Core Technology and/or Emerging Technology Trends in the Library Environment

Core Technology and/or Emerging Technology Trends in the Library Environment

CHAPTERS ONE

Purpose and objectives of the study

Over time, ICTs have modified the identity and the role of the library and libraries need to continuously evolve as a result (Erlandson, 2010). The rapid increase in mainstream technology adoption within a social, mobile, interactive and collaborative information environment raises the expectations of library users in terms of ICT (Carlucci Thomas, 2010; Iglesias, 2010).

ICTs present a number of opportunities for libraries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) including organizing information for use, provision of value added ICT-based information service, library cooperation and resource sharing, management information systems, institutional repositories, digital libraries and capacity building (Chisenga, 2006:3). ICTs provide a platform for value addition in libraries as they present a variety of digital-based information resources to their users. ICTs can be used to automate core library functions, promote library cooperation and resource sharing, establish digital institutional repositories and develop ICT- based capacity building programmes for users (Krubu & Osawaru, 2011:3). The future of universities lies in their ability to embrace and leverage the potential of ICTs at all levels of strategic business activities (Odero-Musakali & Mutula, 2007). Several scholars have indicated that library users increasingly demand advanced methods of data acquisition, manipulation and application (Cholin, 2005).

Despite the global technological advancements, Sub-Saharan Africa still lags behind in terms of ICT penetration compared to the developed world. Chisenga (2006:2) explains that much as academic libraries in the Sub-Saharan African region have integrated ICTs in their routines, there are still disparities in the numbers of ICTs available and the levels of ICT usage among libraries within the same country and between countries in the sub-Saharan region. It is therefore, pertinent for academic libraries to embrace ICTs, failure of which, their parent institutions will stand to lose students to universities with greater access to ICT- based resources.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

ICTs are transforming academic libraries the world over. The main focus of this chapter is to review, understand and synthesize literature relevant to this study with the aim of identifying gaps in that can be addressed by this study. The focus for this chapter is on what has been written about the core technology and/or emerging technology trends in the library environment in general and in Nigeria in particular. The chapter describes the application of ICTs in academic libraries at a global perspective, the link between ICTs and library automation, history of library automation, funding of ICTs in academic libraries, library staff ICT skills and training and emerging trends in the usage of ICTs.

Application of ICTs in academic libraries

Application of ICTs in higher education continues to grow and libraries have to adjust to the trends. It is believed that the future of scholarly communication will inevitably be based on capabilities of interoperable network technology. Academic libraries exist to support the missions and goals of the institutions of higher learning through their collections and services (Ramzan, 2010). It is therefore, the duty of academic libraries to provide information to meet the teaching, learning and research needs of their clients. This has necessitated libraries to evolve with the times and take up ICTs in order to provide timely and up-to-date information for their clients (Okiy, 2010). The use of the library as physical place is fading away. Rather than the quiet study, students prefer to use the library for discussion, socialisation and light reading (Lippincott; 2005). Libraries are transforming their spaces to offer both physical and virtual spaces like information commons and multimedia production areas (Lippincot, 2005: 64).

A closer scrutiny of the literature reveals that studies have been carried out about application of ICTs in academic libraries. Davarpanah (2001) studied the level of Information Technology (IT) application in Iranian academic libraries and concluded that overall ICT applications in Iranian university libraries are at different sections of housekeeping, information services while networking focused on cataloguing, serials control, CD-ROM and National databases and local area network respectively.

ICTs have enormous benefits in the economic, scientific, academic, social, political, cultural and other aspects of life. ICTs are the new game changers for academic libraries in terms of networking, automation, technical communication, digital libraries among other uses (Saleem et al., 2013: 52). ICTs in academic libraries have also been credited for their efficiency in providing timely and up-to-date information to users irrespective of the geographic location (Saleem, et. Al, 2013: 52)

Davarpanah (2001: 444) found out that ICTs are necessary in order to exploit the current information explosion and spur development. Ramzan and Singh (2009) did a study on the status of IT applications in Pakistani libraries and reported that despite efforts of both government and the private sector to make technology available to all libraries under their jurisdiction; academic libraries across Pakistan are far behind in achieving excellent ICT levels. Kumar and Biradar (2010) did a survey on the use of ICTs in college libraries in Karnataka, India. For successful use of ICT facilities and library automation, their study recommended more funding for the purchase of books and journals, putting in place computer and internet facilities, implementation and maintenance of a fund for library automation costs, a change in the mind-set and attitude of library staff towards ICT applications and introducing a variety of training programs in ICT applications.

Furthermore, a study by Krubu and Osawaru (2011) on the impact of ICT in Nigerian University libraries concluded that there is a remarkable rise in the use of ICTs in academic libraries with a majority of the libraries being ICT driven. Still in Nigeria, Ashcroft and Watts (2005) studied ‘ICT skills for information professionals in developing countries: perspective from a study on the electronic information environment’. The study noted that despite many free electronic resources made available through international initiatives, lack of awareness hindered the use of those resources.

Odero-Musakali and Mutula (2007) carried out a study on internet adoption and assimilation in Kenyan university libraries and found out that there is a clear underutilization and considerable disparities between and within the libraries in their levels of ICT deployment and use. Omona and Ikoja-Odongo (2006) studied application of ICTs in health information dissemination in Nigeria concluded that the use of ICTs in information provision remains low with donors providing a majority of the available ICTs.

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Chapter THREE 

Research methodology

 Research design

According to Creswell (2009:3), a research design is “a plan or procedure for research that span the decisions from broad assumptions to detailed methods of data collection and analysis”. A research design describes the structure and process of conducting a research project and provides a detailed plan and method for systematically and scientifically obtaining required data (Amin, 2005). Creswell (2009:3) contends that the choice of research design is influenced by the researcher’s orientations to inquiry and methodological preferences (Creswell, 2009).

The researcher employed a survey research design to collect the primary data. According to Sachdeva (2009: 119), a survey is “one of the most important measurements of applied research.” Survey research encompasses two broad categories, namely, the use of questionnaire and the use of interviews. Surveys are useful in assessing the attitudes and making projections about subsequent behaviour. According to Busha and Harter (1980), surveys are the most appropriate methods to generate vast amounts of predominantly quantitative data from a large number of respondents.

Data collection methods

Data refers to a set of natural phenomena descriptors that can be based on either experience, observation or a set of other evidences and can be inform of words, numbers or images expressed as a set of variables (Sachdeva, 2009:116).Bearing in mind that collecting representative dataset that is time bound and involves several organisations is faced by resource and access limitations, the researcher ensured that the scale of data collection was modest in order to ensure the participation of all the libraries concerned just like in a benchmarking study reported by Laeven and Smit (2003).

The researcher used questionnaires and interviews as primary forms of data collection with document analysis and observation to collect secondary data for the study of academic libraries in Nigeria. Sachdeva (2009: 116) explains that since primary data is collected by the researcher him/herself, it is more reliable because the researcher knows where it came from, how it was collected and how it was analysed. While secondary data does not represent the original thinking of the researcher, it is useful for analysing, explaining, combining and refining information collected from the primary sources.

CHAPTER FOUR

PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS

Demographic data

To provide a background to the discussion on core technology and/or emerging technology trends in the library environment in Nigeria, the researcher provides a description of informants. These include their gender, job title, highest educational qualification, and period worked at the institution. The purpose of describing informants is to provide the researcher with an overview of the kind of informants involved in the study and ensure that the targeted sample of the population actually participated in the study.

• Gender of Informants

More males (51.5%) compared to females (48.5%) participated in the study. The gender disparities however was not considered a variable in the study of the application of ICTs in academic libraries in Nigeria although different gender may play differing leadership roles in the application of ICTs in academic libraries (Kim and Abbas, 2010:217). Table 6 below represents the gender of respondents.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This descriptive study was carried out to determine the core technology and/or emerging technology trends in the library environment in Nigeria as indicated in the main research question. The objectives of this study are: to find out the ICT infrastructure deployed and services supported by those ICTS; establish factors for and against ICT adoption; investigate sources of funding for ICTs; identify staffing and ICT skills levels; and assess emerging trends in ICTs in academic libraries in Nigeria. A survey-research methodology was used as described in Chapter 3 to answers the main research question and sub-questions and a detailed discussion of the findings is presented in Chapter 4. This chapter provides a summary of findings, final conclusion and recommendations based on the study and also identifies areas for future research based on the study gaps.

Summary of findings

A summary of research findings is presented below according to the research sub-questions.

• Extentto which ICTs have been deployed in academic libraries in Nigeria

Academic libraries in Nigeria have put in place basic ICT infrastructure to facilitate access to ICT based services. These include LANs, library networking, library websites and internet access. In addition, there is deployment of at least the basic equipment to be used in the day to day administrative and technical operations of the libraries. These include desktop computers, laptops, servers, scanners, photocopiers and printers. With continuous maintenance, the ICT equipment is stated to be in good condition. The maintenance is mainly carried out by library IT support staff and university ICT directorate. However, a question remains on whether these ICT equipment are effectively utilised to match the teaching, research and learning needs of users or they are just decoration for the libraries.

5.1. Recommendations

Based on the study findings, the researcher proposes the recommendation below to relevant authorities to promote application of ICTs in academic libraries in Nigeria.

1. Libraries:
   • More ICT equipment should be purchased to match the growing number of staff and
   • There is need to develop local capacity to maintain and customise the ILS software inorder to promote usage of all ILS modules and automate all library functionsError! Reference source not .
   • There is need for continuous training and re-training of staff in order to fill the ICTskills gaps as well as introduce reward programs to encourage staff to share their ICT
   • Given the financial constraints, academic libraries should seek alternatives to sustainICT-based services. Although most respondents suggested introduction of innovative income generating activities, it is imperative to review the performance of some of the existing income generating activities and their impact on delivering vibrant ICT-based
   • Open source systems like Koha and Dspace have been embraced with much successby many academic libraries and can still be efficiently used to resolve the issues of inadequate funding to promote library automation and setting up of IRs.
   • There is need to re-structure libraries to accommodate ongoing and emergingtechnologies in the LIS field.
   • Promote use of e-books and go virtual in order to promote dissemination ofknowledge
   • support initiatives from International and local library associations such as IFLA,AFLIA, ULIA and CUUL in order to promote and benefit from knowledge sharing (IFLA, 2015)
2. LISSchools
   • A curriculum review for Library and Information Science study programs is critical toincorporate practical ICT courses that meet the demands of modern and future libraries
3. Professionalbodies and associations
   • Promotepartnerships amongst institutions in order to pool resources for infrastructural development; benchmark and share knowledge and experiences (IFLA, 2015)
   • Championthe cause for standardization of LIS programs
   • Advocate for the establishment of a Pan-African library association that will provide aplatform for networking and resource mobilization. This will help bridge the digital inequalities among institutions.
   • Take part in articulating national e-strategies and participate in monitoring, evaluatingand mentoring roles to shape ICT laws and regulations (Adam, 2003:219)
4. Policy makers and management
   • There is also need to break the barriers towards access to ICTs funds especiallyprocurement processes. The process should be simplified and explained to the user departments so that requests do not bounce. There is need to follow up with the budget work plan and implementation plan to ensure that items that are budgeted for are actually procured in that fiscal year. (4.4.7.
   • Libraries should be prioritized in the budget and given authority to manage andcontrol their own budgets.
5. Government
   • The Nigerian government should support both private and public universities tosupplement the locally generated revenue (4.4.2.
   • Library ICTs should be considered under capital development funding fromgovernment rather than for libraries to fund their ICTs with the limited funds raised from internally generated revenue.
   • There is need for tax subsidies on ICT equipment and subsequently lower the costs ofICT equipment which have been a big hindrance to ICT adoption (4.3.3. .
   • Strengthen the national ICT policy to address infrastructure in higher institutions oflearning Government policy is a critical success factor that will drive strategic initiatives through laws, regulations and allocation of funds (Adam, 2003:219)
   • Engage in Public-private partnerships to boost infrastructural growth as seen with theinitiatives from
   • Adopt and implement continental innovative strategies to improve ICT penetration and knowledge management such as infrastructural development increased broadband penetration so as to boost the digital economy (African Union, 2014).

References 

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• ADAM, L., 2003. Information and Communication Technologies in Higher Education in Africa: Initiatives and Challenges. Journal of Higher Education in Africa, 1, pp.195– 221.
• ADEYOYIN, O. S., 2005. Information and communication technology (ICT) literacy among the staff of Nigerian university libraries. Library Review, 54(4), pp.257-266.
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• BURNS, C.S., LANA, A. AND BUDD, J., 2013. Institutional repositories: exploration of costs and value. D-Lib Magazine, 19(1), p.1.Available at: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january13/burns/01burns.html [Accessed 1^st April 2016]
• BUWULE, R.S., 2014. Exploratory study on the drivers and barriers to adoption of an Integrated Library System in Akwa Ibom state University Library Service. University of Pretoria.
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