TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE i
APPROVAL PAGE ii
CERTIFICATION iii
DEDICATION iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
LIST OF FIGURE ix
LIST OF TABLES x
ABSTRACT xi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background to the
Study 1
Statement of the Problem 10
Purpose of the Study 11
Research Questions 12
Significance of the Study 13
Scope of the Study 15
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW
OF RELATED LITERATURE
Conceptual Framework
University Libraries 18
Electronic Resources 20
Collection Development 29
Selection of E-resources in Libraries 36
Acquisition of Electronic Resources in Libraries 41
Evaluation of Electronic Resources in Libraries 45
Challenges of Electronic Resources Collection Development in Libraries 47
Strategies for Enhancing
Electronic Resources Collection Development
Practices in
Libraries
51
Theoretical Framework
Five Laws of Library Science by Ranganathan (1931) 54
Selection Theories byThaddeus Mason Harris (1793) 57
Review of Empirical Studies 58
Summary of Literature Review 72
CHAPTER THREE:
RESEARCH METHOD
Design of the Study 74
Area of the Study 74
Population of the Study 75
Sample and Sampling Technique 76
Instruments for Data Collection 77
Validation of the Instruments 79
Reliability of the Instruments 79
Method of Data Collection 80
Method of Data Analysis 82
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS 83
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, RECOMMENDATIONS
AND CONCLUSION
Discussion of Findings 106
Implications of the Study 115
Recommendations 116
Limitations of the study 118
Suggestions for Further Research 118
Conclusion 119
REFERENCES
121
APPENDICES
Appendix A: List of university libraries under study 132
Appendix B: Distribution of the Population 133
Appendix C: Population and Sample Size of the respondents 134
Appendix D: Electronic Resources Collection Development Practices 134
Questionnaires (ERCDPQ) 135
Appendix E: Electronic Resources Collection Development Policy
Assessment Questionnaires (ERCDPAQ) 140
Appendix F: Checklist 143
Appendix G: Interview Guide 144
Appendix F: Corrections on Research Instruments 145
LIST OF FIGURE
- A Schematic Representation of the Conceptual Framework of the Study age by the Researcher 53
LIST OF TABLES
Tables Pages
- Checklist of electronic resources available in university libraries in South East Nigeria 84
- Responses on types of policies guiding electronic resources collection development in the university libraries under study 86
- Responses on the criteria libraries consider when selecting electronic resources for their libraries 87
- Responses on whose duty it is to select electronic resources in university libraries in South East Nigeria 88
- Responses on tools used to make sound electronic resources selection
- in university libraries under study 89
- Responses on methods of providing electronic resources in university libraries under study 90
- Responses on what informs decision when evaluating electronic resource for renewal/ cancellation 92
- Mean responses on adequacy in accessing electronic resources through the university library 94
- Mean responses on extent of the use of these electronic resources in university libraries in South East Nigeria 96
- Responses on the challenges faced by your library in electronic resources collection development practices. 98
- Responses on difficulties experienced by users in using the library’s electronic resources 100
- Responses on strategies that enhance electronic resources collection development practices 101
ABSTRACT
This study examined electronic
resources collection development practices of university libraries in South
East, Nigeria. The study answered seven research questions that were derived
from the objectives of the study. Related literature were reviewed in order to
explore all facets in electronic resources collection development practices.
The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the
study was 2595 respondents consisting of 2509 postgraduate users and 86
librarians and information professionals in collection development, serials and
digital library (e-library). A 10% proportionate sampling technique was used to
select a sample of 251 user respondents while all the 86 librarians working in
collection development, serials and digital library units (e-library) were
used. The instruments for data collection were questionnaires, interview and
checklists. Two sets of questionnaires were used for this study, namely Electronic
Resources Collection Development Practices Questionnaire (ERCDPQ) for the
librarians and Electronic Resources Collection Development Practices Assessment
Questionnaire (ERCDPAQ) for the postgraduate users were developed for this
study. The instruments (questionnaires, interview and checklist) were validated
by three experts from University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The questionnaires were
trial tested for internal consistency using 10 librarians and 20 postgraduate
library users from University of Calabar, in Cross River State. The reliability
coefficient of ERCDPQ and ERCDPAQ were 0.86 and 0.94 respectively indicating
high degree of internal consistency. They were obtained by using Cronbach Alpha
reliability method. The instruments were administered directly to the
librarians and postgraduate library users at the research libraries. However,
86 questionnaires for the librarians were returned in usable form while 224
questionnaires for the postgraduate student users were returned in usable form. The data from the ERCDPQ and ERCDPAQ were
analyzed using frequency tables, percentages and means. The real limit of
numbers (means range) of the nominal value assigned to the scale point was used
and decision was taken by comparing results with the real limit of numbers.
Major findings of the study include that an aggregate number of twenty
electronic resources are available though mainly open access electronic
resources, subscription and purchase. The university libraries in South East
Nigeria under study adopted traditional and unwritten policy in developing
electronic resources collection development, that relevant criteria were
considered by the libraries when selecting electronic resources collection
development practices. University libraries studied were guided by the
appropriate tools such as use of trial testing of the resources in order to
make sound e-resources selection practices, and the methods of making
e-resources available in their libraries are mainly by purchase, open source
and subscription. None of the university libraries under study was into
consortium with one another. The result showed the major challenges of
electronic resources collection development practices included financial
constraint, lack of ICT skill manpower, lack of perpetual access to the
e-resources and poor network access. Recommendations made include increase in
funding, maintaining a well written electronic resources collection development
policy, engaging in consortia purchase and training and retraining of staff on
electronic resources collection. Suggestions for further studies were made.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
In contemporary university library
system, the information needs of the library users are anchored on electronic
resources. As such, it becomes important that the university libraries should
build their resources with electronic resources in order to meet with the
information needs of the library users. University libraries are established to
continuously support the university towards the achievement of its goals and
mission in the areas of teaching, learning, research and community service
(Olanlokun & Sal isu, 1993,
and Aina, 2004). University
library is defined by Reitz (2004) as a library or library system established,
administered, and funded by a university to meet the information, research, and
curriculum needs of its students, faculty, and staff. Some large universities
maintain separate undergraduate and graduate libraries. These libraries are the focal point of interest in all institutions of learning across the
globe without which the institutions
will not stand. University libraries have been widely recognized as indispensable
repositories of useful information, and indeed, the ‘heart’ of the university
system. Arguably, it is a futile effort to establish a university system
without a library, given that the mission and vision of education generally
will be a far cry and elusive.
The central aim of university
libraries is to collect, preserve and disseminate information to users for teaching,
research and learning. In addition to the university’s traditional functions of
teaching, research and learning, it has the functions of pursuit, promotion and
dissemination of knowledge; provision of intellectual leadership; manpower
development; promotion of social and economic modernization; promotion of
intra- and inter-continental and international understanding. The university
libraries are established to provide information materials to actualize the
aforementioned functions of the university. Their central aim and function is
to collect, preserve and disseminate vital information resources for teaching, research
and learning of staff and students of the university.
The university library users include the staff and students of the university-the
undergraduate students of both regular, part time and the postgraduate students
and other users from outside of the university community who have the permit to
access the university library resources. Postgraduate students’ form a
significant group of researchers in a university as they rely so much on
electronic resources for their research. Hence this research will use the
postgraduate students users to evaluate the electronic resources collection
development policy of the university libraries under study.
University libraries are built to
complement mainstream academic exercise and extra curricula activities of the university which include teaching,
research and publications, conservation of knowledge and ideas and extension
services. They direct their activities towards the actualization of these
objectives. One of such activities is the acquisition of information resources.
University library acquires collections
in broad terms of quantity and quality in the form of prints and electronic to
support the teaching, learning,
research and recreational purposes, (Weber and Flatley
2008). These resources include books, journals, abstracts, audio and
video CDs and other electronic
resources such as databases, online databases, web resources, e-journal,
e-books which have been introduced by the emergence of Information and
Communication Technology (ICT). University libraries as service organizations,
exist to achieve the objectives of their parent institutions that established
them. These objectives can only be achieved through effective provision of
information to the right person at the right time especially with the emergence
of information and communication technology.
With the emergence of Information
and Communication Technology (ICT), electronic resources that can be accesses by
university libraries are of different types and formats. The electronic resources
come in the form of digital which can only be accessed with the use of internet
aided by computer and made available to the library. The rapid growth of (ICT) has given rise to the evolution of several new
terms like paperless society, e-resources, digital library. Words like
digital content, electronic library containing e-journals, e-books, journal
consortiums, open access, digital library, Digital Rights Management (DRM) all
have become simply buzzwords along with the traditional analog or print
resources in the present library system (Chaudhuri, 2012). This implies that traditional university libraries now lack
the wherewithal to meet present-day information needs of patrons. The increasing
digital environment or global community, which is characterized by wide
application of electronic resources in information storage and retrieval, has
resulted in a total overhauling of the traditional library system in various universities.
Mansur (2012) posits that the introduction of ICT,
the Internet and particularly the World Wide Web has brought a dramatic
improvement in virtually every human endeavour, including collection
development practices. For instance, an activity or a task that used to take
some hours to do is now just a mouse click away. He further stated that the
publishers of these e-formats do not remain behind; they take advantage of
these applications to a large extent by exploring and exploiting (tapping) the
treasure house of electronic resources.
Electronic resources are described
by International Federation of Library Association (IFLA) (2012) as those
materials that require computer access, whether through a personal computer,
mainframe, or handheld mobile devices. They may be accessed remotely via the
internet or locally. The concept of electronic resources encompasses the
following: e-zine, e-text or e-book, abstracting and indexing databases such as
MEDLINE, e-journal, locally loaded databases, e-library, CD-ROMs, websites,
among others. According to Sadeh and
Ellingsen (2005), an e-resource is a package of e-journals or a database of
abstracts and indexes that include the full text of some or all articles
referenced by the indexes. Electronic resources also include products that aid
in resource access for users, namely, A-Z lists, Open URL, servers, federated
search engines, resources that provide full-text content such as publishers’
electronic journal content, journal content platforms like Project Muse or JSTER and content aggregators such as
EBSCOHOST’s Academic Search Premier and proxy servers or other authentication
tools (Bothmann & Holmberg, 2008). With electronic resources, users can have multi access to the resource at
a given time. Information resource can be browsed, extracted and integrated into
other material and references can be cross referred between various publications. .
In considering the advantages of electronic
resources, Mansur (2012) reiterated that electronic resources are pertinent because of their easy usability, readability,
budgetary aspects, speedy accessibility and easy back file access. Furthermore, electronic resources have
become very important these days as they are up-to-date, multi- dimensional and
directional in nature and also can be accessed as well as used anywhere,
crossing all geographical boundaries. Such resources add value to all spheres
of human activities. Sharma (2009) submits that the
importance of electronic resources have convinced many libraries to move
towards digital electronic resources, which are found to be less expensive and
more useful for easy access. Electronic resources have been contributing greatly to
research activities and many researchers have commended the advantages of electronic
resources over other formats of information. These aforementioned advantages
have called for electronic collection development.
Collection development is defined
by Mansur (2012), as the selection, acquisition and
processing of library materials in varied formats, meant for users’ current
needs and their future requirements. The author went further to define electronic
resources collection development as the process of
planning, selecting, acquiring a balanced collection of library materials in a
variety of electronic formats such as e-books, e journals, media and online
resources.Itinvolves
the act of building the library collection with electronic resources in great
depth to meet the demands of the patrons-actual and potential and satisfy their
curiosities and aspirations. According to Mansur (2012) these processes involve
a lot of steps which include selection and deselection of current and
retrospective e-resources based on user needs; planning strategies for
continuing acquisition of electronic resources looking into financial
constraints and their usage; evaluation of e-resources collections to determine
how it serves users need.
Collection development within a
university library environment demonstrates a wide variety of development
patterns, (Madeleine and Stephen, 2003). To actualize this, university
libraries, need a forward-looking planning document(s) such as collection
development policy which spells out the mission and vision of the electronic resources
in their institutional repositories, as well as the rules and regulations
guiding patrons and service providers. Retiz (2004) defines collection
development policy as a formal written statement of the principles guiding a
library’s selection of materials, including the criteria used in making
selection and deselection decisions and policies concerning gifts and exchange.
In any university library, a written collection development is an important
tool for guiding all activities related to planning, building, selecting and
acquiring library materials (Magrill and Hickey, 1984) According to Kumar,
Hassan and Singh (2008), a collection development policy is essential for a
balanced and robust collection. It specifies the scope of the collection,
authority for selection, criteria for the allocation of funds and for selection
of various types of materials, priorities in selection, and criteria for cancellation
of subscription of database or e-resource after thorough evaluation. It is the policy that guides the practices
of e-resources collection development.
The process of developing
electronic resources starts with selection decisions which begin with
considerations of the user community and long term mission, goals and
priorities of the library and its parent body (Johnson 2009). There are two
ideas about the best foundation for good collection development; know the
col
