TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Title
Page—————————————————————————————i
Approval Page———————————————————————————ii
Certification
———————————————————————————–iii
Dedication
————————————————————————————-iv
Acknowledgements
————————————————————————–v
Table of Contents
—————————————————————————-vi
List of Tables———————————————————————————-vii
Abstract
—————————————————————————————-ix
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION——————————————— 1
Background of the Study —————————————————- 1
Statement of the Problem ————————————————– 13
Purpose of the Study ——————————————————- 14
Research
Questions—————————————————————–15
Significance of the Study ————————————————— 15
Scope of the Study———————————————————- 16
CHAPTER TWO: LITERAURE REVIEW ———————————– 17
Conceptual Framework—————————————————– 17
Concept of Digital Library————————————————– 17
Digital Library Development in
Nigeria ———————————— 24
Constraints to the Development of Digital Libraries in Nigeria – — 27
Strategies for enhancing the usefulness of Digital Libraries——————
Donor Agencies in the Development of Digital libraries ———— 30
The Concept of Evaluation ————————————————– 33
Approaches to Digital Library
Evaluation———————————– 38
Theoretical Framework—————————————————— 43
The Technology Acceptance Model
(TAM)——————————– 43
Review of Related Empirical Studies ———————————–46
Summary of Literature Review——————————————— 53
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHOD ——————————— 55
Research Design————————————————————- 55
Area of the Study ———————————————————- 55
Population of the Study—————————————————– 55
Sample and Sampling Technique——————————————– 55
Instrument for Data Collection ——————————————— 56
Validation of the Instrument———————————————— 57
Method of Data
Collection———————————————————-58
Method of Data Analysis————————————————— 58
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA———–59
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
———————- 75
Discussion of Findings————————————————–
Implications of Study—————————————————
Recommendations——————————————————-
Suggestions for Further Research—————————————
Limitations————————————————————–
Conclusion—————————————————————
REFERENCES —————————————————————————- —-85
APPENDICES ——————————————————————– 94
LIST
OF TABLES
Table Page
1. Percentage of the respondents’ distribution—————————- -59
2.
Percentage of sources available for awareness of MTNFDLs by staff and
students of the universities.———————————————————- 60
3.
Mean responses of respondents on the usefulness of the resources of MTNFDLs in the universities.——————————————————- 61
4. Observation checklist showing the analysis of the currency of resources of MTNFDLs.————————————————————————– 63
- Mean responses of the respondents on the currency of the resources available at the MTNFDLs in the universities.—————————— 65
6. Observation checklist showing the analysis of the effectiveness of the infrastructures available at MTNFDLs in the universities.————— 67
7. Mean responses of respondents on effectiveness of the infrastructures available at the MTNFDLs in Nigerian universities——– 68
- Mean responses of respondents on the challenges facing the resources and services of MTNFDLs in the universities.—————————— 69
9.
Mean responses of respondents on the strategies adopted in solving the
challenges affecting the effectiveness of MTNFDLs.—————————— 72
Abstract
This study was conducted to evaluate the resources and services of
the MTN Foundation Digital Libraries in Nigerian universities. This is with the
aim of finding out their problems and strategies for enhancing their
effectiveness and relevance to education and research for staff and students of
the universities. Six objectives and six research questions guided the study. A
descriptive survey design was adopted in carrying out the work. Convenient
sampling technique was used. A total number of four hundred and fifty (450)
respondents were used for the study. The instruments for data collection were
questionnaire, interview and observation checklist. Four hundred and fifty
(450) copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the staff and students in
the two universities in Nigeria and three hundred and ninety-five were returned
representing 87 % return rate. The following statistical measures were employed
for the data analysis: frequency table, simple percentage and mean (×).The findings revealed
thatthe
relevant means of awareness of the MTNFDLs in the universities were infrequent
and that the resources/databases available at universities are useful and
current. However, the researcher
observed that only free databases were current at one of the universities. The
findings also revealed that insufficient power supply, poor performance of the
generator, low bandwidth, system breakdown and limited time allowed using the
libraries are some of the challenges facing MTNFDLs. Based on the findings, it
was recommended that awareness
workshop for staff and students should be constantly organised by the
NetLibrary in conjunction with MTN Foundation; MTN Foundations should
constantly require feedback from the NetLibrary and the universities to ensure
sustainability of the project; the parties should persevere on one another to
ensure compliance to the contract agreement and the issue of power supply
should be taken seriously as the effectiveness and relevance of the resources
and services of digital libraries primarily depend on constant electricity
supply. Students should also lodge their complaints about inefficiency of the
resources and services of the digital libraries to the university authorities.
Finally, there should be constant evaluation of the digital libraries to show
the true state of the libraries at any point in time.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background
to the Study
The main purpose
of a university library is to support the institution’s objectives, which are
teaching, learning and research. The library is regarded as the heart of the
intellectual system of the institution. To a large extent, the quality of the
institution is measured by the services provided by the library because of its
unique position in the over-all system. The history of university library in
Nigeria started in 1948 with the establishment of the University College,
Ibadan. Subsequently, the University College Library (now Kenneth Dike Library,
University of Ibadan) was established as the intellectual heart of the College.
Other Higher university libraries established in Nigeria after 1948 also
ensured that this precedence is maintained in their respective institutions.
However, the
situation changed for the worse in the 1980s when the Federal Government of
Nigeria introduced the World Bank inspired Structural Adjustment Programme
(SAP) which affected university funding adversely. University libraries were
the first casualties. This is because a lot of the materials purchased by
libraries have a substantial foreign exchange component while the SAP adopted
by the government resulted in the massive devaluation of the national currency.
Thus, funds allocated to universities could no longer meet the requirements of
the libraries. The situation deteriorated to such a level that the Federal
Government of Nigeria decided to make some interventions, such as, The World
Bank Federal Universities Development Sector Adjustment Credit, The Petroleum
Special Trust Fund, National Education Materials Procurement Programme and the
Education Tax Fund.
Today, there are over two hundred
universities in Nigeria. Given the
limited funding available to academic libraries in Nigeria, it is obvious that scholars and students can only access a small portion
of the information available in their disciplines. Thus, with the escalating
costs of information materials and dwindling allocation of funds to academic institutions a judicious balance must be made to ensure that users
of
academic libraries in Nigeria have
access to relevant, appropriate information in their fields of interest. This can only be possible
if libraries lay more emphasis on access rather than ownership.
The
need to emphasis access against the traditional method of ownership became necessary
as a lot of information is being churned out every second. Issa, Daura & Blessing
(2009) termed it a ‘daily explosion of information resources’. This was
occasioned by the development in ICTs. The symptom of information over load is
such that the available information is so enormous that no one library can
afford to purchase to satisfy the needs of its clientele. Furthermore,
information needs of the library users have dramatically changed; users are
asking for all kinds of information, CD-ROM, multimedia, print, and others.
Dalgeish & Hallin Ozoemelem
(2009) noted that the rate of production of electronic materials has exceeded
that of print-based publications. Radar (2008) also commented on the increase
in the demand for a variety of information resources by library users, students,
professors, and researchers. They also want information electronically anytime,
anywhere, for multipurpose uses, quickly, conveniently, and in a portable and
easy-to-use form.
The
University of Louisville Libraries for instance are beginning to allocate
significant resources for, and to rethink services related to electronic
information. In 2002-2003 access to library users to 270 electronic databases
has been made available, as compared to forty-two databases in 1996-97, an
increase of over 600 percent. Among these new resources are large databases and
services with access to abstracts and full-text articles, such as ABI/Inform,
First Search, EBSCO, Biological Abstracts, Beilstein, INSPEC, Medline, Science
Direct, Lexis-Nexis, and Web of Science. Similarly, other academic and research
libraries have been forming partnerships and cooperative agreements with one
another to ensure preservation and cost containment for electronic and
scholarly publications (Radar, 2008).
Omekwu
(2006) rightly observed that in the current dispensation, web access will
become increasingly an imperative for all libraries. Without it, library users
will be denied a round -the- clock access to global information. The whole
essence of the emphasis on ICTs infrastructural facilities development is to
build the platform for real time, non-stop easy access to information that
transcends national boundaries and barriers. Virtual, electronic or Internet
librarianship will increasingly become the dominant features of the Information
Society. Skills in managing online library resources will become a compelling
imperative in that society. And the digitization of library, archival and
cultural repositories will become inevitable. Library services must be
patron-centred and increasingly use ICT to meet patron needs. The use of
appropriate databases for research and learning must be explored, starting with
free and open databases. To accomplish this, a paradigm shiftis required where the keyword is “access”.
Computers and network points will have to be provided and increased for library
patrons to access library off-line and on-line resources (Akintunde, 2006).
Magara (2000) observed that digital
libraries have become a feature on the landscape in developed countries and
have lately become a feature in advancing communication, information, and
knowledge in the developing world.
The advent of the Internet, World
Wide Web, and other online infrastructures provided means of disseminating all
kinds of information to people who have access. It was sooner realised that the
Internet is an ‘uncharted zone’ without control. The best that has happened to
academic communities is the advent of digital libraries. A digital library is
an information system that collects organised information and which is
accessible electronically to a large group of people.
Cleveland
(1998) commented on this new development that “the idea of easy, finger-tip
access to information- what we conceptualize as digital libraries today- began
with Vannenar Bush’s Memex machine and has continued to evolve with each
advance in information technology. With the arrival of computers, the concept
centered on large bibliographic databases, the now familiar online retrieval
and public access systems that are part of any contemporary library. When
computers were connected into large networks forming the Internet, the concept
evolved again, and research turned to creating libraries of digital information
that could be accessed by anyone from anywhere in the world. Phrases like
“virtual library,” “electronic library,” “library
without walls” and, most recently, “digital library,” all have
been used interchangeably to describe this broad concept.
Research and development in digital libraries
have grown rapidly in the 1990s (Saracevic & Covi, 2000). The passion was
jointly triggered by the multimillion dollar initiatives launched in 1993 by
the U.S. government on digital library projects and the exploding growth in
accessibility and utilization of the Internet worldwide. Special journal issues
on digital libraries began to appear digital library conferences and workshops
were held (ACM Conference on Digital Libraries, Research and Advanced Technology
for Digital Libraries: European Conferences, IEEE ADL), and new print and
online journals on digital libraries were started. In the United States, the
six major digital libraries research projects are: Project Alexandria
(University of California, Santa Barbara), Infomedia (Carnegie Mellon
University), Stanford Digital Library (Stanford), Digital Library Initiative
(University of Illinois), Digital Library Project (University of California,
Berkeley), and Digital Library Project (University of Michigan) (Hong, Thong,
Wong & Tam, 2002). Rosenberg (2005) noted that over
the last five years, enormous progress has been made in ensuring that staff and
students in universities in Africa can access the growing quantities of
information resources now produced in electronic format. Support has been
provided in setting up the necessary networked infrastructure and providing the
requisite hardware and software.
Okiy (2008) reported the challenges
facing digitization projects in Nigeria. She particularly cited the
Digitization of Theses and Dissertations in Nigerian Universities that was
initiated by the Association of African Universities at the University of Jos
and at OAU in Ile-Ife. The University of
Nigeria, Nsukka also has embarked on digitization of Theses and Dissertations.
Electronic Databases offer thousands of digitized journals and e-books and
libraries need to offer pathways to guide users to the best ones. African
Journals Online (AJOL) is an important effort at freely offering digital copies
of African journal articles. This online resource along with JSTOR offers a
wealth of digitized peer-reviewed journal articles for researchers in Africa.
The National Universities Commission
(NUC) developed a Virtual Library in 2001 but many of the links to digital
resources are invalid and it needs better maintenance in order to be an
effective research tool. The Virtual Library is to have full text databases in
all fields of study and indigenous content. With the Virtual Library, Nigerian
users may soon have access to the same materials, at the same moment that staff
and students of Harvard University have access to (UNESCO, 2003). The
electronic content to include institutional databases like the Federal Office
of Statistics, National Human Resource Database, BPE, CBN, INEC, NNPC, National
Population Commission, Department of National Civic Registration and various
government departments and Higher Education institutions. Other relevant public
domain and commercial foreign data-bases including the EBSCO data-base,
Medline, Agricola, Social science citation index, arts and humanities index,
Chemical abstracts, OCLC, EIFL, World Bank, UNESCO data-base and other United
Nation data-bases. Also, eIFL provides an invaluable service by allowing open
access to electronic databases such as Bio-One, Agora and Hinari to libraries
in low GDP countries like Nigeria. All of these resources are freely available
with registration by any educational institution in Nigeria so there is no
excuse for any university not to offer these resources for their clientele
(NUC, 2010). Other notable databases in Africa are: the South African
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD), the Association of African
Universities (AAU) African Thesis and Dissertations (DATAD), African Digital Library
(ADL), African Online Digital Library (AODL), African Journal Online (AJOL),
etc.
Funding for digital libraries
projects became available in the early 1990s. The first U.S. Federal Government
funding began in 1994 with the Federated Digital Library Initiative (DLI-1).
Since 1994, additional funding has become available from numerous sources,
including the National Science Foundation and the Institute for Museum and
Library Services (Mischo in Weech, 2007). In the U.K, the “eLib” program was
started in 1994 with funding for 70 digital library projects. Most of the eLib
and U.S. Digital Libraries Initiative were focused on academic libraries and in
the case of eLib, funds were allocated in smaller amounts to many library
projects, while the U.S. Digital Library Initiative focused on a few large
projects (Pinfield in Weech, 2007).
These developments go to show that
digital library project is an expensive one and as such is normally undertaken
by national governments or international organizations. The idea of donations
as alternative to government support to the development of libraries has always
been acknowledged. Library acquisitions have been through either purchase or
donations. Examples of donations to libraries abound in Africa and Nigeria in
particular (Gueye and Carnoy in Tabi, 2007). Edoka (1992) and Aguolu &
Aguolu (1997) gave details of some donor agencies to the Nnamdi Azikiwe Library
(NAL), University of Nigeria Nsukka from its inception in 1960. The first
notable donation came from the first Vice Chancellor, the Right Honourable Dr.
Nnamdi Azikiwe after whom the library is named. His donations totalled over
12,000 books, 1000 journals and pamphlets on many subjects. Other remarkable
donors are: the British Council, the World Bank, the Netherlands Economic
Mission to Nigeria, the South West Legal Foundation of Dallas, Texas. The West
Publishing Company of Minnesota, the United States Agency for International
Development, Macmillan Publishers, the Theological Education Fund of World
Council of Churches, the Bollengen Foundation, Book Aid International,
Education Trust Fund, the Journal Development Programme (JDP) of University of
New York.
The importance of donations in this
light cannot be over flogged. But for the numerous supports from the donor
agencies, the NAL would not have started on a sound footing. Tabi (2007) and
Shafack & Kiven (2003) attested that donor support has opened existing
possibilities and opportunities for libraries to acquire the much needed
information resources. However, donations in the library must be based on
written collection development policy. This ensures that the library accept
only donations that are relevant to the needs of the users. The idea is to
avoid the library being a dumping ground for donors who give because of some
ulterior motives. The motives range from political, social, economical and
religious motives. However, donations can be either a curse or a blessing. It
becomes a blessing when the donations meet the information needs of the library
users but becomes a curse if the donated materials are irrelevant to the needs
of the users. In situation where no user uses the donated materials, the
materials become a burden or ‘shelf seaters’ (Boman, 2007). It is the idea of
relevance to the needs of the library users, in this case, the staff and
students of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and University of Nigeria,
Nsukka that has prompted this study, to measure the relevance and effectiveness
of the donation, MTNF Digital Libraries, to Kashim Ibrahim Library (KIL) and Nnamdi
Azikiwe Library (NAL).
The MTN Nigeria
Foundation (MTNF) was launched in May 2005 with the purpose of partnering with
public, private and civil society organizations to execute sustainable projects
in three areas: education, health and economic empowerment. The intention was
to make a significant impact in these areas in as many communities as possible
across Nigeria’s six geo-political zones. This goal was aligned with the
Millennium Development Goals on which the Federal Government of Nigeria had
based its own development priorities
(Oyegbola, 2007).
Working with NetLibrary Nigeria, MTNF has linked
four top Nigerian universities– University of Lagos,
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and University of
Benin to
the world’s largest collection of digital resources from over 5,500 libraries
and 300 publishers. This project was embarked upon to
achieve MTN’s laudable objectives of:
- Bridging the knowledge
and digital divide
- Enhancing educational
infrastructure development
- Providing educational
resources for effective learning.
Based on the experience of the local environment and the need for
sustainability, detailed written rules are pre-agreed and enforced with the
institutions regarding the maintenance of the equipment and upkeep of the
library premises.
MTN Education Portfolio includes:
- 128 networked
computers, 3 servers, 2 high capacity printers and a 100KVA generator
VSAT
equipment & Internet connectivity bandwidth with 2 years subscription
- 2 years subscription to
electronic resources through the NetLibrary network (Journals, Books, etc)
- Conducive study
environment through space renovation, provision of adequate lighting,
furniture, and alternative power supply
- Technical training for
12 members of existing library staff to work with NetLibrary over 2 years to
build capacity
- One-week awareness
workshops to be held annually for approximately 600 students and 120 lecturers
- Initiate a 5–year
maintenance contract with the University to ensure a conducive environment with
a clear sustainability strategy
- Two years comprehensive
insurance cover to take care of theft & fire
- An interactive student’s website
(The
list of the online resources and infrastructures are provided in appendix IV).
The University Library System of
Ahmadu Bello University comprises the Kashim Ibrahim Library (the main Library)
and eleven other satellite libraries located in different c
