Library Location and Standards Compliance
Mount Kenya University Parkland Law School Library is located at the 1st floor of MKU Parkland building. The library also has an additional reading area at the ground floor in the same building. The building is endowed with proper ventilation, adequate lighting (natural and artificial), spacious and all sections are well defined and labeled, giving an ambiance that is conducive for learning and study. The library complies with the standards and guidelines for establishment of an academic library as stipulated by the Commission for University Education (CUE) as well as the guidelines from Council for Legal Education (CLE).
Library Space / Seating Capacity
The library’s Physical Dimensions is 375.3m2 and it has a seating capacity of 292 users and the service capacity of 900 users.
Library functional areas
The library is fully automated and Wi-Fi enabled and has various sections such as book processing section, circulation section, short loan section, Periodical section, E-learning Section, Reading area , Stack area, library staff offices.
Library services available
The library is established to promote and maintain a wide variety of quality services that support the University’s Vision and Mission.
They include:
- Reference and information services
- Borrowing and lending services
- Current awareness services
- Interlibrary loan services
- Access to online and multimedia services
- User education services / Information Literacy services
- Reservation/Recall service
- Institutional Repository services (erepository.mku.ac.ke)
Library Accessibility
The library operating hours is convenient to all patrons and it’s accessible to all including evening students. The library staff in partnership with the academic staff provides information and instruction to all users through a well-structured information competency programme which includes new library user orientation, staff guidance, well labeled shelves and availability of a web-based online public access catalogue.
The session engages the users in learning Information Literacy Skills and how to access the print and e-resources availed by the library.
Service Hours
Physical Library
Monday to Friday: 8.00 AM – 8.00 PM
Saturday: 9.00 AM – 4.00 PM
Sunday & Public Holidays: CLOSED
Digital Library
The Digital Library is operational 24/7
Organization and Access to Information Resources
Library information resources are organized using the Library of Congress classification scheme (LC) using the latest version of Anglo American cataloguing rules AACR2. The library online public access catalogue (OPAC) is web-based opac.mku.ac.ke, thus enabling access by all via the University website.
Library ICT Infrastructure
The library services are automated and executed using KOHA library Information Management System with the use of Online Public Access Catalogue. The library has a total of 32 Computers fully networked with free internet for library patrons and 5 Amazon Kindles (E-Book readers) for access to online resources.
The library user education is conducted for proper utilization of the ICT facilities and the library resources; the Wi-Fi enabled library environment enhances use of laptops, smart phones and other gargets within the library. This has demystified the library theory of a building into a virtual space.
Table 1: Summary of ICT Facilities
| ITEMS | QUANTITY |
| Computers | 32 |
| Kindles | 5 |
Library Collection
The library collection is based on the School of Law curricula and is replenished continuously with a designated section for new books display in order to create awareness to the library users. The library has a total stock of 9,040 print volumes and millions of e-articles, e-Journals and e-Books. The library also stocks law reports both physical and electronic.
The interlibrary loan facility with other libraries is well utilized. The information resources are current, relevant and diverse. The library provides varied, authoritative and up-to-date information resources in support of all Law programmes offered at MKU Parkland School of Law. This facilitates teaching, learning, research and community service for all categories of its users.
Information resources are both in print and electronic format and stocking of the resources is guided by the MKU library collection development policy.
Mount Kenya University library is a member of Kenya Library and Information Services Consortium (KLISC) which consolidates subscriptions to e-resources for subscribed Universities in Kenya. The library also has an active institutional repository available online (via erepository.mku.ac.ke) for resources produced by MKU community.
Images of the Library
- Circulation desk
- Information Literacy Training
