Global Journal of Library and Information Sciences Vol. 1(1) pp.001-007,February 2012
Available online Available online http://www.globalresearchjournals.org/journal/?a=journal&id=gjlis
Copyright ©2012 Global Research Journals.
Case Study.
Electronic Resources Provision and Internet Accessibility
Challenges in Nigerian Academic Libraries
By
Idowu, Adetoun Omolola
1
. (PhD) and Oduwole, Adebambo Adewale
2
(PhD)
1
University Librarian, Lagos State University Ojo, Nigeria
E-mail :librarian@lasunigeria.org
2
Medical Librarian,Lagos State University College of Medicine Ikeja, Nigeria
E-mail : bambose26@yahoo.com
Accepted 2
nd
November 2011.
The paper describes issues and challenges facing academic libraries in accessing electronic journals and
internet resources in Nigeria. The scope of the presentation include: the evolution of resources in the library; an
overview of library and information sciences; services available in the library today; the challenges facing
Librarians and, the future of Libraries in Nigeria. Some of the challenges identified include: problem of access
control, personnel and workload, overlapping of coverage of same titles by providers, high cost of e-resources
subscription, complexity of virtual library and funding. Recommendations were made which include the training
and retraining of professional and the supporting staff in web technology skill and acquisition of special software
like SFX to link e-journals.
Keywords: E-Resources, Internet accessibility, academic libraries, Challenges, Library Service , Nigeria
INTRODUCTION
The evolving information and knowledge-based economy
has resulted in a climate of transition and change
especially in academic libraries around the world,
including Nigeria. As universities, polytechnics and
colleges make the transformation to learning
organizations, academic libraries as constituents of their
larger parent organizations are rethinking and exploring
new ways to reposition themselves in the campus
environment in view of higher expectations of their
various stakeholders, pervasiveness of information
technology, increased availability and focus on electronic
resources and services, and the need to become learning
and research centres to support a wide range of
educational initiatives
Library is an indispensable organization in every tertiary
institution. It is the heart of a University or College that
provides access to the various resources: print, non-print
and digital. All the services rendered impose certain
challenges on the library. Maintaining a balance between
the technologies and the conservative role of libraries
becomes expedient.
The traditional services rendered by the library include,
readers’ services, reference services, reprographic
services, current awareness services (CAS), selective
dissemination of information (SDI), etc. However, the
advent of ICT has expanded the scope of these services
and the tools of information delivery. Today we have e-
library and virtual library which provide access to
electronic books and journals, online references, web-
resources, web-catalogues etc. This “Web-eccentricity”
poses a lot of challenges to librarians and information
scientists as well as the traditional library users. The
challenges are both operational and strategic. The
attitudinal challenge is another dimension that needs to
be addressed. The questions being asked are as follows;
Are we e-ready in Nigeria? Are the youths which form
about 40% (Ovia,2008) of the population empowered to
move into the information age? How about the future of
library and librarianship in Nigeria? Where would library
service be in the next 10 years?
Objectives
This paper examines the challenges faced by academic
libraries in accessing electronic journals and internet
resources in Nigeria.
DIGITAL AND ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
Digital resources are those resources whose deal with
both digital and digitized materials which can either be
accessible from library’s in house database or from the
world wide web. Digitized materials means e-journal, e-
newspapers, e-magazine
(Academia.com, 2011). These files that can only be
accessed by a computer. The files are generally kept as
floppy diskettes. Other electronic resources storage
formats include CD-ROM discs as well as internet
resources (Aina, 2004)