Funding issues and development of digital libraries in Nigeria

In March 2010 the Digital Library of the Wielkopolska Region, the largest and one of the oldest Polish digital libraries reached the level of 100 000 objects available on-line. Since its inauguration in 2002, the dynamics of the development of Polish digital libraries has increased significantly. The common effort of several hundreds of scientific and cultural institutions in Poland led to the present situation in which there are over 50 publicly available digital libraries and together they give access to around 425 000 digital objects. Such a big number of similar network services lead to the need of integration mechanisms allowing to achieve a synergy effect perceptible for end users as well as for digital library creators and international digital library initiatives. Such mechanism developed by PSNC and named PIONIER Network Digital Libraries Federation, has been available as a network service since June 22-nd, 2007 and can be reached at http://fbc.pionier.net.pl/. This paper shortly presents the history of development of Polish digital libraries, showing the factors that have influenced the initial form and advancement of the Federation. It also describes the Federation architecture, organizational aspects of its operation, and key challenges including the integration of Polish and European digital libraries infrastructures.

Digital library (DL) research and development has concentrated primarily on collections and on the services to build and access them (Arms, 2000). To some extent, there has also been a focus on users and uses and on how well digital library constructions satisfy them (Borgman, 2000). A class of DL components has been missing from this development. This class we call knowledge organization system (KOS) resources and by this we mean the set of familiar and evolving systems that organize and define the terminology and notations we use to represent and organize concepts and real world objects. Just as DL collections and services can be modeled in general frameworks that support the building of library architectures, it is also possible to integrate the variety of KOSs into the DL context and to extend DL architectures to include them in the development and use of collections and services. Treating KOS resources as tightly integrated components ofDL architectures raises new research and development issues for the DL and the classification research communities.

This study investigates the use of CD-ROM databases in academic libraries in Nigeria. The impact of CD-ROM databases on library development in Nigerian academic libraries is discussed. A questionnaire was sent to ten academic libraries in Nigeria, identified from preliminary studies on their CD-ROM database collections and use. High cost of subscriptions to CD-ROM databases was ranked highest as the major constraints to CD-ROM use. Other constraints include: high cost of acquiring personal computers, CD-ROM drives, printers and other peripherals; unavailability of identified documents found in CD-ROM databases in the institutions’ libraries; lack of computer education; shortage of manpower. The most commonly used bibliographic database on CD-ROM is AGRIS and CAB Abstracts. The study recommends joint ventures with CD-ROM producers/vendors and inclusion of substantive abstracts in CD-ROM databases as ways of improving the use of CD-ROM databases in academic libraries in Nigeria.

This is a case study of the library of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences. The library has taken several initiatives for development of health science digital library. The building of a digital library of newspaper clippings using Greenstone Digital Library Software is one. The article discusses in brief some of the issues related to the development of digital library of press clippings. The article also highlights the services provided by the University Library, but only press clippings service has been explained in detail. An attempt has also been made to briefly explain the workflow of collection of print form as well as the digital form of press clippings.

This research study examines how digital library technologies are transforming access to information in educational and public settings. With the increasing shift toward online learning and digital resources, digital libraries have become essential tools for students, researchers, and general users. The study aims to understand user awareness, usage patterns, benefits, and the challenges faced while interacting with digital library platforms. Primary data were collected through a structured questionnaire, while secondary data were gathered from academic articles, reports, and case studies on digital library development. The analysis shows that digital library technologies provide easy and quick access to a wide range of resources, including e-books, journals, research papers, and multimedia content. Users appreciate the convenience, search efficiency, and 24/7 availability offered by these platforms. However, the study also identifies key challenges such as slow internet connectivity, lack of digital skills, limited device access, and occasional technical issues within digital library systems. Overall, the findings reveal that digital libraries play a significant role in improving learning and research by making information more accessible and organized. The study concludes that continued technological improvements, user training, and better digital infrastructure can further enhance the effectiveness of digital library services. Furthermore, the study highlights the growing importance of digital library technologies in bridging the gap between traditional information systems and modern user needs. As educational institutions and libraries continue to adopt digital platforms, the role of user-friendly interfaces, reliable digital infrastructure, and well-organized content becomes increasingly crucial. The findings suggest that with proper technological support and digital literacy programs, digital libraries can significantly enhance knowledge accessibility for diverse user groups. This research encourages institutions to invest in continuous upgrades, user training, and innovative digital tools to ensure that digital libraries remain effective, inclusive, and future-ready.

Tools, techniques and protocols necessary for building up digital libraries have now fully evolved with computing power that allows parallel processing, multitasking, parallel consultation and parallel knowledge navigation and sohare tools that facilitate artificial intelligence and interadivity. Coincided with availability of sofhvare, hardware and networking technology, the advent of world wide web 0its, ever incr easing usage and highly evolved browsers have paved the way for creation of digital libraries. With rapid developments in technologies necessary for developing digital libraries, the world of digital information resources has expanded rapidly and exponentially. Increasing number of publishers are using the internet as a global way to offer their publications to the international community of scientists and technologists. With the technology available at an effordable cost, the libraries are initiating small digitisation projects as an individual library or as a group of libraries. Building-up digital collection and the infrastructure required to access them is a challenge that every library has to deal with. The article delves into technological evolution, cultural revolution and contents enrichment that led to revolution in growth and development of digital libraries. The artide has two distinct parts, while the first part deals with various aspects of building, accessing and organising digital resources and collection, the second part elaborates on the process, technology, formats, compression techniques and tools used in digital imaging. The article describes optical character recognition (OCR) and advocates for hybrid solution for preservation of digital information. http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dbit.21.6.3547

Users’ evaluation of digital libraries (DLs): Their uses, their criteria, and their assessment

The development of digital libraries in Poland was initiated about ten years ago with the start of the dLibra project. This project was aiming for the creation of a software package to facilitate building flexible digital libraries for scientific and cultural institutions. The success of the package and the idea behind it caused rapid increase of the number of digital libraries, reaching 60 on-line instances and 600 000 digital objects in the first half of 2011. Wide use of open protocols and metadata standards was the base for connecting these libraries into a country-scale infrastructure based on distributed services. The need for an integration point of several services induced the establishment of the PIONIER Network Digital Libraries Federation. This paper describes the current state of the digital libraries cyberinfrastructure in Poland, with a focus on two aspects of it - on services available for end-users, digital libraries creators and external systems, and on selective metadata streams flowing through the infrastructure. These selective streams allowed making a connection between Polish digital libraries and pan-European services like DART-Europe or Europeana. In case of Europeana it was the first metadata transfer with such scale of the distribution of source metadata providers.

PurposeA significant amount of digital repository research and development activity is taking place worldwide, which calls for the investigation of issues identified as critical to the development, management and sustainability of these repositories. The purpose of this paper is to establish a comprehensive set of critical success factors (CSFs) that would enable successful digital libraries implementation.Design/methodology/approachThe design of this study is exploratory in nature due to lack of previous research about CSFs in digital library projects. The paper builds the research framework to find CSFs for digital libraries initiatives by collecting possible factors from literature on CSFs of information systems; and feedback from ten experts who have had experience in digital library research and development as well as implementation, through e‐mail interviews. Six dimensions in the enterprise architecture framework (namely motivation, resource, people, process, location and time) needed to create the environment in which digital delivery can be effective and sustained, are mapped with the CSF established from the literature.FindingsThe results revealed six dimensions of CSFs and 36 potential success factor statements contributed by the study participants. Based on these findings, this paper postulates that successful deployment of a digital library implementation may depend on this set of success factors. The identification of these factors has important implications on digital library development.Originality/valueThere has been no comprehensive study on the success factors of digital libraries in the library and information science context, as such, no investigation of the factors in some real‐life contexts of digital library activities. It may help digital library start‐ups to understand what sources and services they need to develop to make their applications successful in an already very populated network. Both researchers and practitioners in the field of digital libraries may value the novelty and results of this study.

Increasing literacy skills among students through the use of digital technology is increasingly urgent. This is shown by the low reading literacy condition of Darul Mustofa Vocational School students. The contribution of this research is to develop digital libraries to increase students' reading literacy interest in schools and increase the role of digital libraries more effectively. This study is research into digital library development using the waterfall method. This method has seven stages: problem definition, analysis, design, development, testing, implementation, and maintenance. This method is widely recognized in the educational IT sector to address software development problems in schools. The system is tested using functional and usability testing. Functional testing using the black-box method includes verification of 80 system functions, while usability testing assesses ease of use, ease of learning, and user satisfaction. Test results show 100% success for all tested functions and a usability score of 95%, indicating that this system is very efficient, easy to use, and satisfying to users. This success shows that the Darul Mustofa Vocational School digital library is ready to support the educational process by providing better and easier access to various reading materials, which is expected to improve students' literacy skills. This digital library can be expanded in the future by adding more features or expanding to other schools.

PurposeThis paper aims to introduce a methodology for strategic analysis which can used in digital library development. This methodology can be used as a precursor process that assists in developing successful business cases to implement the strategies of a digital library development plan.Design/methodology/approachUsing theory and practice from information technology in both profit and non‐profit organizations, the paper relates the use of strategic analysis to the development of a successful business case for digital library development.FindingsOne of the major tasks a digital library project manager faces is getting the project approved and in the queue for development. By exploiting the full potential of the planning phase of the systems development lifecycle (SDLC), a digital project manager can develop a compelling business case for the proposed project. By using SWOT analysis as well as additional considerations, the project manager should identify how the project will address critical organizational (business) issues and success factors as well as provide a compelling case for action. In particular, the most successful business cases develop compelling cases for action by carefully crafting solid arguments for why the digital project being proposed is the most important project an organization should undertake out of all the potential projects that might exist.Originality/valueThis paper fills a gap in the digital project management literature by providing a step‐by‐step process for using strategic analysis in digital library development planning.

There has been an increasing amount of research focus on the development of digital libraries, particularly on information seeking. A variety of information-seeking models used by library and information science (LIS) academics investigate the manner in which information is sought and transformed into knowledge, which should be taken into account during the design of digital libraries. However, in part this reflects the lack of knowledge about how these models explain user information seeking behaviors in a digital library environment. This chapter aims to address this lack of knowledge. It presents a set of information-seeking models that can be used by LIS scholars or experts to comprehend the dynamics of information seeking by users of digital libraries. The major role of this chapter is to provide a review of the existing “models” to date, and also to present a comparative analysis of the notable models that may contribute to ways of understanding the research on information seeking in digital libraries.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe the design and development of a digital library at Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), India, using DSpace open source software. The study covers the structure, contents and usage of CUSAT digital library.Design/methodology/approachThis paper examines the possibilities of applying open source in libraries. An evaluative approach is carried out to explore the features of the CUSAT digital library. The Google Analytics service is employed to measure the amount of use of digital library by users across the world.FindingsCUSAT has successfully applied DSpace open source software for building a digital library. The digital library has had visits from 78 countries, with the major share from India. The distribution of documents in the digital library is uneven. Past exam question papers share the major part of the collection. The number of research papers, articles and rare documents is less.Originality/valueThe study is the first of its type that tries to understand digital library design and development using DSpace open source software in a university environment with a focus on the analysis of distribution of items and measuring the value by usage statistics employing the Google Analytics service. The digital library model can be useful for designing similar systems.

General Background: Metadata interoperability is a critical foundation for the effective development and management of digital libraries, enabling extensive, open, and sustainable access to information. Specific Background: Existing research predominantly adopts a positivistic paradigm, emphasizing technical conformity to metadata syntax, format validity, and interoperability protocols such as OAI-PMH and Dublin Core. Knowledge Gap: This technical focus often neglects social, semantic, and institutional contexts, resulting in limited adaptability to diverse user needs and institutional environments. Aims: This study introduces the sociotechnical paradigm as an alternative framework for understanding and enhancing metadata interoperability. Results: Through a literature review and reference to digital library development models, the research demonstrates how the sociotechnical paradigm integrates technological systems with social dynamics, institutional policies, and localized meaning-making processes. Novelty: The study reframes metadata interoperability not merely as a technical process but as a collaborative, participatory, and semantic negotiation among stakeholders. Implications: By embedding sociotechnical principles, digital libraries can evolve as adaptive socio-information systems that reflect user contexts, embrace diversity of meaning, and strengthen inclusivity in knowledge access. Highlights: Bridges technical and social dimensions of metadata. Promotes participatory and contextual design. Enhances inclusivity in digital library systems. Keywords: Metadata Interoperability, Sociotechnical Paradigm, Digital Libraries, Semantic Context, Inclusive Access

In February 2001 the Panel on Digital Libraries of the Presidents Info rmation Technology Advisory Committee issued a report entitled “Digital Libraries: Universal Access to Human Knowledge”. This JCDL panel, which consists of two members of the PITAC Panel on Digital Libraries and representatives of key Federal science and digital library agencies who had briefed the Panel, will discuss the report's findings and recommendations and how the report is and can be helpful in improving the development and use of digital libraries.