MANAGEMENT OF DIGITISATION PROJECTS IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background to the Study

Recent development in the world of information resource handling and management have moved from being manually driven to electronic driven especially in Libraries, Information centers, Museums and Archival centers where information bearing media were originally in printed formats. The need to source and present information for academic purpose is a daily routine for university libraries all over the world. Digitisation of library collections is a common phenomenon amongst academic and research institutions because it improves access and preservation of information resources. Libraries are making effort to convert text and images of their local and rare materials into digital formats so that they can be available to a wider audience. Gbaje and Bot (2009) stated that when print collections in the library are transformed into electronic and online resources, they reduce the need for library customers to physically visit the library building to access them.

Asogwa (2011) asserted that traditionally, librarians in academic institutions today make use of modern technologies to provide quicker, accurate and more sophisticated information services to customers. In Nigerian university libraries, the picture has rapidly changed due to the ability of librarians to make effective use of computer and telecommunication technologies to create, manage and disseminate digital contents across the globe. Creation of digital materials has become an emerging practice of today‟s information professionals. This is made feasible by high processing speed and large storage media capability of the computers as well as the power of the Internet to transmit information globally provided greater opportunities and challenges to librarians and information professionals. Technology has made information traditionally provided in paper to be digitised, preserved and made available and accessible to customers in electronic format.

Akintunde (2007) postulated that, the vision of any library that wants to go digital is the total digitization of its records and resources for easy access in electronic format with the goal to create and enhance access to electronic documents. The demands for more and more digital content in an ever-increasing electronic world as a result of its flexibility and its multimedia nature paved a way where access to information has become paramount in this millennium.

Urban (2002) in Akintunde (2007) stressed that the purpose of digitising library material is for increase in access to resources, preserving the original through reduced handling and for the building of a digital library. Other reasons for digitisation of library collections according to Akintunde (2007) include:

1. Increase access because of high demand from the customers and the desire by the library to improve access to a specific collection;
2. Improve services to an expanding customers group by providing an enhanced access to the institution‟s resources;
3. Reduce the handling and use of fragile or heavily used original material and creating a “back up” copy such as brittle documents;
4. Development of technical infrastructure and staff skill capacity;

• To create a virtual collections that permit sharing partnerships with other institutions to increase worldwide access;

• Reduction of the volume of the printed material and necessary operational space for its storage;

• Reduction of the cost for acquiring and maintaining the printed material;
• Faster search and access to the required information through a terminal;
• Multi-user access to the same information simultaneously through a terminal and among others.

MANAGEMENT OF DIGITISATION PROJECTS IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES