AN ASSESSMENT OF INFORMATION RESOURCES DIGITIZATION BY UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES IN EDO AND DELTA STATE, NIGERIA
Abstract
The study assessed information resources digitization by university libraries in Edo and Delta States, Nigeria. The study was guided by four research objectives and questions. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study with a population of 177 librarians engaged in the university libraries in Edo and Delta States, Nigeria. The total enumeration sampling was used in this study to select the entire population. A structured questionnaire was distributed to the respondents with the aid of two research assistants. The descriptive analysis method was adopted for the analysis of the data elicited using a questionnaire. The study achieved a 93% return rate on the questionnaire distributed. The findings revealed that the university libraries in Edo and Delta States, Nigeria had available Scanners, Image image-capturing software, Visualizers, Computers, Lighting, and document software which implies that there is digitization equipment available in the university libraries. The findings also show that the materials being digitized in the university libraries of Edo and Delta States, Nigeria are mostly project/ thesis/ dissertation, books, journals, abstracts, reference materials, newspapers, geographical materials, magazines and government publications. It was revealed in the study that the extent of digitization of information materials in the university libraries in Edo and Delta State, Nigeria is low. The challenges militating against the digitization efforts in university libraries in Edo and Delta States, Nigeria are majorly inadequate finance, inadequate skilled manpower, epileptic power supply, poor internet access, intellectual property right issues, non-availability of required facilities, copyright issues, and poor support from university management, among others. The researcher recommends that funds should be allocated for digitization projects by university management and other funding bodies of libraries to increase digitization efforts by the librarians in university libraries and the required infrastructural facilities and equipment to enhance the success of digitization projects should be acquired and made available to librarians in university libraries.
Keyword : Digitization; Information Resources; University Libraries; Edo State; Delta State; Nigeria
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
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