CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
The University library can be seen as the central nervous system of its parent institution as they are primarily established to provide information resources to back up academic programmes. It is the principal instrument of the university in the conservation of knowledge. Proper fulfillment of this role provides a sound basis for the transmission and advancement of knowledge. The University library therefore collects materials, published and unpublished, print and non-print, in some depth and globally in almost all fields of knowledge (Aguolu and Aguolu, 2002). Thus the main purpose of the university library is to support the objective of the university which is to promote teaching, learning and research.
Globally, Libraries are digitizing information resources and making them available and accessible to end users via electronic media such as the World Wide Web (WWW), the Internet, and CD-ROM. The present revolution in Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and digitization initiatives are now critical issues that libraries, especially in the academic environment can no longer afford to fold their hands if they must continue to remain relevant in this digital age. Nwalo (2003) noted that “Libraries in Africa including Nigeria are gradually but steadily converting from manual process to computer-based library routines.” This is as a result of the changing need of library users.
Obviously, the general library environment is gradually changing from analogue to digital and/or hybrid library, as a result of the present ICT revolution which has been the central driving force for digitization project. Hence, ICT is the gateway for library digitization; although these technologies have been in a very low supply in Nigerian universities and most African countries. The advent of ICTs and the present digitization projects are key developmental factors in the present day libraries especially in the academic environment. ICT according to Blurton (1999) is a diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate and to create, disseminate, store, and manage information. Anaeme (2006) pointed out that the emergence of fast growth of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and their application in libraries, especially academic libraries, has continued to revolutionize the pattern and scope of library services. In the same vein, Campbell (2006) observed that “numerous creative and useful services have evolved within academic libraries in digital age: providing quality learning spaces, creating metadata, offering virtual reference services, teaching information literacy, choosing resources and managing resources licenses, collecting and digitizing archival materials, and maintaining digital repositories.
Digitization is the process of converting the contents of a document from hardcopy into electronic or machine-readable form. It involves the selection of source materials of intellectual value, scanning them, and saving the scanned document into the computer to be accessed locally and remotely via the internet. According to Witten and Bridge (2003), digitization is “the process of taking traditional library materials that are in the form of books and papers and converting them to the electronic form where they can be stored and manipulated by a computer”. Fatoki (2005) defined digitization as “the conversion of analogue media to digital form”. In the same vein, Library and Archives, Canada in Akintude (2007) defined digitization as “the process of translating a piece of information such as sound recording, picture or video into bits”. Digitization therefore involves more than the conversion of analogue materials into digital format; it includes the organization of the digital content into a navigable format.