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What government does/fails to do is conveyed to the public largely by records and information of various types in the public service, without which there will be no government. When records are poorly managed, much time is involved in sorting and locating needed information from large volumes of records. The rate of records misplaced or lost from which useful information for decision making is usually obtained makes it difficult to provide concise and up-to-date records of both past and present operations, raising the challenge of effective record-keeping. Thus this study examined records management practices in selected local government councils in Ogun State, Nigeria, adopting the descriptive survey research method using questionnaires for data collection. Its population comprised 415 records of personnel in the selected councils, of which 208 were sampled using simple random technique. From the 208 copies of the questionnaire administered on the registry personnel, 150 copies were useable, with a 72.12% response rate. Descriptive statistics were used for the analysis. The results indicated a prevalence of paper as the dominant medium for recording/conveying information in the councils with most of these being either in active state, semi-active, and vital and were kept and maintained in the registry, while in-active records were kept in the records store. Storage facilities for record-keeping were insufficient. Security measures against unauthorized access to records were by restrictions and subject users to managerial clearance. The study concluded that council records were in chaos and recommended the formulation of coherent records management policy, adequate budgetary provision, and adequate finance.

The economic challenges in Nigeria make it to suffer from food insecurity which is due to low agricultural production and productivity. Specific initiatives by the Federal Government on pro-poor rural agricultural food growth to achieve SDGs to end hunger have been established. Similar structures have also been established in all the 36 States of the Federation and, in some cases, at Local Government Area level. The government is also with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and a wide array of stakeholders. Use of pro-poor rural agricultural food growth through rural public library services to achieve the goal 1 and goal 2 targets of SDGs (end poverty and hunger) is particularly the focus of this study. This paper submits that public libraries have a great role to play in the implementation of SDGs by using emerging technology, collaborating on capacity building and going into partnership with critical stakeholders to make information available to poor rural farmers. Hence, materials from the key partners of the government on information about production forecasts, increased agricultural productivity, soil composition, markets for different crops, dairy and poultry farming, farm mechanics, land use, preservation of soil, rainfall and cultivation of different types of crops, effective extension service delivery and feedback on situation for improved research and policy implementation on agriculture should be acquired by public libraries, organized, preserved and made available to rural poor to facilitate pro-poor rural agricultural food growth for the attainment of SDGs in Nigeria. Keywords: Pro-poor rural growth of agricultural food, Rural public library services, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Nigeria, Introduction According to the National Voluntary Review on Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (2017) poverty eradication remains one of the major focus areas for the government of Nigeria. Orelope-Adefulire [...]