EFFECT OF DIGITIZATION OF GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS IN ACADEMIC LIBRARY

1.1 Introduction

Digital libraries are libraries in electronic form, with no physical location and contain digital information that could be accessed from any part of the world via the internet. It solves the problem of time and space. Digitization is the process of converting the contents of a document from hardcopy into electronic or machine-readable form. It involves the selection of source materials of intellectual value, scanning them, and saving the scanned document into the computer to be accessed locally and remotely via the internet. According to Witten and Bridge (2003), digitization is the process of taking traditional library materials that is in the form of books and papers and converting them to the electronic form where they can be stored and manipulated by a computer (Witten and Bridge, 2003).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Digital libraries emerged largely in the 1990s because of the revolution in the ICTs and the need for enhanced access and preservation of cultural heritage materials. The term digital library was first made popular by the NSF/DARPA/NASA Digital Libraries Initiative in 1994, (Eyitayo, 2007). Digital libraries according to the Digital Library Federation (DLF, 1998) are “organizations that provide the resource, including the specialized staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual access to interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of, and ensure the persistence over time of collections of digital works so that they are readily and economically available for use by a defined community or set of communities”. Digital libraries offer a brighter future for academic, research institutions, and digital information professionals. They offer access to and opportunities for use of online primary resources. The main purpose of digital libraries is to organize, distribute, and preserve information resources in a digital form. Digital libraries have the potential of improving and promoting information-related activities (Ojedokun, 2000).

The University library can be seen as the central nervous system of its parent institution as they are primarily established to provide information resources to back up academic programmes. It is the principal instrument of the university in the conservation of knowledge. Proper fulfillment of this role provides a sound basis for the transmission and advancement of knowledge. The University library therefore collects materials, published and unpublished, print and non-print, in some depth and globally in almost all fields of knowledge (Aguolu and Aguolu, 2002). Thus the main purpose of the university library is to support the objective of the university which is to promote teaching, learning and research.

Digitization has recently become a very popular term in library and information centers as a need for greater access to information, preservation and knowledge creation. The onus of digitization falls on the librarians and other information professionals, to identify, organize and digitize information materials. According to Fabunmi (2006) “Library digitization has become part of the work of librarians, and most libraries are involved in digitization”. A number of university libraries in Nigeria have embraced this laudable project and are at various stages of digitization (Fabunmi, 2006).

Globally, Libraries are digitizing information resources and making them available and accessible to end users via electronic media such as the World Wide Web (WWW), the Internet, and CD-ROM. The present revolution in Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and digitization initiatives are now critical issues that libraries, especially in the academic environment can no longer afford to fold their hands if they must continue to remain relevant in this digital age. Nwalo (2003) noted that “Libraries in Africa including Nigeria are gradually but steadily converting from manual process to computer-based library routines.” This is as a result of the changing need of library users.

Obviously, the general library environment is gradually changing from analogue to digital and/or hybrid library, as a result of the present ICT revolution which has been the central driving force for digitization project. Hence, ICT is the gateway for library digitization; although these technologies have been in a very low supply in Nigerian universities and most African countries. The advent of ICTs and the present digitization projects are key developmental factors in the present day libraries especially in the academic environment. ICT according to Blurton (1999) is a diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate and to create, disseminate, store, and manage information. Anaeme (2006) pointed out that the emergence of fast growth of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and their application in libraries, especially academic libraries, has continued to revolutionize the pattern and scope of library services. In the same vein, Campbell (2006) observed that “numerous creative and useful services have evolved within academic libraries in digital age: providing quality learning spaces, creating metadata, offering virtual reference services, teaching information literacy, choosing resources and managing resources licenses, collecting and digitizing archival materials, and maintaining digital repositories.

Generally, digitization has a lot of invaluable benefits such as increasing the visibility of libraries globally, improved services to an expanding number of users, enhanced access to current and vast amount of information from remote sites as users can easily access library resources from different parts of the world no matter the distance; flexibility in information search and retrieval; it ensures better preservation of library resources by reduced handling of the original analogue surrogate materials and alleviating the problems normally associated with the traditional library environment such as mutilation of information resources, theft, space constraints, scarcity or limited number of copies, limited hour of operation, and poor storage environment normally associated with manual preservation; it is a veritable information source for e-learning and it offers a platform for collaboration and interoperability of libraries globally.

Digitization has the potentials of making Africa global producers of indigenous information and preservation of our cultural heritage rather than being passive consumers of imported information. Hence, digitization paves way for the globalization of local content and the accessibility of global information resources locally. In Africa, there have been some digitization projects. Chisenga (2004) noted that while digital libraries and archives are being created around the world in order to preserve, store, catalogue, disseminate and share information resources, target scale digitization projects in Africa have not yet taken off, though there are notable efforts being made in some countries, but mainly in a small scale. Digitization enhances the visibility of a library globally as materials digitized can be easily accessed by other libraries and research institutions once there are compatible infrastructures such as relevant hardware, software, and internet connectivity. The immense importance of digitization is that it offers opportunities for collaboration among libraries worldwide. It enhances the visibility of a library globally as digitized materials can easily be accessed by other libraries and research institutions locally, nationally and internationally, once there is compatibility of infrastructures such as relevant hardware and software.

Digitization has recently become a very popular term in libraries as there has been a global need for nations to preserve their cultural heritage and make them accessible in order to contribute positively to the global information and knowledge economy. The concept of a library as a physical place where one can visit to access information has dramatically changed to services which provide organized access to the intellectual records, wherever it resides whether in physical places or in scattered digital information spaces paving way to the present model of hybrid libraries (Carr, 2001).

Digital collections usually comprise of local content and provide unlimited access to information materials that may not be readily accessible manually. Local content refers to what the community creates, owns or adapts in terms of knowledge (Ballantyne, 2002). Digital materials are stored, processed, accessed, and disseminated via digital devices and networks. Digital technologies offer a new preservation paradigm and the opportunity of preserving the original copy by providing access to the digital surrogate. With this new development, it has been universally recognized that digitization of libraries offer the opportunities of effective organization, storage, preservation, collaboration, interoperability, dissemination and greater access to information.

Therefore, in Nigerian Universities where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Effect of Digitization of Government Documents in Academic Library.

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1.3 Statement of the Problem

Investigation revealed that the library materials if not digitized will hinder the library visibility, quick access to information resources and effective preservation of library resources. Unfortunately, most of these digitization initiatives have been at various stages facing different challenges. Over the years, libraries have been faced with the problems of space, accessibility and preservation of information materials. Various efforts are being made by university libraries in Nigeria to digitize their local contents such as projects, theses, dissertations, inaugural lectures, etc. This is as a result of the invaluable importance of library digitization such as speedy access, effective preservation of library resources, collaboration, improved library services, etc.

Some studies have been carried out on related areas such as Usman (2007), Ugwu and Ekere (2010), but none of these works have covered the present status of digitization in federal university libraries in south-eastern zone of Nigeria. Notwithstanding all the efforts being made by different Nigerian university libraries towards digitization projects, it appears that very little progress has been made. These perceived problems could be attributed to a number of challenges. Knowledge of these challenges is essential for any university, whether federal, state or private to be aware of in the course of digitizing library resources. This shows that there is still a gap which needs to be filled in order to achieve effective digitization projects in Nigerian university libraries.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to investigate the Effect of Digitization of Government Documents in Academic Library. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To identify the facilities / resources employed in digitization of government documents in academic library;
2. To ascertain the extent of digitization of government documents in academic library;
3. To ascertain the extent of digitization skills possessed by the library staff;
4. To identify the strategies for enhancing digitization of government documents in academic library;
5. To identify the type of government document resources being digitized in the libraries;
6. To ascertain the purpose for digitizing library materials in University libraries in Nigeria; and
7. To identify the problems affecting the digitization of government documents in academic library.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Do the available facilities / resources employed enhance digitization of government documents in academic library?
• Does the extent of digitization skills possessed increase the library staff library throughput?
• What are the purposes for digitizing library resources of government documents?
• What types of resources do libraries digitize?
• What is the extent of digitization of government documents in academic library in federal University Libraries?
• What are the problems affecting the digitization of government documents in academic library?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There is no significant strategy for enhancing effective digitization of government documents in academic library in Nigeria
• H1: There is significant strategy for enhancing effective digitization of government documents in academic library in Nigeria

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1.7 Significance of Study

The findings of this study will help the library administration to adopt effective strategies that will help them enhance their digitization practices in libraries. On the other hand, the system analysts and the digital library management staff will also find this work useful. This is because, it is expected that the findings of this work will be useful in their programming, designs, and their formulation of strategies that could better enhance digitization.

The inherent values of digitization are the ability to preserve information resources and quick access to information in a digital format from local to remote areas for teaching, learning and research. In view of this, it is expected that the findings of this research work will be of benefit to the following groups of people: the library administrators, library system analysts and digital library management staff, the general library staff, library users and researchers.

Moreover, the findings of this study will be useful to the entire library staff as it will help to reveal to them the extent of digitization project in their libraries. In addition, the findings of this study will be of benefit to the library users as it will reveal to them the various library materials that are being digitized to enable them carry out effective learning and research.

This work will be a vital source material to researchers especially in the area of digitization of government documents in academic library as it will help in widening their horizon in the knowledge of digitization process in libraries as well as revealing to them the status of digitization in the various universities under study.

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1.8 Scope of the Study

The scope of this research is focused on the Effect of Digitization of Government Documents in Academic Library using Federal Polytechnic Nekede, Owerri, Imo State.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

Digital Libraries: They are libraries in electronic form, with no physical location and contain digital information that could be accessed from any part of the world via the internet.

Digitization: It is the process of converting the contents of a document from hardcopy into electronic or machine-readable form.