The need for preservation of digital resources for effective service delivery in academic libraries in Nigeria

Abstract

Digital materials are information resources that are in electronic format which bears information in digital format for the use of the library clienteles. The fragileness and delicate nature of these materials call for their adequate preservation for effective service delivery. This study investigated the need for preservation of digital materials in Academic libraries using Federal University of Technology Owerri, library for the study. Questionnaire was used for data collection. Two hundred and sixty-eight (268) respondents consisting of eighteen (18) academic librarians and two hundred and fifty (250) students were used for the population of the study. Two research questions and a hypothesis was used to guide this study. The mean and weighted mean was used to answer the research question and the z-test was used to test the hypothesis. The result showed that most respondents were not aware of the preservative methods used in preserving digital materials in the library, although they agreed that the methods stated in the options given were good for preserving digital materials. The researcher therefore recommended that the management should devise some techniques/methods which will be used for digital preservation of resources as well as the integration of the cost of preservation of the library materials in the library budget among others.

Keywords: Digita, Materials/Resources, Library, preservation, Electronic, Resources