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;

• Reduce the handling and use of fragile or heavily used original material and creating a “back up” copy such as brittle documents;

1. Development of technical infrastructure and staff skill capacity;
2. To create a virtual collections that permit sharing partnerships with other institutions to increase worldwide access;
3. 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;

1. Multi-user access to the same information simultaneously through a terminal and among others.

In recognition of the significance of digitisation Durodolu (2010) asserted that university libraries in Nigeria are digitising their collections in order to contribute their own quota to the world information resource and making such resources available electronically for a wider access. Digitisation offers a way of preserving aging materials which could have otherwise gone out of use. Records such as dissertations, theses, journal publications, articles, public records and examination records amongst others are being digitized, printed, bound and placed back on shelves. In a similar opinion Gbaje (2010) remarked that when the materials are uploaded on the web it increases a library‟s visibility as the library‟s customers all over the world access the material. Fatoki (2005) pointed out that digitisation presents for improving the local content and improving indigenous knowledge which is abysmally low presently. Through digitization, visibility of Nigerian research and researchers, accessibility would be greatly improved, resulting in enhanced utilization of research outputs which has positive economic, social and industrial implications for the nation.

The concept „management‟ is not fixed, but changes according to time and circumstances. Terry (2000) defined management as a distinct process consisting of planning, organizing, directing and controlling in order to determine and accomplish the objectives by the use of human beings and other resources. Carlisle (2009) on the other hand defined management of digitisation project as the process by which the elements of a group are integrated, coordinated and utilized so as to effectively and efficiently achieve digitisation objectives.

Rane (2007) remarked that every university libraries management has developed and implemented its own digitisation management concepts in order for it to run smoothly and accomplish the vision, goals and objectives it has set forth. As such, the basic functions of digitisation management connotes with the term management which include planning, organizing, directing and controlling peculiar to all digitisation projects. According to Rosette-Tavares (2008) digitisation projects management principles consist of the following factors:

• Increase in efficiency: this principle provides guidelines to the digitisation project manager for handling digitisation complex problems more effectively. It also facilitates digitisation project managers in performing their duties smoothly.

• Achieving social objectives: digitisation project managers develop spirit of co-operation and co-ordination among staffers. It helps in the optimum utilization of social sources. It eliminates unnecessary wastage of resources.

• Generation of sound understanding: digitisation project management principles generate sound understanding of the difficult problems. Digitisation project manager applies scientific approach for the solution of the complex problem.

• Directing areas of training: this principle of digitisation project management identify the present and prospective areas of management and make significant finding in the areas that require training program.

• Guiding research work in digitisation programme management: the digitisation project management principles needed to make guidelines which require necessary modifications with the changing situations.

Digitisation, according to Hughes (2004), is “the process by which physical or printed contents is converted into a sequence of 0s (zeros) and 1s (ones) put into a binary code to be readable by computer.” It is the transformation of analogue information from whatever form and from whatever support to digital code using computer technologies. Cornell University Library (2001) identified physical information contents to include “electronic snapshots taken of a scene or photographs, films, manuscripts, printed texts and artworks scanned from documents.” Digitisation process involves conversion of historical materials from formats that can be read by people to a format that can be read only by machines. It is a process of taking a physical object and taking photographs of or scanning the item and transferring the photographs into a digital device. It is also a process of archiving born digital materials into the institutions collections.

Get Full Project