Models of Library Service Through the Use of Computers, Networks, and the Internet Open-access Data Collections and Its Value for Providing Context to Local Collections Outsourcing of Services.
CHAPTER ONE
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH
The aim of this research is to explore how librarians and library users interact with digital material, electronic resources, and online services and review their perceptions towards their benefits and challenges in two academic libraries; the Ibom E-library and Cross river state library.
- How do librarians and library users interact with digitaltechnologies?
- How do digital technologies affect the interaction between librarians and library users?
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Library in General
The revolution in technology has brought about critical changes and a demanding environment in academic libraries. The introduction of technology in libraries has changed the way librarians work, their duties and their roles. In the past, traditional libraries were physical buildings where users could visit them and find printed books. Traditionally, the librarians were responsible for the collection development, for the material processing and the provision of services without using computers. Nowadays, academic libraries make use of technology. They provide not only printed material but also digital material that is born digital and material that is digitized (converted from analog to digital). The introduction to the digital era in libraries, created the need to computerize most of the operations. Technology has changed the way traditional librarians used to do work. Nowadays, librarians use technologies to acquire, catalogue, preserve, diffuse, provide reference services and so on. This doesn’t mean that traditional libraries will stop existing. Traditional libraries as buildings will continue to exist for many years and support the digital libraries. Thus, traditional libraries co-exist with digital libraries. This means that librarians play and will continue to play a significant role in libraries. It is important for librarians to keep a balance between their traditional role and the digital role.
The academic libraries of 21st century depend on technology. As technology evolves fast and continuously, the users’ information needs change and have more expectations from librarians. Librarians need to continuously update their technological skills in parallel with the technological changes that occur. Academic libraries need to adjust to the evolution of technology. Librarians need to accept their new roles and duties and be able to respond to these changes by learning how to use the new digital technologies effectively. In order to respond to an environment that changes continuously they need to be educated so as to acquire the adequate technology skills. Academic librarians should have the adequate skills to manage, organize and provide services to the students. Nowadays, librarians have to work with both printed and digital material. Librarians after having learnt and having acquired digital skills are ready to provide their services and assist the library users to meet their goals. Additionally, librarians apart from the technical skills it is important to have other skills such as managerial skills, teaching, consulting and so on. We could say that academic librarians of the 21st century have various roles as they combine the traditional skills with the technology skills. Having worked as academic librarians in the past, we have in our mind that librarians should provide the best services and satisfy users. In order to provide the best digital library services to users, librarians need to be trained to the new technological changes.
Additionally, according to our experience as librarians we have observed that the introduction of new technologies in libraries creates technostress to some employees. The fact that some librarians suffer from technostress is related to the rapid development of technology and the implementation in libraries. Ennis states that technostress is a “modern disease of adaptation caused by an inability to cope with new computer technologies in a healthy manner” (2005, p.10). But why librarians feel stressed with the use of technology in their workplace environment? There are a number of factors that may affect librarians and lead to technostress. Some of the factors that procure technostress are: “ (1) the rate of change of technology; (2) lack of standardization; (3) lack of training individuals on the equipment; (4) reliability of the technology; (5) increased workload placed on each individual; and (6) the changing roles of librarians” (Laspinas, 2015, p. 206). Some library professionals and specifically some old librarians are not familiar with the technology evolution, they do not have the adequate technological expertise, feel anxious on how to handle a problem that might arise in their computer, they feel fear of technology and do not want to know how new technology works. Moreover, due to their inadequate knowledge in Information Technology (IT) some librarians might realize computers as a threat in their expert status. Nevertheless according to a result of Laspinas’s study, there were librarian professionals who had become accustomed of information technology and thought that it was part of their jobs (2015, p. 212). Furthermore, Laspinas states that those librarians when they were addressed problems with their computers they were coming in contact with the technicians so as to find a solution for them (2015, p. 212).
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY AND METHODS
Research Design
A research method is about an investigation which turns attention from assumptions to research design and data collection (Myers, 2009). In other words, it seeks answers to a question through collecting evidence and producing results. All our research is based upon elements about interaction formed among librarians, library users, and digital material in present academic libraries. The interpretive paradigm has been assumed as the framework of the study and the research design is analyzed through qualitative methods. Participant observations, face-to-face interviews, and focus groups discussions were used for data collection.
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research is a scientific method consists of the above characteristics and its ability to study particular communities and different groups of people of how they experience an issue accordingly their values, opinions, and behaviors into their social and cultural contexts. “Qualitative research aims to explore and to discover issues about the problem on hand, because very little is known about the problem. There is usually uncertainty about dimensions and characteristics of problem. It uses soft data and gets rich data.”(Domegan & Fleming, 2007, p.24). Qualitative research is realistic and it can help the researcher to become familiar with the given phenomena and better understand of how research participants interpret it
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
Empirical Findings
In this chapter the empirical findings of the research according to the six final concepts have been introduced into the previous chapter, are presented.
After collecting data from the interviews, focus groups and participant observation we decided to code data, categorize data and create final concepts. According Lichtman there are 6 steps that need to be followed in order to move from the coding of data to the final concepts (2013, p.252). This process gave us the opportunity to organize our collected data in a very useful way. Firstly we started reading carefully many times our notes from interviews, focus groups and participant observation. Subsequently we started creating some coding. In the initial coding we used sometimes librarians and library users own words. Using participants own words, was easier for us to start. Subsequently, during the coding process we created many codes that we changed their names again and again and omitted various unnecessary codes. We did this many times until we get to the desired coding. Subsequently, having decided and created the list of codes, we needed to “organize them into categories”(Lichtman, 2013,p.253). We used some of the codes as main categories and some other codes as subcategories. Subsequently, we changed the names of some categories, omitted unnecessary categories and decided to keep the most important categories. Our created categories were 19. Finally, we had to recognize and decide the strongest concepts. The final concepts should “reflect the meaning you attach to the data you collect” (Lichtman, 2013,p.254).
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
Nowadays, there is a growing quantity of digital information as several sectors creating digital material. As the Internet becomes part of our lives, people navigate online sources (i.e., e-resources) for seeking information. New ICT technologies have also changed the current situation of libraries and the attitude of their users. Given that the information users need is available on the Internet, they have new demands and great expectations anymore.
In response, libraries have created digital library projects and take action in digitization to redefine their role in changing information environment. Digitization can offer many opportunities to academic libraries to provide more effective services and practices to their users; supporting learning, encourage open access to knowledge, assist in teaching and being a guideline in research to the new generation of library users.
Digital libraries are components of traditional libraries and service such as their extension. Traditional libraries put emphasis on users’ needs as well as digital libraries do. A crucial part is at first, to examine users’ behaviors, analyze their needs, take into account their preferences and finally, take right decisions of information resources supported research rather than attempting replace the printed with the digital material.
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