illusion. There are compendiums of
indigenous knowledge that have had land-breaking impacts in several places but have yet to receive
much attention. Indigenous knowledge of Africans has yet to have a place in Nigerian University
Libraries, particularly in South East Nigeria. This study was undertaken to examine the different
indigenous knowledge available in Nigeria; ascertain the methods of acquisition, preservation and
accessibility of indigenous knowledge in Nigerian University Libraries; and identify the challenges
of acquisition, preservation and accessibility of indigenous knowledge in University Libraries in
South East, Nigeria. The study, among others, found that IK is acquired, preserved and made
accessible at a low rate. This may be a result of a lack of unified policies in IK collection development
in libraries, ignorance and misconceptions about IK knowledge that exist in different environments.
This implies that reasonable and practical policies should be put in place by the government
