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IFLA Publications

Edited by
Janine Schmidt

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions

Fédération Internationale des Associations de Bibliothécaires et des Bibliothèques
Internationaler Verband der bibliothekarischen Vereine und Institutionen
Международная Федерация Библиотечных Ассоциаций и Учреждений
Federación Internacional de Asociaciones de Bibliotecarios y Bibliotecas

Volume 183
Information Services
for a Sustainable
Society

Current Developments in an Era of Information Disorder

Edited by
Madeleine C. Fombad, Collence Takaingenhamo Chisita,
Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha and Mabel K. Minishi-Majanja

DE GRUYTER
SAUR
ISBN 978-3-11-077268-5
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-077275-3
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-077282-1
ISSN 0344-6891

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023932811

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.

Cover Image: Daniel Rankadi Mosako: Constructive Unity

Typesetting: Dr Rainer Ostermann, München
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck

www.degruyter.com
Contents Contents

About IFLA IX

Kendra Albright
Foreword 1

Madeleine C. Fombad, Collence Takaingenhamo Chisita,

Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha and Mabel K. Minishi-Majanja
Preface 3

Rebecca Chidimma Ojobor

1 Blockchain Technology for Library Services: Challenges
and Opportunities from a Nigerian Perspective 7

Asania Reneilwe Maphoto and Mpubane Emanuel Matlala

2 Reshaping the Future of Academic Libraries: Insights from
South Africa 24

Amy P.A. Asimah

3 User Services in Ghanaian Academic Libraries in Response
to the COVID-19 Pandemic 45

Agnes C. Chikonzo, Masimba C. Muziringa, Collence Takaingenhamo Chisita

and Rexwhite Tega Enakrire
4 Redefining Academic Library Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic:
A View from Zimbabwe 64

Laura Millar
5 Seeking Order in Chaotic Times: The Importance of Evidence in the
Fight for Truth 78

Olefhile Mosweu
6 To Wear Gloves or Wash Hands? A Perusal of Archives Preservation Policy
in Botswana 91

Charles J. Farrugia
7 National Archives Institutions During Turbulent Times: The Case of
COVID-19 104
VI Contents

Justice Kasiroori and Josiline Phiri Chigwada

8 The Impact of Library Resources on Block Release Students’ Academic
Achievement in Zimbabwe 116
Contents Contents

Adeyinka Tella
9 Exploration of Data Sharing and Information Exchange among Nigerian
Library and Information Science Researchers 131

Joachim Schöpfel and Otmane Azeroual

10 Ethical Dimensions of Research Information Management: A New
Challenge for Information Professionals 150

Raliat Alabi, Adenike Damilola Omoike and Daniel Olusegun Ikegune

11 Information Services in Academic Libraries in an Era of Information
Disorder 166

Bhojaraju Gunjal
12 The Role of Academic Libraries in a Pandemic Era 181

Kwame Kodua-Ntim and Madeleine C. Fombad

13 Challenges with Open Access Institutional Repositories in Ghana 195

Michelle Kowalsky
14 Advocating for Value-Added Content and Tools in Library Databases and
Beyond 211

Mamotshabo Johanna Boloka

15 Public Library Infrastructure During COVID-19 in Limpopo
Province 225

Andrew Mugenyi and Acquinatta Nomusa Zimu-Biyela

16 Knowledge Sharing Among Nurses in Developing Countries During
COVID-19 240

Tanya du Plessis, Dimpho Z. Gamede, Kevin M. Letsoalo and Neo

Ramatsebe
17 One Journal’s Journey through the Fourth Industrial Revolution 254

Siviwe Bangani and Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha

18 An Altmetrics Study of Researchers at North-West University 274
 Contents VII

Oluyemi Folorunso Ayanbode and Williams E. Nwagwu

19 Knowledge Management Strategies in Clinical Settings,
Southwest Nigeria 297

Tom Kwanya
20 From Collections to Connections: Transforming Libraries to Knowledge
Centres 320

Adeyinka Tella, Sunday Segun Bamidele, Oluwakemi Titilola Olaniyi and

Yusuf Ayodeji Ajani
21 Library and Information Science Graduate Skills Needed in the
Fourth Industrial Revolution: A Nigerian Perspective 342

Contributors 361
About IFLA
www.ifla.org
IFLA (The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) is the
leading international body representing the interests of library and information
services and their users. It is the global voice of the library and information
profession. IFLA provides information specialists throughout the world with a
forum for exchanging ideas and promoting international cooperation, research,
and development in all fields of library activity and information service. IFLA is
one of the means through which libraries, information centres, and information
professionals worldwide can formulate their goals, exert their influence as a group,
protect their interests, and find solutions to global problems.

IFLA’s mission to inspire, engage, enable and connect the global library field can
only be fulfilled with the co-operation and active involvement of its members and
affiliates. Currently, approximately 1,600 associations, institutions and individuals,
from widely divergent cultural backgrounds are working together to further this
mission Through its formal membership, IFLA directly or indirectly represents
some 500,000 library and information professionals worldwide.

IFLA pursues its vision of a strong and united library field powering literate,
informed and participatory societies through a variety of channels, including the
publication of a major journal, as well as guidelines, reports and monographs on a
wide range of topics. IFLA organizes webinars and workshops around the world to
enhance professional practice and increase awareness of the growing importance
of libraries in the digital age. All this is done in collaboration with a number of other
non-governmental organizations, funding bodies and international agencies such
as UNESCO and WIPO. The Federation’s website is the key source of information
about IFLA, its policies and activities: www.ifla.org.

Library and information professionals gather annually at the IFLA World Library
and Information Congress, held in August each year in cities around the world.
IFLA was founded in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1927 at an international conference
of national library directors. IFLA was registered in the Netherlands in 1971.
The National Library of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek) in The Hague,
generously provides the facilities for our headquarters. Regional offices are located
in Argentina, South Africa and Singapore.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-201
Foreword
Dramatic changes over the past several decades in terms of broad social change
have occurred as the world has become more globalized in its economic, political,
social, and cultural fabric. Concurrently, technology has offered new opportunities
and challenges that facilitate access to information as well as create new problems.
A new problem which has emerged is information disorder that can be charac-
terized as misinformation that is inaccurate and incomplete, and disinformation
that is intended to deceive. The increasing information disorder has been further
complicated by a global pandemic, increasing political tensions, and global eco-
nomic challenges, creating challenges for sustainability. Information professionals
are also coping with shifts in the field with both a broadening of services provided
to users as we have moved toward a greater community focus, as well as a fragmen-
tation of services, particularly in the specializations needed to meet the changing
needs of our users.
Information Services for a Sustainable Society in an Era of Information Disorder
offers an array of chapters focusing on the important challenges facing informa-
tion professionals today. The chapters in this book offer state-of-the-art innova-
tive examples that present insights into the critical role information professionals
play in ensuring an informed society and the importance of information as a key
resource to address modern social challenges. Information Services for a Sustain-
able Society in an Era of Information Disorder was born from papers presented at
the Second University of South Africa Biennial International Conference on Library
and Information Science Research in Africa (UNILISA), which was held online from
March 8–10, 2021. The theme of the 2021 conference was the same as the title of
this volume. Sponsored by the University of South Africa, the biannual conference
has three primary aims:
1. Establish a forum which encourages scholars from different countries to reflect
on original and innovative ways of enhancing the role of Information Science,
and Libraries and Information Services LIS), in transforming society and pro-
moting the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs)
2. Create opportunities to establish a research network of academics and infor-
mation professionals who want to build a network of support for the creation,
storage, and dissemination of information, and
3. Foster the sharing of experiences aimed at directing future research in LIS
worldwide.

The conference has a fourth aim which is “to create an opportunity for capacity
building, while granting senior LIS academics a supportive setting in which to offer
feedback to, and mentor, doctoral students.”
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-001
2 Foreword

The UNILISA conference was attended by over one hundred academics and
information professionals from across the African continent, Europe, Asia, and
North America, with a total of thirteen countries represented. This book includes
twenty-one chapters that reflect the theme of the conference and cover a wide
range of topics. Selected topics include the use of blockchain technology in federal
libraries, academic libraries in the fourth industrial revolution, skills needed in
the fourth industrial revolution, archives, research data management, the role of
libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges of open access in institutional
repositories, and data sharing and information exchange practices, among others.
The chapters address the many challenges of information disorder and bring light
to the wealth of experience from authors around the world.
On a more personal note, it was my pleasure to present a keynote for the
UNILISA 2021 conference when asked by Conference Organizer, Professor Made-
leine Fombad of the University of South Africa. It was a much-needed opportunity
to reconnect with colleagues around the world that would not otherwise have been
possible because of the pandemic. After being in the information profession for
over thirty years, I was impressed by the range of important topics presented at
the conference. As the Goodyear Endowed Professor in Knowledge Management at
Kent University, I was also delighted by the innovative ideas presented on knowl-
edge sharing, knowledge centers, and knowledge strategies.
Professor Fombad is joined by three other experienced academic researchers
who help guide us through this era of information disorder by bringing this volume
to light. I am delighted to recommend it to information professionals around the
world who are looking for ideas to manage the disorders they face on a daily basis.
Given the current state of the world and the need for order out of information dis-
order and chaos, this is an invaluable resource.

Kendra Albright, Ph.D.

Goodyear Endowed Professor in Knowledge Management
Kent State University
Kent, Ohio, US
Preface Preface

Information is a key resource in addressing contemporary societal challenges. The

digital age has accelerated the dissemination of information. The fourth indus-
trial revolution has brought ubiquitous, relentless, and continuous developments
in information technology, connectivity, and automation with robotics, artificial
intelligence, smart devices and homes, machine learning, augmented and virtual
reality, mobility, blockchain, and cloud computing. The result is radical disruption
of the human experience and collective human endeavour with an increase in
ambiguity, volatility, instability, disruptive innovation, uncertainty and exposure
of humankind to information disorder. Information disorder includes misinforma-
tion, disinformation, and malinformation which distort and disfigure the informa-
tion ecology. Information disorder presents a fundamental global threat, sowing
confusion, undermining global cohesion and stability, and frustrating a sustainable
society. In addition to the challenges associated with information technological
change are major concerns about climate change, a new world order with changes
in power exerted by major countries in the world like China, Russia and the United
States, and the role of women, indigenous communities and minority groups.
The resulting instability and disarray have become more obvious during the-
COVID-19 pandemic. Information professionals have the capacity to bring order
to disorder; to promote ethics and integrity in their information services; and to
make their voices heard on many digital platforms. This book presents inspiring
examples from a global perspective outlining the critical role information profes-
sionals and information enterprises can play in ensuring an informed society. The
book’s primary focus is on developments in the African continent, where issues and
concerns are similar to those in the rest of the world with recovery from COVID-
19 a major theme, along with security and sustainable efforts to lessen the effect
of climate change, but where issues like migration and employment are more sig-
nificant. The global context is the background to the book and thought-provoking,
engaging and insightful approaches are taken to the presentation of content. Exam-
ples from public libraries and academic libraries as they reshape library services
are presented; trends and developments in archives and records management
are provided; research developments in scholarly communication and knowledge
management and data sharing are highlighted; successful collaborative initia-
tives are emphasised; reports on research projects are provided; and innovative
approaches to meeting user needs are explained. Emerging topics like blockchain
are addressed. The importance of relevant and up-to-date programmes of library
education and training is highlighted. Transformation strategies are identified.
This book provides an opportunity for reflections on original and innovative
ways through which the libraries and information services may transform society
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-002
4 Preface

promoting the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDG’s). Information

disorder is spreading significantly faster, deeper, and more broadly than COVID-19
and its variants. and library and information science professionals are strategically
positioned as key agents to address contemporary societal challenges arising from
the daunting phenomenon commonly referred to as information disorder and its
corollary the infodemic. Libraries are able to contribute to the achievement of the
United Nations SDGs. Libraries safeguard culture and heritage, provide access to
information and support educational opportunity, universal literacy and equity.
Libraries protect the past to provide for the future. Libraries provide equitable
access to information, particularly in vital areas like health, agricultural produc-
tion, and scientific research. Libraries empower their users through skills and
knowledge development to discover, access and use information effectively for
individual and societal benefit. Everyone must become digitally literate. Libraries
become portals to knowledge; they provide physical places for information discov-
ery and use and digital doorways to worlds of knowledge; they provide pathways
to other sources of information. Libraries cannot work alone. Libraries within the
African continent learn from each other and have lessons to transmit to the rest
of the world. Libraries collaborate with each other to serve humankind. Libraries
have unique strengths and can work with other organisations to deliver successful
outcomes.
The title of this book Information Services for a Sustainable Society: Current
Developments in an Era of Information Disorder emerged from the theme of the
second University of South Africa Biennial International Conference on Library
and Information Science Research in Africa (UNILISA) organised by the Depart-
ment of information Science at the University of South Africa and held in March
2021. The conference was organised and hosted by the Department of Information
Science at the University of South Africa (UNISA), in Pretoria, South Africa. UNILISA
strives to establish a forum which encourages scholars from different countries
to reflect on original and innovative ways of enhancing the role of libraries and
information services in transforming society and promoting the achievement of
sustainable development. This book encapsulates intellectual selections from top-
notch and intriguing presentations from the proceedings of the two days online
conference where information scientists converged to share knowledge and strate-
gise on the future trajectory for enhanced provision of library services to facilitate
the realisation of a sustainable knowledge society.
The book suggests directions to strengthen the global voice of libraries, to
inspire and enhance professional practice as well as encourage international coop-
eration and collaboration among library and information science educators and
practitioners. The book explores critical issues related to how libraries, archives
and related institutions are responding to the seismic shifts in the information
 Preface 5

landscape amidst a myriad of challenges and opportunities and a tapestry of arti-

cles is brought together to explore the status, experiences and future prospects of
effective and dynamic library and information science practices.
Chapter One addresses blockchain technology and its potential applications in
library services. Chapter Two investigates the strategies that can be deployed to
upgrade and reshape the structure and operational procedures of academic librar-
ies with particular reference to South Africa. Chapter Three highlights new services
which emerged in Ghanaian academic libraries in response to COVID-19 and dis-
cusses the challenges faced. Chapter Four presents the key lessons learnt in the Uni-
versity of Zimbabwe’s response to addressing science disinformation at the peak
of information disorder during COVD-19 and suggests ways forward in the new
normal. The chapter explores the implications of science disinformation to library
theory and practice post the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect of the pandemic
to staff skills development and service delivery in the new normal. Chapter Five
argues that the paradigm for records and archives management must move away
from a custodial, after-the-fact approach toward a more participatory and inclusive
model with an emphasis on keeping the evidence with its authenticity intact, and
engage the public more actively in recordkeeping.
Chapter Six examines whether Botswana National Archives and Records
Service had a documented archives preservation policy to guide information man-
agement and minimise deterioration or damage of archival documents. Chapter
Seven focuses on COVID-19 and its impacts on national archival institutions with
some institutions taking a break from public contact to undertake housekeeping
and stocktaking, and other institutions developing new directions, particularly in
relation to use of information technology. Chapter Eight examines the impact of the
library on the academic grade of students undertaking block release programmes.
Chapter Nine explores how library and information science researchers engage in
data sharing practices and data reuse. Chapter Ten addresses the ethical dimen-
sions of research information management together with empirical evidence on
how information management systems manifest ethical aspects of research proj-
ects. Usual ethical standards of scientific research apply.
Chapter Eleven examines information users and the provision of information
services to users in an era of information disorder. Academic libraries require the
use of best practice and principles to provide timely and appropriate information
resources to meet the information needs of library clientele and properly guide
them on how to use the available resources. Chapter Twelve focuses on libraries
in India and explains how libraries can capitalise on the use of new information
technologies and seize opportunities to provide innovative library services to the
benefit of all stakeholders. Chapter Thirteen addresses the extent of use of open
access institutional repositories in Ghana and makes the case for well-developed
6 Preface

policies on the design and use of repositories to stimulate their development.

Chapter Fourteen sees the need for electronic library databases to enhance infor-
mation access and addresses the current state of database information creation.
Chapter Fifteen focuses on the parlous state of public library infrastructure for
information service provision during COVID-19 in Limpopo Province and suggests
ways to implement improvements.
Chapter Sixteen addresses the challenges of knowledge sharing among nurses
in developing countries particularly in relation to dealing effectively with pan-
demics. Chapter Seventeen reports on a study of one journal in knowledge man-
agement to determine its inclusion of content on the fourth industrial revolution.
Chapter Eighteen describes an altmetrics study of researchers which examined the
use of ResearchGate and Mendeley and the role of these platforms in enhancing
researcher visibility and social impact. Chapter Nineteen explores knowledge man-
agement strategies adopted by therapy team members in psychiatric hospitals in
Southwest Nigeria and how they gained and shared knowledge during pandemics.
Chapter Twenty suggests a whole new era for libraries as they become knowledge
centres and focuses on transformation strategies which facilitate multiple forms of
connections and result in knowledge-laden conversations. The final chapter, twen-
ty-one, faces the future by examining the skills and knowledge required by librari-
ans and their educational experiences as they deal with the challenges of the fourth
industrial revolution.
Many have contributed to the book. We thank the authors for all their work,
the International Federation for Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and
Deputy Secretary-General, Helen Mandl, along with the IFLA Professional Council
for sponsoring and supporting the publication, De Gruyter Saur and Claudia Heyer
for publishing it professionally, and Janine Schmidt, the Series Editor for her dili-
gence and persistence.
Goal 16 of the SDGs promotes peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable
development, providing access to justice for all and building effective, accountable
and inclusive institutions at all levels. Library and information professionals in
supporting the achievement of this and other SDGs are, more than ever before,
challenged to intensify their efforts to enhance access to information services that
will ensure the communication of accurate information and facilitate the realisa-
tion of a sustainable society. We commend the book to its readers.

Madeleine C. Fombad, Collence Takaingenhamo Chisita, Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha

and Mabel K. Minishi-Majanja
Editors
Rebecca Chidimma Ojobor
1 B
 lockchain Technology for Library
Services: Challenges and Opportunities for
Libraries from a Nigerian Perspective
Abstract: This chapter examines blockchain technology and the challenges and
opportunities for its use in libraries. It reports on a study undertaken in federal uni-
versity libraries in Southeastern Nigeria. The study sought to establish the level of
awareness of blockchain technology in libraries, ascertain its relevance in library
services and operations, and identify the challenges associated with its usage in
libraries. A qualitative research design was adopted targeting academic librarians
at the five federal university libraries in Southeastern Nigeria .The research find-
ings revealed various potential uses of blockchain in the library including but not
limited to building an enhanced metadata system, hosting peer-to-peer sharing, and
serving as a Digital Rights Management (DRM) tool. The findings identified many
challenges to implementation including lack of funding, irregular power supply,
poor broadband connectivity, and a shortage of competent personnel. Strategies
are proffered to ameliorate the challenges and to encourage libraries to adopt and
use a remarkable new technology, blockchain.

Keywords: Academic libraries – Nigeria; Blockchains (Databases); Cryptocurren-

cies; Innovation

Introduction
According to Marcal, Rodrigues, and Matos (2019), blockchain is generally known
as a distributed ledger technology and is relatively new in the field of information
technologies.

Blockchain technology links blocks of data sequentially in a distributed ledger. Each block
holds a wide variety of content, including its own unique identifier, or “hash,” that identifies
and links it to all blocks preceding and following it. In a traditional ledger, one might record
amounts, parties involved, time of the transaction, and other pertinent information. The dis-
tributed ledger takes this information, places it online, and distributes identical copies of the
ledger to all the computers in the system, thereby ensuring that validated copies exist in mul-
tiple places. Once the blocks are created, they ensure that a time-stamped, immutable record
of the content exists. (Meth 2020).

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-003
8 Rebecca Chidimma Ojobor

Although the potential use of blockchain technology is commonly promoted in the

cryptocurrency market, there are many other uses of the technology that could
revolutionise both the public and private sectors. Malyarov (2019) believes that
blockchain has the potential to help libraries and academics mitigate Internet-in-
duced risks, although the technology is still in the experimental phase and needs
some smart pioneers to shake it out and evolve it into something more usable by
individual libraries and schools.
This chapter examines the use of blockchain technology for library services
and identifies both the challenges and opportunities. It reports on a study under-
taken in federal university libraries in Southeastern Nigeria. The intention is to
create awareness of the potential use of blockchain in libraries around the globe.
Libraries in Southeastern Nigeria like their counterparts elsewhere in the globe
need to embrace and adopt emerging technologies to ensure effective and efficient
services and operations that meet with the best practices both in collection and
records management and service delivery. An overview of cryptocurrencies and
blockchain is provided against the background of technological developments in
libraries; the details of the research study are described, and suggestions for the
future are made.

The Southeastern Nigeria Background and

Context
Southeastern Nigeria emerged from the former East Central State of Nigeria. It was
created during the civil war (1967–1970) and in the 1990s it became one of the
six geopolitical zones in Nigeria. It comprises five states namely: Abia, Anambra,
Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo. The region is surrounded by large rivers and divided by
the lower Niger River into two sections: east and west. Its population of over twenty
million is characterised by the diverse Igbo culture and the speakers of equally
diverse Igbo languages.
The region has 85 local government areas, with the majority of the population
noted for their entrepreneurial abilities. Even though education in the area pays
little or no attention to the global technology revolution that is disrupting various
industries and creating exponential value, the region’s education can be strategi-
cally redesigned to produce globally competitive young people who will transform
the region and make it a 21st century global African success story (Odumody 2018).
 1 Blockchain Technology for Library Services 9

The Technology Background

Today’s dynamic and constantly evolving environment is caused by human ideolog-
ical changes and an emergence of technologies to meet new expectations. Techno-
logical advancement has revolutionised all walks of life and afforded opportunities
for libraries to create new roles and new ways of rendering services to users. Tait,
Martzoukou, and Reid (2016) describe the disruption and transformation wrought
in libraries by the advances in technology and note online reading lists as but one
example of a new service widely adopted by academic libraries. An online reading
list allows users to quickly access literature suggested by lecturers or instructors.
Ebooks, papers, scanned chapters, databases, and online movies are examples of
possible inclusions. The online reading lists are mounted on an institution’s learn-
ing management system and/or linked to the library system and users may check
locations and availability of content. Software made available by information util-
ities has enabled many innovative applications in libraries including, online lists
as an effective and efficient means for creating, editing, visualising, personalising,
updating, and integrating reading lists into online learning and teaching mate-
rials, thereby helping users to connect directly and seamlessly with information
resources required for learning.
The history of computing is complex with significant contributions by people
like Charles Babbage and Alan Turing and hardware developments with ENIAC,
mainframes, analogue, digital, super, personal, desktop, laptop and mobile devices.
Innovative software, telecommunications developments and the growth of the
Internet transformed and modified the services traditionally offered by libraries.
The first iteration of the world wide web in the late 1990s was widely referred
to as web 1.0. It was an era in which web pages were built using Common Gateway
Interface (CGI). The pages were static and could only be accessed from the server’s
file systems. Although the web content displayed to users was read only, it was a
great improvement in library services as information sources could be accessed in
remote areas using information technology. More significantly, the barriers of the
library being confined in a building or place were broken by the information and
communications technology (ICT) available. The ideology of the library as a pool of
information resources was redefined as an interactive, socialising, learning, knowl-
edge creation and service-oriented information provision centre.
Between 2000–2010, the participative social web emerged and modified the
way web pages were designed and used. Web 2.0 encouraged user-generated
content, usable and modifiable by and for the end-users. The dynamic nature of
web content encourages free sorting of information, permits users to classify, edit
and retrieve information resources that best satisfy their information needs (Tait,
Martzoukou, and Reid 2016, 4). Users were not just users of the web but also par-
10 Rebecca Chidimma Ojobor

ticipants using tools like podcasting, blogging, tagging, curating with RSS, social
media, social bookmarking, and networking to impact and improve knowledge.
Users began to enjoy the services of the library without being physically present at
the library. The tools facilitated interconnection among libraries and collaboration,
improving library services and extending global best practices.
Subsequent technological changes saw the advent of the semantic web, Web
3.0, conceptualized as a third-generation technology upgrade through the 2010s to
the 2020s (Balaji et al. 2018). Semantic web technologies are designed to improve
and overcome various challenges characterising previous web technologies and
involve wireless networks, the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain. The newer
technologies facilitate the creation, sharing and connection of content through
search and analysis at a greater capacity. In web 3.0, computers use artificial intel-
ligence and machine learning to distinguish information in the way humans do
to provide faster and more relevant results. Computer technology becomes more
intelligent to fulfil the requirements of users.

Cryptocurrencies and the Library

As a growing organism, the library adapts to the most innovative changes to
improve its practices to meet the ever-increasing demands of information seekers.
The increasing numbers of information resources in digital formats and wide
broadband Internet access in the community have added pressures to library
services and influenced library collections which are mostly available in digital
formats or through online access. The developments pose challenges to the library
administration as the financial obligations of acquiring online resources and sub-
scribing databases are usually made in unfamiliar settings where both parties lack
credibility and knowledge.
The problems accord with Bohannon’s view (2016) that as life increasingly
moves online, one of the greatest challenges Internet users face is conducting finan-
cial transactions in a setting where they do not know or trust the other party. To
buttress this, Coghill (2018) notes that the implications for the transfer of funds
from libraries to vendors for new purchases and the continuing maintenance of
contracts for existing subscriptions to electronic resources are huge. Some of the
distrust associated with online transactions could be eliminated through the use
of digital or cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Stellar (Hoy 2017). Cryp-
tocurrency is an online digital payment system based on peer-to-peer networking
technology. It constitutes a digital token that is exchangeable only in the digital
environment using cryptographic hashing and digital signature for verification of
 1 Blockchain Technology for Library Services 11

the transactions to avoid double-spending of the same token (Wang and Vergne
2017).
The principles underlying bitcoin were first explained in 2008 by Satoshi Naka-
moto (Nakamoto 2008). Nakamoto’s identity is still in doubt with many suggestions
put forward. Notwithstanding its imprecise origins, bitcoin has seen rapid develop-
ment and adoption as an online payment system, particularly for transactions that
require anonymity, are vulnerable to fraud, or are legally questionable. Cryptocur-
rencies are used for online transactions just as monetary currencies like the naira,
cedi, dollar, and pound are used for physical cash transactions. All transactions
made with cryptocurrencies are tracked in a blockchain ledger system.

Blockchain Technology
Blockchain is defined as a database containing all the transactions ever executed
in a peer-to-peer network (Atzori 2017). It is a means of storing information in a
distributed, tamper-resistant setting. In its simplest form, it is a time-stamped series
of immutable records of data that is managed by a cluster of computers not owned
by any single entity (Hoy 2017). Each block of data is secured and bound to another
using cryptographic principles. The blockchain network has no central authority. It
bears a resemblance to a democratised system. Information held on a blockchain
exists as a shared and continually reconciled database. The blockchain database is
not stored in any single location but rather in millions of computers indicating that
the records it keeps are transparent, easily verifiable, and accessible to anyone on
the Internet. This feature makes the information stored in the blockchain difficult
for hackers to corrupt as no centralised version of the information exists.
According to Mougayar (2016), blockchain has three main properties which
have helped it gain widespread acclaim:
–– Decentralisation
–– Transparency, and
–– Immutability.

Decentralisation is one of the features that make blockchain desirable for institu-
tions and organisations. Most developing nations are accustomed to centralised
services with a single entity storing all data, and one must interact solely with the
entity to obtain any information required. An example of a centralised system is
the banks. One can access money stored in the bank by going through the bank
using it physically or online, or doing transactions through bank-related apps. Mou-
gayar advocates that the traditional client-server model is an example of a cen-
12 Rebecca Chidimma Ojobor

tralised service system. A google search sends a query to the server which returns
the relevant information. Though centralised systems have been in use for many
years, they have several vulnerabilities. First, all the data is stored in one spot and
is an easy target for potential hackers. Second, a software upgrade of a centralised
system halts the entire system. Finally, if the centralised entity shuts down for
some reason, becomes corrupted or is the subject of a malicious attack, nobody
can access the information held. But in a decentralised system, the information is
not stored by one single entity. Everyone in the network owns the information, and
interaction does not go through a third party.
Transparency is the feature that makes the data in blockchain visible to every-
one and easily tracked by anyone. There is no secrecy in the data stored in block-
chain except for personal identity details retaining user privacy which can be
protected by adding anonymity protections in the blockchain using the CoinJoin
method. CoinJoin is an attractive means of anonymising blockchain transactions
which require no modification to the bitcoin protocol (Bünz et al. 2018). Blockchain
possesses immutability as one of its basic features because of its cryptographic
hash function. The feature safeguards all documents stored in the blockchain and
makes it difficult to tamper with the document. Blockchain is valuable to financial
institutions and other organisations that deal with financial issues because it can
prevent financial fraud.
Blockchain is the technology that establishes the recognition and usability of
bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Atzori (2017) states that blockchain is the core
infrastructure underlying bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies. After some years,
it has been realised that blockchain has other potential uses far beyond the digital
currency market (Casino, Dasaklis and Patsakis 2019).

Blockchain and Libraries

By 2016, it was clear from the expanding literature that blockchain technology
could transform both public and private sectors. However, Brown (2018) explains
that its use in libraries was not on the radar of many information professionals.
Hirsh and Alman began investigating the use of blockchain in libraries following
hearing about its use for credentials at the South By Southwest® Conference (SXSW)
in 2016 (ALA Library of the Future 2019). The Institute of Museum and Library Ser-
vices (IMLS) awarded Hirsh and Alman from the San Jose State University School of
Information a grant of $100,000 to investigate possible applications of blockchain in
libraries. The outcome of the investigation revealed many opportunities for its use.
 1 Blockchain Technology for Library Services 13

Blockchain technology has the potential for libraries to accomplish much more
than housing electronic credentials. The technology enables a broader impact
within the community and around the globe. Some suggestions being explored for
blockchain applications in libraries include: building an enhanced metadata centre,
serving as a Digital Rights Management (DRM) tool, supporting community-based
collections, and facilitating partnerships across organisations. John Garland refers
to the work of Sue Alman, noting “blockchain technology could be used to build an
enhanced metadata system for libraries, to keep track of digital-first sale rights and
ownership, to connect networks of libraries and universities, or even to support
community-based borrowing and skill sharing programs” (Garland 2018).
Digital resources are inherently reproducible, which creates issues for librar-
ies and publishers. Publishers have imposed draconian, often unworkable DRM
tools on libraries and consumers to prevent copying of content. Because block-
chain creates a unique, verifiable record that can be accessed by anyone, it could
be tied to digital materials and used as a method to show the “provable scarcity” of
the resource and allow digital materials to be uniquely identified, controlled, and
transferred (Griffey 2016).
Library facilitation of peer-to-peer sharing beyond books through blockchain
technology could help members of the community authenticate the availability of
different tools or services for a more efficient sharing economy. A protocol for sup-
porting community-based collections and borrowing could extend the traditional
library collection beyond its walls into the community. Libraries could deploy a
blockchain-based system layered with smart contract code to facilitate the indexing
and sharing of community items including tools and expertise across a network.
The blockchain would govern who has borrowed items, and who originally lent
them both internally and internationally.
Blockchain technology has potential for enabling libraries to partner with
museums, universities, and government agencies to share records, authority
control, and user-generated content through a blockchain framework. Kushwaha
and Singh (2020) affirm that it is potentially possible that companies, schools, librar-
ies, or universities could share information on their staff, patrons, or students with
other similar organisations using blockchain. When setting up meetings, working
on an important project, or preparing reports, blockchain could provide people
with the necessary tools for networking and file sharing, although it has been
said that blockchain makes it harder to change shared documents while helping
to make them more secure. Chakravorty and Rong (2017) identified the potential
for blockchain to disrupt social networking and observed that a user-centric block-
chain application could enable end-users to control, trace, and claim ownership of
every piece of content they share.
14 Rebecca Chidimma Ojobor

International Interlibrary Loan (ILL) services connect libraries across the

globe to facilitate the exchange of information resources of all kinds among the
connected libraries and improve library services towards global best practices.
ILL could perhaps be enhanced using blockchain. The International Federation of
Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) introduced a system with vouchers
replacing money to improve ILL services. The system could use blockchain technol-
ogy. Other potential uses of blockchain in academic libraries have been suggested,
including its usage in the peer review process and its ability to set up the chain
of custody for digital institutional repositories (Smith 2019). Other writers have
examined the use of blockchain as a storage facility for educational records (Tur-
kanović et al. 2018) and as a “public record keeping system, linking record keeping
to the power of authority, veneration (temples), and control (prisons)” (Lemieux
2019). In addition, blockchain could be used in academic publishing to determine
the originality, consistency, and validity of a document or data over its lifecycle
because the technology provides standards for accuracy, transparency, and reliabil-
ity (Novotny et al. 2018). The adoption and use of blockchain in the library would
assist in ensuring accurate records management.

The Research Study

Objectives

The study reported on in this chapter investigated the challenges and opportunities
for the application of blockchain technology in library services: with specific refer-
ence to federal university libraries in Southeastern Nigeria and it sought to:
–– Determine the levels of librarians’ awareness of the potential applications of
blockchain technology in library services
–– Ascertain the relevance of blockchain in library services and operations, and
–– Identify the challenges associated with the use of blockchain in federal univer-
sity libraries in Southeastern Nigeria.

Participants

The target population for the study was a group of 133 academic librarians in the
five federal university libraries in Southeastern Nigeria. The libraries were Nnamdi
Azikiwe Library, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN); Festus AghagboNwako
Library, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka (NAU); the University Library, Alex
 1 Blockchain Technology for Library Services 15

Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-AlikeIkwo (AE-FUNAI) ; the University Library,

Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) and the University Library Michael
Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU).

Research Methodology

The study adopted a qualitative research approach and a data collection strat-
egy that included interviews and focus group discussions. In each of the libraries
studied, interviews were held with three respondents: the University Librarian
(UL) and two Deputy University Librarians (DULs), while a focus group discussion
was used to collect data from the other five respondents in each university. The
qualitative method was chosen because the concept of blockchain is new, and the
researcher wanted to interact with the respondents one on one to determine the
level of awareness of the emerging technology. Data obtained from the respondents
was analysed using content analysis.

The Findings

The following questions guided the interviews and focus group discussions:
–– What is blockchain technology?
–– How do you know about blockchain technology?

The majority of the respondents who participated in the focus group discussions
said they had never heard of blockchain technology, and only a minority said they
had heard of it as the technology behind cryptocurrencies. Those who agreed that
they knew about the technology claimed they had learned about it from acquain-
tances who used bitcoins to conduct business. However, the interviews revealed
that most respondents were aware of the concept, describing it as a distributed
ledger system with the ability to protect written documents. The technology was
first discovered through mention at a conference attended by the librarians,
according to the responses. However various comments from participants showed
that blockchain technology is a new area and that librarians in the study were
mostly unaware of it.
The researcher sought the respondents’ views on the relevance of blockchain
in library services and operations. The interviews and focus group discussion
included the questions:
–– Where could blockchain be implemented?
–– What role might blockchain play in libraries?
16 Rebecca Chidimma Ojobor

The study found that most of the respondents in the focus group discussions agreed
that blockchain might be used in a commercial endeavour to solve financial prob-
lems. “It will help to control the risk involved in making payment for an online
transaction” one respondent said. The interviews discovered that survey respon-
dents thought that in addition to being used in businesses for financial goals,
blockchain technology might also be used in libraries. As stated by the respon-
dents during the survey, libraries can use blockchain to protect author copyright
and employee employment information. “The high rate of fabricating employment
records and other sensitive documents in most organisations may be controlled by
incorporating blockchain in the system” one interviewee stated.
According to the respondents, blockchain technology uptake and implementa-
tion in Nigerian libraries remain unknown. Because of the country’s current diffi-
culties, the adoption and application of blockchain technology in Nigerian librar-
ies are dubious, according to the respondents. Libraries in Nigeria are generally
underfunded. The 10% of the recurring parent institutional budgetary allocation
provided to the library as mandated by Nigerian policy, is insufficient to maintain
library operations and support creative library innovations. Other barriers to the
adoption and use of blockchain technology in libraries in Southeastern Nigeria,
according to the respondents, include lack of a standby generator to combat an
erratic power supply, poor broadband connectivity, a lack of adequate skilled per-
sonnel, and a lack of sponsorship for updating knowledge.

Analysing and Interpreting the Findings

The study’s findings suggested that blockchain technology is relatively new to

librarians in Southeastern Nigeria and they are unfamiliar with it (Ojobor, Ojobor,
and Oluranti 2022). This finding accords with the literature more generally. For
example, Marcal, Rodrigues and Matos (2019), noted that blockchain is a relatively
new technology in the realm of information technology. Some respondents had
good understandings of the potential application of blockchain, and others knew
very little. The wide range of responses among the respondents is not surprising.
Unfortunately, most libraries in the country, particularly those under study,
face numerous challenges in any implementation because of the unstable nature
of the Nigerian economy and the poor budgetary allocation for libraries, which
adversely affects library activities and, as a result, deter innovation. Inadequate
funding, lack of a backup generator, poor broadband access, underqualified staff,
and little emphasis on the importance of updating knowledge are some of the
difficulties noted in the study. Lack of resources and the initiative to blockchain
workflow in most sections of the library are also challenges.
 1 Blockchain Technology for Library Services 17

Reflections on the Study’s Outcomes

Some general reflections on the potential use of blockchain in Nigerian libraries

are provided along with comments on staff training, funding and technical issues,
The findings of the study revealed that the potential use of blockchain technology to
solve the problems that plague library services cannot be overstated. The research
indicated that blockchain can alleviate the trust difficulties connected with making
online payments, protect author copyright, and ensure correct records manage-
ment. The findings were similar to those of Kushwaha and Singh (2020), who
found that using blockchain for paying vendors, subscribing to journals and man-
uscripts from publishers, and transferring sensitive records and information to
other parties can all help library workers. The findings also supported the idea that
blockchain technology might be used to create a fully distributed metadata system
for libraries and other associated organisations (Garland 2018). Furthermore, the
findings agreed with Coghill’s view (2018) that blockchain technology is best suited
for exchanging sensitive data that requires encryption. Because blockchain docu-
ments are immutable, transparent, and decentralised, the technology could help
to combat the corruption in Nigerian libraries. By keeping all employment records
in blockchain, falsification of employment documents, which leads to the system’s
ineffectiveness, may be avoided.
The expansion of information resources has posed inescapable space and
storage issues for the libraries included in the study, resulting in inadequate
resource management in the system. However, the study showed that implement-
ing and using blockchain technology is a good way to solve these issues. The poten-
tial of blockchain in securing digital institutional repositories (Smith 2019), assur-
ing accurate records management (Novotny et al. 2018), and serving as a DRM tool
(Griffey 2016) were reflected in the findings. Dalkir (2017) found that conventional
librarianship’s fundamental knowledge and abilities must be supplemented by new
technical expertise to best serve 21st-century library customers, which is consistent
with the findings of this study. Significant issues related to staff training, funding
and technology were highlighted in the study.

Staff Training

A major constraining factor to the adoption and use of blockchain in Nigerian

libraries is the lack of advanced knowledge of ICT among most library personnel.
Mthembu and Ocholla (2019) observed that poor or non-existent training, as well
as difficulties in retaining qualified staff in most libraries, deter the adoption of
modern technologies in libraries. Due to insufficient skills of personnel, most librar-
18 Rebecca Chidimma Ojobor

ies are reluctant and hesitate to embrace innovative technologies as they cannot
utilize them effectively. Because of this, Dalkir (2017) argued that there is a need for
the core knowledge and skills of traditional librarianship to be augmented by new
digital technological knowledge. Most of the libraries in the study have inadequate
staff training. High-ranking employees, such as ULs and DULs, are routinely given
grants to attend training programmes to improve their skills and knowledge. Some-
times employees are told to pay personally for attendance at conferences and
workshops, and to seek later reimbursement. Only the highest-ranking employ-
ees can afford to do so. As a result, junior personnel have extremely limited
opportunities for upgrading their skills and knowledge. According to Mthembu
and Ocholla (2019), the difficulty in retaining workers in most libraries prevents
exposure to and implementation of current technologies for library manage-
ment. There are issues related to leadership training and management exper-
tise. Because blockchain technology strongly encourages values such as visibility
and transparency, it is not welcomed by some library administrators. Leible et
al. (2019) observe that not every administrator supports values of openness as it
might make poor or illegal practices and decisions visible. For this reason, many
library administrators reject the adoption and use of blockchain technology in
their libraries. In Nigerian libraries, inadequate government funding makes it
difficult to run the day-to-day operations, let alone provide staff training (Irenoa,
Emelian, and Eru 2019).

Funding Issues

The study’s findings support Irenoa, Emilian and Eru’s (2019) contention that in
most African libraries’ applications of ICT are hampered by a lack of government
funding. In addition, initiative, lack of privacy and data storage capacity limit block-
chain implementations. Most libraries receive less than the mandated 10% of their
institution’s budgetary allocation due to inadequate internally generated revenue
and high rates of expenditure (Alabi, Ojebode, and Yusuf 2013). Consequently, inad-
equate funding leads to underdevelopment of Nigerian libraries (Daniel 2013).

Technical Issues

To keep up with the demands of today’s high-powered technologies, libraries need

active and effective connectivity. However, where Internet access continues to dete-
riorate daily, as it does in Nigeria, the adoption and use of innovative technologies
are hampered. Another relevant finding, as Zubairu et al. (2020) point out, is the
 1 Blockchain Technology for Library Services 19

country’s poor broadband access. Irregular power supply and poor broadband
connectivity are restricting factors to the effective functioning of technological
appliances in Nigeria. Intermittent power supply could cause malfunctioning of
electronic hardware and shorten the lifespan of technology. Zubairu et al. (2020)
observed that broadband connectivity in the country diminishes daily and is very
irritating and disruptive to library patrons. Another challenge characterising the
adoption and use of blockchain technology in libraries is the data storage capac-
ity limitation in the current blockchain implementations. Taking into account cost
efficiency, performance, and flexibility, the real design challenge is to decide what
data and computation should be placed on-chain and what data should be stored
off-chain. A common practice for storing data in the blockchain ledger is to store
raw data off-chain, and to store metadata, small critical data, and hashes of the raw
data only on-chain (Xu et al. 2018).
According to Mthembu and Ocholla (2019), insufficient or non-existent train-
ing hinders the use of digital technologies, and the difficulty in keeping trained
employees in most libraries prevents the adoption and usage of current technolo-
gies. Finally, the fact that all activity that occurs on a public blockchain is publicly
viewable, has led to the raising of concerns regarding user privacy. Excluding ille-
gitimate activity, many users object to their transaction history being public for fear
of user profiling or targeted advertising.

Recommendations for the Future

Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that Nigerian policy on bud-
getary allocation within universities be reviewed to increase the percentage allot-
ted to libraries. It would also be prudent for libraries to devise alternative means
for fundraising to supplement funds emanating from institutional budgets. Suffi-
cient funding would enable the library to provide an alternative source of power
supply and encourage the adoption of innovative change in the library. There is also
a need to organise in-house in-service training for library personnel to improve
competency. Library staff should be encouraged to attend seminars, conferences,
and workshops organised within or outside their local regions. It is also necessary
to determine the storage capacity of the blockchain system. through qualitative
and quantitative metrics. Specific metrics to measure complexity, communication
capability, resource consumption, and performance could be defined and used for
evaluating and improving the software processes because if blockchain implemen-
tation is not tested properly, it may fail at some point (Porru, Pinns, Marchesi, and
Tonelli, 2017).There is also a need to ensure privacy and anonymity in blockchain
20 Rebecca Chidimma Ojobor

to safeguard users’ privacy particularly in historical records through the addition

of anonymity protections to the blockchain system (Mahmoud, Lescisin, and AlTaei
(2019).

Conclusion
Although blockchain is still in its experimental stage, renowned scholars have dis-
covered its potential uses in libraries, which include but are not limited to improv-
ing metadata systems, protecting authors’ and researchers’ copyright, promot-
ing peer-to-peer sharing, and providing international interlibrary loan services.
However, due to factors such as a lack of funding, a lack of qualified personnel, and
a lack of privacy in the blockchain, blockchain technology has yet to be confirmed
as a technology to be adopted in the libraries surveyed. There is ongoing scepticism
about the potential of blockchain in library practices and services. The present sit-
uation with the COVID-19 pandemic and the crucial need to restructure workflows
to cope with working and learning from home are setbacks to the introduction of
blockchain in libraries. Serious investment on the part of universities and relevant
public agencies is required and since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the
issues requiring attention for every organisation, institution, and individual have
multiplied and intensified, and consumed huge amounts of energy, money and
time. Blockchain has consequently been placed on the back burner (Allen et al.
2020).

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Asania Reneilwe Maphoto and Mpubane Emanuel Matlala
2 R
 eshaping the Future of Academic
Libraries: Insights from South Africa
Abstract: Academic libraries are the backbone of universities, enabling and sup-
porting institutions of higher learning. The libraries fulfil the essential roles of
providing information and related services and making them accessible to aca-
demic communities. The current rapid technological developments of the Fourth
Industrial Revolution (4IR) pose challenges for academic libraries. They must rein-
vent themselves and come up with new ways of rendering services. The COVID-19
pandemic forced many universities to completely shut down or consider using 4IR
tools and present their activities online. This chapter investigates the strategies that
can be deployed to upgrade and reshape academic libraries’ structure and opera-
tional procedures in South Africa and potentially elsewhere. It considers the degree
to which the functioning of academic libraries has altered because of the combined
effects of the 4IR and the COVID-19 crisis. The response of academic libraries to
the radically changed circumstances is examined. A qualitative case study and
content analysis were used to collect data from the library websites of the Uni-
versity of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Limpopo. The findings indicated
that the situation had forced both libraries to operate in entirely new ways. The
libraries have positively responded to the challenge by adapting their operations.
Academic libraries must embrace the use of new technological tools to complement
existing traditional approaches. A syncretic combination of traditional and online
collections and operations will meet the challenges of providing access to academic
library collections and services during COVID-19 and beyond.

Keywords: Fourth Industrial Revolution; Academic libraries – South Africa; COVID-19

(Disease)

Introduction
The advent of new information and communication technology (ICT) has led to rev-
olutionary developments globally and continues to affect socioeconomic milieux in
countries making use of these technologies (Matlala 2020). Technological change is
the driver of significant innovation, as organisations embrace new tools to increase
the efficiency of their businesses (Ayinde and Kirkwood 2020). The rapid growth in
technology impacts all spheres of human activity, with academic libraries being no
exception (Safavi 2008). The world is in the era of what is sometimes referred to as

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-004
 2 Reshaping the Future of Academic Libraries: Insights from South Africa 25

the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Academic libraries must be proactive and
prepare for ensuing technological challenges to meet the needs of contemporary
users. Libraries must introduce emerging information technologies into their ser-
vices (Noh and Chang 2020).
Monyela (2020), citing others, notes that the first case of COVID-19 in South
Africa was reported on March 5th, 2020. The government put the country on national
lockdown to limit the spread of the pandemic. This resulted in the closure of univer-
sities and virtual teaching and learning were introduced. The outbreak of COVID-19
came as a wake-up call to the higher education sector in South Africa. Mhlanga
and Moloi (2020) argue that the ensuing lockdown motivated digital transforma-
tion in the education sector. Pressured by the lockdown, South Africa demonstrated
its ability to transform its education sector, enabling it to become part of the 4IR
(Mhlanga and Moloi 2020). In South Africa, the lockdown affected many institutions
of higher learning, particularly those in rural areas plagued by infrastructural and
adoption challenges while activities were seriously limited by COVID-19 pandemic
concerns (Mhlanga and Moloi 2020). With the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations
were forced to completely suspend their activities, or to consider the use of ICT
tools that would enable them to extend their enterprises.
This chapter outlines the factors involved in the 4IR and its impact; provides
an overview of academic libraries; investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pan-
demic on academic institutions and their libraries; outlines responses to the 4IR
and COVID-19; and identifies potential strategies to research, upgrade and reshape
the structure and operational procedures of academic libraries in South Africa, and
potentially elsewhere in the world. The chapter also describes a study which exam-
ined:
–– The extent of change in the roles of academic libraries, specifically at the Uni-
versities of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and Limpopo (UL) because of the 4IR and
the COVID-19 pandemic
–– What has necessitated the changing roles of academic libraries and how the
institutions have responded to the changes, and
–– The challenges posed, and the prospects provoked, by the 4IR and COVID-19
requirements in academic libraries.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is a development associated with the prolifera-
tion of information technology (IT) in all industries, primary, secondary, and ter-
tiary (Lee et al. 2018). What is called the 4IR, entails the development and appli-
26 Asania Reneilwe Maphoto and Mpubane Emanuel Matlala

cation of techno-human smart systems, capable of improving the efficiency and

productivity of production systems as well as effecting a general improvement in
the quality of life of individuals and communities (Schiuma 2017). In the words
of Ahmat and Hanipah (2018), the 4IR is derived from technological innovation.
Revolutionary innovations and disruptive technologies and trends including robot-
ics, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI) and the
Internet of Things (IoT) are modifying daily activities in workplaces (Holland 2020).
Among the various technologies that power the concept of a 4IR, some of which
have already been noted, are AI and robotics, ubiquitous linked sensors, VR and AR,
additive manufacturing (3D printing), blockchain and distributed ledger technol-
ogy, advanced materials and nanomaterial, energy capture, storage, and transmis-
sion, and new computing technologies, biotechnologies, geoengineering technolo-
gies, terotechnology, and space technologies (Schwab 2016, 2017).
The World Economic Forum (2016) notes that the 4IR refers to industrial devel-
opment in which intelligent information technology including AI, VR, AR, IoT, big
data, and cloud computing, is hyper-connected to a range of new technologies
causing super-intelligent, innovative change in different areas of society. Schwab
(2016; 2017) defines the 4IR as a technological revolution that is blurring the lines
between physical, digital, and biological spheres. It comes with innovations that
are set to disrupt the traditional ways of society, business, and government. The
concept of 4IR creates new opportunities and developing institutions may leapfrog
between stages of advancement and align with fully developed markets by embrac-
ing the use of emerging technologies such as AI, big data analytics, blockchain tech-
nology, ubiquitous and mobile Internet, and cheaper, smaller, and stronger sensors
(Schwab 2016, 2017).
The development of the 4IR has brought with it significant social and economic
opportunities but also challenges, requiring appropriate responses from govern-
ments (Manda and Backhouse 2017). The overall industrial advance is character-
ised by a fusion of technologies that is “blurring the lines between the physical,
digital, and biological spheres” (Schwab 2016). Similarly, Lee et al. (2017) note, that
technology today involves the development, deployment and exploitation of holis-
tic smart systems that integrate technology, humanity and biology, so that they can
deal with old and new socio-economic and environmental challenges, taking into
account the specific characteristics of the context at hand.
Schwab (2016) notes that the fourth revolution is built on the foundation
created by previous so-called industrial revolutions. The advancement of the steam
engine in the eighteenth century led to the first industrial revolution during which
production became mechanized for the first time and drove social change with
many people becoming urbanized. The intensified use of electricity resulted in
mass production and in what may be seen as the second industrial revolution. The
 2 Reshaping the Future of Academic Libraries: Insights from South Africa 27

third industrial revolution in the 1950s became known as the digital revolution and
saw the development of electronics, computers and digital technology tools to auto-
mate production. The inception of the 4IR followed in the footsteps of the digital
revolution but took a different direction (Schwab 2016). In comparison to the more
gradual advancement of previous so-called industrial revolutions, the fourth rev-
olution is growing exponentially in a manner that society has not previously seen.
With its characteristics of “velocity, scope, and systems impact”, it transforms the
economic sector, industries as well as processes of production and governance
(Schwab 2017). The perception of being in the midst of a 4IR is premised on the
observation of accelerating technological change, converging technologies, and the
velocity, scope and impact of these developments.
Xing and Marwala (2017) remark that the 4IR is powered by AI and has been
defined as the current developing environment, in which disruptive technologies
and trends such as the IoT, robotics, VR, and AI, are changing the ways people live
and work. It thus affects workplaces, transforming traditional task-based activities
into human-centred occupations, because of the convergence of man and machine.
Developments will reduce the subject distance between the humanities and social
sciences, as well as including science and technology (Xing and Marwala 2017).
Davis (2016) states that the 4IR pilots the fusion of technologies in the physical,
digital, and biological world. Others have different perspectives.

The 4th Industrial revolution is not mere characteristics of technologies but the concatena-
tion of technologies to ease the tasks done by humans; with potential increases in scale and
speed… The 4th IR enhances … technologies embedded with the power of thinking, sensing,
moving, learning, coding, decoding and acting independently without mostly the assistance of
a human (Ayinde and Kirkwood 2020).

The main advantages of the 4IR are the reduction of costs between producers and
markets, the possibilities of AI, integration of systems in different spheres, robot-
ics and Internet connectivity (Xu, David, and Kim 2018). In the resulting advanced
forms of production human bodies and the living organism are interconnected
with high technologies that make it difficult to differentiate between natural and
artificial entities (Schwab 2017).
Krésová (2019) points out that, as labour-intensive systems are being substi-
tuted by machines, the capacitating and upskilling of workers is of paramount
importance, because the 4IR is disrupting the labour market. The 4IR brings risks,
prospects and opportunities for information professionals by creating new knowl-
edge and redefining jobs and skills to increase productivity and enhance services.
It also improves ergonomics and augments labour by reducing unnecessarily
repetitive and routine tasks, thereby accelerating transparency and accountability
(Ayinde and Kirkwood 2020). Currently, the most decisive factor of production is
28 Asania Reneilwe Maphoto and Mpubane Emanuel Matlala

human capital capacitated with innovative skills. The capacitation of labour will be
necessary due to the growing gap between lower- and higher-skilled work, while
still bigger threats exist in unemployment, polarisation of workers, and inequality.
Soh and Connoy (2021) note that the 4IR is still at a nascent stage.
The 4IR brings challenges along with new opportunities. Intelligent efforts and
sophisticated human skills are required for the application and implementation of
new tools. Schwab asserts that:

…the Fourth Industrial Revolution may indeed have the potential to “robotize” humanity and
thus to deprive us of our heart and soul. But as a complement to the best parts of human
nature—creativity, empathy, stewardship—it can also lift humanity into a new collective and
moral consciousness based on a shared sense of destiny (Schwab 2016).

As society paradigms shift, they create changes in social environments which, in

turn, affect the usage and established roles of libraries (Noh and Chang 2020). In
the 4IR, “only one type of organization will thrive: a human one” (Seidman 2016).
4IR is growing rapidly and poses challenges to academic libraries to come up with
new approaches to rendering services. According to Ntotlang “academic libraries
are especially challenged to align their service to meet patrons’ needs through the
use of technology-mediated tools” (2019, 5). Academic libraries must move forward
in a digital era propelled by the explosion of ICT. It offers academic libraries the
opportunity to harness the power of digital technologies as a basis for develop-
ing new processes and introducing new services to library users. Academic librar-
ies must establish online services to promote accessibility and aid the discharge
of broad information resources. In Ntotlang (2019)’s view, it cannot be overstated
that library users in the 4IR want to have easily accessible information at their
fingertips. “The users are driven by technology; their lives revolve around new and
emerging technologies” (Ntotlang 2019, 5).

Academic Libraries and Technological Change

Academic libraries must identify initiatives to ensure their effective functioning in
an era dominated by advanced digitisation which is changing how human beings
live, work, and communicate information. If academic libraries are to provide
future generations with adequate information, they need, given their current
information resources, services and knowledge, to deal with the crucial matter
of how they will be affected by the 4IR and how present procedures of accessing
resources will be transformed. In that context, it is essential to examine how the 4IR
will impact academic libraries and what should be done to retain and grow their
 2 Reshaping the Future of Academic Libraries: Insights from South Africa 29

competitive advantage. This chapter explores how academic libraries can remain
viable and functioning in the midst of the 4IR, with reference to two universities in
South Africa, the Universities of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and Limpopo (UL).
Neto et al. (2020) state that, even if unnoticed by many members of the public,
COVID-19 has been functioning as a catalyst for the global realisation of the 4IR,
marking the integration of physical, digital and biological spheres. The 4IR stands
out because machines have become active, whereas in earlier industrial revolutions
they were passive (Schwab 2017). Organisations today have already been affected
by changes brought about by information technology associated with the 4IR. Few
organisations have been impacted as profoundly as academic libraries which have
experienced change in most areas of their responsibilities and activities.
Guliwe (2019) envisages that the present industrial revolution will have seri-
ously disruptive effects, especially on companies, governments, institutions of
higher learning, and broadly, welfare systems. The suggestion is that there will be a
major shift from labour-intensive to capital-intensive sectors. Proponents of the 4IR
argue that some current skills will be rendered obsolete. Since many institutions in
South Africa still grapple with the basic challenges of broadband connection and
access to the Internet, it will be difficult to adapt to the 4IR which requires invest-
ments in new technologies. Not only are academic libraries burdened with bread-
and-butter issues, but in addition they have few alternatives and must choose
either to adapt or perish (Guliwe 2019).
The implementation of ICT in libraries has resulted in the radical transfor-
mation of the role of library professionals and of the products and services they
provide (Tokwe and Mapasure 2016). Modern technology has helped to change
libraries from mere warehouses into veritable access centres for sustainable infor-
mation retrieval. New thinking and new strategies are required to ensure that
libraries remain vibrant and sufficiently relevant to satisfy the dynamic informa-
tion needs of present society.
Ahmat and Hanipah (2018) note that academic libraries are expected to be
trustworthy information brokers. Academic libraries provide universal access to
information and scholarly works in all formats, as well as trustworthy and effec-
tive support for political and social engagement. Academic libraries advocate for,
and are facilitators of, the 4IR that allows people to create their own devices and
objects. Against this background, the work outlined in this chapter was inspired by
concerns about the degree to which the roles of academic libraries have changed
because of technological advances and the requirements of the COVID-19 pan-
demic. How have academic libraries responded to the changed circumstances?
30 Asania Reneilwe Maphoto and Mpubane Emanuel Matlala

The Role of Academic Libraries

Noh and Chang (2020), citing others, mention that the Global Vision meeting of
the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), held
in July 2017 in the Netherlands, accentuated the changing roles of libraries in the
context of modern technology. The urgency of meeting new and existing needs of
users by providing services that incorporate emerging technologies has been noted
by many.
Academic libraries fulfil the crucial role of providing institutes of higher
learning with accessible information and related services. Their value is deter-
mined by how well they support the learning, teaching and research taking place
in their parent institutions (Wawrzaszek and Wedaman 2008). Similarly, Schulte
et al. (2018) describe academic libraries as supporting the teaching, learning and
research of the academic population and the provision of programmes that develop
the information literacy skills of graduates. Academic libraries serve and support
the vision and mission of their parent institutions.
Academic libraries are effective if they can provide the actual information ser-
vices and resources that satisfy the information needs of their users (Tahleho 2016).
The success of academic libraries depends on the degree to which they serve their
users. Wen opines:

Academic libraries are information centers established in support of the mission of their
parent institutions to generate knowledge, and people equipped with knowledge in order to
serve the society and advance the well-being of mankind. In the digital age, academic libraries
face challenges from both within (academia) and without (the business sector) (Wen 2005,
Point 1).

Eneya, Mostert, and Ocholla (2020), citing others, state that the use of library ser-
vices has a significant impact on students’ completion rate.
Frances, Fletcher, and Harmer (2011) in discussing the rearranged library note
that “academic libraries traditionally tend to be structured with units providing
frontline services to clients (reference, liaison, training, collection development)
which are supported by ’back office’ units (IT, technical services, human resources,
building services)”. In the world today the role of academic libraries is changing
in response to evolving technologies. The surveyed literature indicates that aca-
demic libraries are reorganising and leaving traditional ways of service provision
partly behind for approaches determined by contemporary technology. The blend-
ing of physical and technological systems ensures that libraries keep up with new
trends and evolving technology, while not entirely losing traditional approaches.
An inability to adapt to the availability of 4IR tools would result in inadequate ser-
vices and a loss of library users.
 2 Reshaping the Future of Academic Libraries: Insights from South Africa 31

Members of academic communities depend on their libraries to access knowl-

edge resources and use the library space to study (Gayton 2007). In the 4IR, library
materials have become digitally accessible online, and libraries need to adapt tra-
ditional systems accordingly. Previously, academic libraries built academic library
collections and marketed them to persuade academics to visit their libraries and
access the collections. Traditionally, academic libraries were used for accessing
information resources and for their reading space, but the increase in electronic
resources has led to declining use of the physical library to access its collection
(Gayton 2007). Freeman argues:

If faculty, scholars, and students can now obtain information in any format and access it
anywhere on campus, then why does the library, as a physical place, play such an import-
ant role in the renewal and advancement of an institution’s intellectual life? The answer is
straightforward: The library is the only centralized location where new and emerging infor-
mation technologies can be combined with traditional knowledge resources in a user-focused,
service-rich environment that supports today’s social and educational patterns of learning,
teaching, and research (2015, 3).

Academic Library Services and COVID-19

Radical changes have impacted information centres and academic libraries since
the beginning of the pandemic. Governments throughout the world took varying
stances on the lockdown of government services, educational establishments, and
public facilities like libraries. IFLA (2020) issued a statement that some govern-
ments around the world were ordering the full closure of libraries, advising limited
restrictions, or asking library directors to make decisions; others were maintaining
amended services. IFLA (2020) further stated that, in the event of full closure of
libraries, and in preparation for the eventual re-opening of libraries, it was recom-
mended that resources and services be made available online.
Mehta and Wang (2020) noted that the Covid-19 pandemic negatively affected
academic library services and the library staff members who provided services in
various ways and led to new ways of functioning. Mehta and Wang further argued
that the 4IR and the COVID-19 pandemic revolutionised information access and
online teaching in institutions of higher learning (2020). The pandemic provided
the impetus for change and simultaneously promoted more effective and efficient
ways for academic libraries to deliver their services virtually. Academic libraries
modified operations, services and procedures to move quickly to virtual service
provision. Literature on the use of contemporary technology as influenced by
32 Asania Reneilwe Maphoto and Mpubane Emanuel Matlala

COVID-19 is still limited (Mhlanga and Moloi 2020). Parker, Morris, and Hofmeyr
(2020) expected that the COVID-19 pandemic would accelerate innovation in com-
munication, work environments, education, and every other aspect of life. Unleash-
ing 4IR tools in academic libraries to combat the effects of COVID-19 has been hin-
dered by several challenges such as poor Internet connectivity and the general
state of the available infrastructure.
Academic libraries have worked hard to ensure that most of their informa-
tion resources are available and accessible during the pandemic lockdown (Parker,
Morris, and Hofmeyr 2020). To address the sudden demands made on libraries
arising from the availability of 4IR tools and necessitated by the COVID-19 pan-
demic, library staff brainstormed potential actions and informed patrons about
changed library services and activities.
The South African Department of Sports, Arts and Culture issued Govern-
ment Gazette number 43507 in July 2020 (South Africa 2020) permitting libraries
to operate under lockdown level 3 provided they complied with health protocols
and social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The same department
allowed for the opening of libraries provided they reduced operating hours, limited
the issuing and returning of library materials, restricted study areas to 30% of the
capacity of the library area, and supported online referencing and programming.
Institutions of higher learning and academic libraries that did not have ICT tools in
place at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown, had to close because they were unpre-
pared for such a complication (Mhlanga and Moloi 2020). The lack of preparedness
is common to many organisations on the African continent, due to infrastructural
challenges, a lack of access to broadband connections, and the high cost of data.
Many academic libraries revealed themselves as trendsetters in the digital
field, fitting the new paradigm of the automated age, especially regarding the value
of databases and electronic indexing. Academic libraries have adopted signifi-
cantly different approaches to accommodate the new technologies. The COVID-19
pandemic forced librarians to adapt to the new normal of working and providing
services from their homes. The advent of the digital library enabled the institutions
to continue and better serve users who, during the pandemic, were not able to
visit libraries physically. Technology partnered with librarians and functioned as
frontline librarians during the pandemic to ensure the continuing availability of
library services.
Ocholla and Ocholla (2020) supported the view that academic libraries need
technological tools that are flexible, function independently, consider the environ-
ment, and work jointly with human librarians. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown
the readiness of academic libraries to adapt to the technological age. To continue to
fulfil the needs of library users during the pandemic, libraries have designed and
adopted library websites as their primary e-discovery tools (Ifijeh and Yusuf 2020).
 2 Reshaping the Future of Academic Libraries: Insights from South Africa 33

Library websites must be accessible 24/7 to their users and provide uninterrupted
remote access to their information services.
To keep up with the development of technology and its applications in the pro-
vision of valuable services to higher education, academic libraries had to remain
open to fresh views on the use of 4IR tools in the context of specific information
needs during the lockdown. Academic library services must remain accessible any-
where and at any time. Ocholla and Ocholla’s study of twenty-six South African
universities focused on their responsiveness to 4IR (2020). The results indicated
that users of South African libraries were accessing library services at any time
and from anywhere, implying that academic libraries are successfully dealing with
technological challenges. Ocholla and Ocholla further stated that libraries have yet
to create a compelling digital presence for either learning or research which corre-
sponds to their successful physical learning spaces.

The Responses of the University Libraries of

KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo to the Fourth
Industrial Revolution and COVID-19

The Background to the Study

An investigation of two academic libraries at the University of KwaZulu-Natal

(UKZN) and the University of Limpopo (UL) was conducted. Data was collected
from the websites of both UKZN and UL academic libraries. UKZN was formed in
2004 from a merger of the University of Natal and the University of Durban-West-
ville. It has five campuses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and
comprises four colleges each with several schools. It has a student population of
46,925. UL was established in 2005 after the former Medical University of Southern
Africa (MEDUNSA) merged with the University of the North. In 2015, however, the
two universities demerged, and the University of Limpopo retained its name, while
MEDUNSA changed its name to Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University. UL is
located north of Pretoria and has 22,000 students.
The study of the two university libraries was conducted using qualitative
research and content analysis (Creswell 2014). Data was collected from secondary
sources, including desk research by content analysis. Leedy and Ormrod describe
content analysis as a “systematic examination of the content of a particular body
of material for the purpose of identifying patterns, themes, or biases” (2019, 150).
The content analysis method was used to scrutinise the UKZN and UL library web-
34 Asania Reneilwe Maphoto and Mpubane Emanuel Matlala

sites (Figures 2.1 and 2.2) to determine the degree of change in the roles of the
libraries as a result of the 4IR and COVID-19, to define what motivated the changes,
and to establish how the libraries had handled the changes. A desk research study
was conducted online using the websites. The study used approaches to the desk
research, similar to those applied by Ocholla and Ocholla (2020) in their content
analysis of websites of twenty-six South African university libraries, conducted by
using public universities’ data from the Department of Higher Education and Train-
ing. The study by Ocholla and Ocholla motivated the present researchers to adopt
content analysis in the exploration of their research problem.

The Results of the Study

The UKZN library website (Figure 2.1) provided, and continues to provide, clear
insights into the rendering of library services during the lockdown period. With
regard to book retrieval services for example, browsing of physical collections was
not allowed; the traditional library collections remained closed; and the student
population as well as staff submitted requests for circulating materials at the issue
desk, via email or by telephone.

Fig. 2.1: UKZN Library Website.

 2 Reshaping the Future of Academic Libraries: Insights from South Africa 35

Fig. 2.2: UL Library Website

Both the UKZN and UL libraries implemented online library support and assistance
(Figures 2.1 and 2.2). The librarians continued to be available and provided virtual
support for teaching, learning and researching. The librarians provided online
services such as assistance with accessing ebooks and databases from the library
homepage through chatbots. Subject librarians could be reached via email and pro-
vided online library training and user education via Zoom, and Skype for business
and meeting sessions, and online orientation. Librarians assisted academics and
students in the purchasing of articles by a pay per view service and scoping reviews.
Users were required to pay for the services and purchasing was managed through
the institutions. Librarians contacted by email were available for assistance with
retrieval of information. Ntlotlang (2019) indicates that the Botswana International
University of Science and Technology (BIUST) Library developed similar processes,
tools and services to align the university’s research landscape with the dictates of
the emerging information-led 4IR. The BIUST library developed technology-medi-
ated tools and used multiple interfaces to reach users in different environments.
Websites of the UKZN and UL libraries (Figures 2.1 and 2.2) state that online
services and support are the primary modes for the fulfilment of teaching, learning
and research requirements. The libraries continued to work remotely with business
communication complying with lockdown regulations. The libraries made online
library resources, such as ebooks, databases, theses and subject guides, available
and users were prompted to sign in with usernames and passwords. Library users
36 Asania Reneilwe Maphoto and Mpubane Emanuel Matlala

were provided with details on how to log in to the library website with no data
charges for access to South African network providers.
Ntlotlang (2019) notes that libraries develop innovative tools that address the
needs of technology-driven users and simultaneously create an opportunity for
libraries to sustain their roles of providing accessible, relevant information to users
in ways that are robust and convenient. Mehta and Wang (2020) stress that elec-
tronic resources are considered a large portion of a library’s vital resources and
that most libraries have spent justifiable amounts of money on subscribing to them.
Key electronic resources come in the form of proprietary databases, academic jour-
nals, ebooks, streaming videos and other audiovisual collections, in addition to
open access resources. Such resources are made available to patrons over online
platforms provided by the academic libraries. On a positive note, the COVID-19 pan-
demic has led to the creation of an appropriate platform for promoting and market-
ing the academic libraries’ electronic resources to users and to new undergraduate
students who tend to use Google to find information needed for academic activities.
There are similar and profound changes in the functions of academic libraries
because of the 4IR and the pandemic. The change is sector- and role-specific. The
most profound changes have occurred in organisational agility and resilience. In
addition to the pandemic and the 4IR, new responses are being made to climate
change and placing greater emphasis on sustainability in a rapidly changing world.
Significant and rapid adaptation becomes the norm. For example, most UKZN librar-
ies offered virtual services with staff working from home to provide online services
to the university community. The staff working from home learned to optimise the
virtual platforms available, which proved to be a rewarding learning experience.
The 4IR and COVID-19 have redefined librarianship and led librarians and students
to discover new ways of working. There are, however, moments of frustration, due
to slow Internet connections or interrupted Zoom presentations. Some processes
have been affected by monotonous routines and the lack of human contact.

Changing Roles and Responses

The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in 2020 and the recognition of a pandemic,
forced the governments of many countries, including South Africa, to implement
lockdowns or shutdowns of all non-essential services. The action had a major
impact on the academic environment, especially academic libraries, where library
resources and services were offered away from the university premises using
technological tools. The drastic measures resulted in the changing of work envi-
 2 Reshaping the Future of Academic Libraries: Insights from South Africa 37

ronments and different approaches to the services of librarians, although many

resources remained located in-house.
Major disruptions across the world caused by COVID-19 affected institutions
of higher learning in general, including their libraries. Some librarians not used to
virtual work environments or conditions, have suffered, mentally and physically.
Some who have been employed for many years felt that the change of daily routines
affected their personal lives as individuals and as members of their family units.
However, with access to ICT and the Internet, the UKZN and UL libraries were able
to continue to serve their university communities. Communication was maintained
through email. UL librarians supported library users via email. UKZN librarians had
the option of using Skype for business and Zoom for meetings. Training sessions on
the use of library resources and how to access and find information were held via
Zoom with participants joining remotely. Zoom adheres to the social distancing rule!
The challenge is when the technology fails to operate. Glitches are to be expected.
Academic libraries in responding to and managing the various challenges
found concepts of the 4IR critical to their survival in the era of COVID-19. The nature
of work and ways of working in academic libraries and information services have
altered and continue to do so. Many changes have already been effected in libraries
although there remain divergent views on their nature. In the meantime, the virus
together with the tools of the 4IR has made staff members of university libraries
turn to Zoom and other online meeting tools and, in general, focus on new skills.
UKZN and UL libraries have demonstrated fresh approaches and begun to
implement non-essential but useful services that enable library users to access and
control library tools, services and resources from portable mobile digital devices,
and to apply essential services that facilitate identification, location, retrieval and
use of current resources in their daily lives. UKZN libraries have introduced OCLC’s
WorldShare Management Services (WMS) as their library management system.
WMS provides cloud-based library management and discovery applications in an
integrated suite. WMS is known as a global knowledge system that helps patrons
to widen access to learning, research, and innovation, for both local and global
scholars. WMS enables the delivery of infrastructure and support services designed
around learning needs. The introduction of WMS has proven to be effective, making
libraries more relevant to the needs and expectations of users.
Whatever form change may take, the Internet and related technologies stand
as major pillars of modern library services. Due to its architecture and functions,
the Internet can facilitate better library service design and provision in many ways.
The increasing ubiquity of the Internet enables academic libraries to make their
services virtually available in remote places and extend them beyond physical
walls and limited opening hours and together with other emerging technologies
opens the possibility of seamless interactivity between libraries, librarians and
38 Asania Reneilwe Maphoto and Mpubane Emanuel Matlala

users, giving the latter the opportunity to play a part in determining how they will
be served. The technologies facilitate simple, efficient, fast and versatile services.
Internet-facilitated services enable libraries to offer timely and diverse informa-
tion resources, going far beyond the realm of physical collections within the library
and are restricted only by funding issues for libraries in providing access, and the
creativity of users and their available time. Online usage removes or reduces con-
cerns of causing damage, mis-shelving or loss of library materials. Multiple users
can potentially access a resource simultaneously provided appropriate licensing
protocols are in place. Access to resources by multiple users is subject to licensing
policies that might restrict use.
Academic libraries have responded to 4IR and COVID-19 by embracing inno-
vative technologies and taking determined steps to develop web pages address-
ing remote access to electronic resources. Academic libraries have sought to ease
the frustrations of patrons not being able to access and use electronic resources
remotely. Mehta and Wang (2020) are of the view that creating web pages was not
a specific response to the pandemic, but rather a recognition that academic librar-
ies must long-term provide more comprehensive information along with trouble-
shooting tips for patrons who access the library remotely.

Problems, Prospects, and Future Challenges

The possibilities offered by new technologies on the one hand, and the lockdown
imposed to contain the pandemic on the other hand, have presented academic
libraries with the challenge of how to continue to operate and provide their ser-
vices. It was either adapt to an unprecedented situation or close operations. Librar-
ies that could not render services remotely, because they had not kept up with
modern technology were exposed. Academic libraries needed technological tools to
function during the lockdown so that their services could become accessible at any
time and from anywhere (Ocholla and Ocholla 2020). Librarians were faced with
the critical challenges of remote functioning, reorganising work and services physi-
cally, spatially and temporally. Connectivity proved to be a challenge in some areas.
Mehta and Wang (2020) confirm that the simultaneous occurrence of advanced
technological developments and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the chal-
lenges confronting academic libraries while user numbers grew. High demand
resources were frequently previously stored in closed reserved sections of the
library for on-site use and physical collection. They were not available in an elec-
tronic format. Some resources required scanning with attention paid to copyright
issues before they could be delivered to users digitally. Services rendered by the ref-
 2 Reshaping the Future of Academic Libraries: Insights from South Africa 39

erence section primarily previously through personal one-on-one assistance were

replaced by digital communication. Numerous ICT applications were required
along with advanced training for academic librarians. Some librarians needed time
to adjust to the tools of the 4IR.
With physical resources partly or entirely out of reach, the need to access and
use electronic resources increased. Not all patrons were tech-savvy and able to use
the variety of academic library searching platforms to locate information. Access-
ing electronic resources from off-campus increased the challenges. During the
COVID-19 alert level 5 lockdown, digitisation and digital preservation projects and
processes of academic libraries were suspended as well as some behind-the-scenes
activities associated with library initiatives. This affected the delivery of addi-
tional electronic or online resources, including the provision of full-text content to
patrons. Collaboration with various academic disciplines and administrative port-
folios realised some joint projects for activities; others were disadvantaged by the
changes.
Among the problems to be overcome was poor infrastructure capacity. The 4IR
requires an advanced level of technological expertise for librarians to be able to
provide quality library services without depending on the routines of the physical
library. ICT tools have changed the ways in which people search for and share infor-
mation, forcing academic libraries to adapt their operations. Staff development is
crucial if librarians are to provide efficient and effective services to the academic
environment. Ojowhoh (2016) argues that enhanced staff development in academic
libraries has a positive effect on services rendered by the academic community.
The results of a study on staff development and library services in academic librar-
ies indicated that staff training brought employees up to date with technological
changes. Staff functioned more efficiently and were encouraged to provide quality
services while experiencing an increase in motivation and job satisfaction.
According to Maponya: “The success of academic libraries depends on the
capabilities and skills of its staff to serve the needs of the university community
more efficiently and effectively” (2004, 17). Professional development is key to pro-
viding improved services in the 4IR. Librarians must have or be given proper skills
to use the evolving technologies and to support online learning in higher institu-
tions. Library staff need to attend technical workshops and conferences to equip
themselves with technological aptitudes, knowledge and skills to develop success-
ful library systems (Frances, Fletcher, and Harmer 2011).
It is unequivocal that academic libraries must organise training and work-
shops to capacitate staff members with precise, relevant knowledge. The 4IR
requires people to be lifelong learners, eager to learn, relearn and unlearn. Given
the ever-changing technological landscape, library staff must equip themselves
with the skills and knowledge needed to optimise use of the available technologi-
40 Asania Reneilwe Maphoto and Mpubane Emanuel Matlala

cal infrastructure and to improve services to their patrons. Byrne argues that aca-
demic libraries require staff equipped with skills to “recognise and respond to the
dynamism of the new service models and operate successfully amid the imperma-
nence of the new tools” (2008, 371). There is a need for integration of human and
robotic skills:

In accordance with the vision of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, humans and intelligent
machines will jointly perform production tasks in the future. Sensors, cameras and self-learn-
ing software will be indispensible to this process. The leitmotiv is that robots will have to
adapt to humans, and not vice versa. In fact, this principle must be implemented to the extent
that the new generation of intelligent industrial robots will learn from their human colleagues
who simply demonstrate the necessary actions (Bloem et al. 2014, 14).

Maponya (2004) notes that academic libraries face evolving challenges including
diverse staff and student demographics, financial pressures, and increasing public
scrutiny and accountability. Limited budgets for libraries make it difficult to imple-
ment improvements (Eneya, Mostert, and Ocholla 2020) and to afford the costs of
ongoing maintenance and upgrades of library software and hardware (Wen 2005).

Conclusion and Future Actions

The 4IR and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated institu-
tional lockdowns have increased the need for academic libraries to serve student
populations remotely. The availability of digital libraries is of paramount impor-
tance. The pandemic forced the acceleration of providing digital services. UKZN
and UL academic libraries are at the forefront of providing such services, in line
with contemporary ICT developments. The current situation has motivated both
the UKZN and UL libraries to operate in new ways. The issues facing staff are con-
siderable. Some have responded by learning and becoming more innovative, famil-
iarising themselves with technological tools while others have become frustrated
in the performance of their changed duties.
In the face of the combination of scanned copies of materials previously in
physical reserve collections, and access to digital repositories. The challenges con-
fronting both UKZN and UL academic libraries are manifest in various aspects. On a
positive note, the libraries are reaching out dynamically and engaging with patrons
in virtual spaces. It can be concluded that both libraries have adjusted and will con-
tinue to adapt to unprecedented requirements, conditions and procedures.
Both academic libraries included in the study are fulfilling their potential by
providing rich and free electronic content and rendering online services of a high
 2 Reshaping the Future of Academic Libraries: Insights from South Africa 41

standard. Concerning prospects for the future, the use of academic libraries will
grow exponentially as the 4IR continues to advance. The study undertaken con-
firms that the newest technological tools and the consequences of the COVID-19
pandemic have not seriously interfered with the essential roles of academic librar-
ies. The libraries continue to support their patrons on- and off-campus, as they did
before the present crisis.
Going forward, academic libraries must:
–– Reflect not only on current needs but engage with the future and make plans
for immediate and future consideration and implementation
–– Ensure that students have access to the materials required for use in the
21st-century classroom
–– Support virtual learning spaces and enhance university productivity, and
–– Take advantage of new ICT tools and ensure library staff, students, faculty and
researchers use them effectively.

University management, as the custodian of academic activities, must:

–– Examine its strengths and optimise all available resources to fulfil its role and
meet institutional needs
–– Empower its staff to enhance productivity
–– Optimise its human capital and staff capabilities to ensure appropriate
responses to change, and
–– Be ready to respond proactively and productively to emergencies impacting
teaching and learning systems.

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Amy P.A. Asimah
3 U
 ser Services in Ghanaian Academic
Libraries in Response to the COVID-19
Pandemic
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly transformed the world and the
global higher education sector, including academic library information service pro-
vision. This chapter outlines the reaction of academic institutions to the pandemic
and examines user services in Ghanaian academic libraries provided in response to
the COVID-19 pandemic along with the associated challenges within the framework
of a study undertaken of ten academic libraries in Ghana. Details of the services
introduced are outlined. The experiences of the Ghanaian libraries contribute to
the body of knowledge on the effect of national health crises on academic libraries
and provide data on how librarians, library policy makers and managers of edu-
cational institutions can best offer excellent virtual user services during difficult
times and make appropriate responses to events like pandemics.

Keywords: COVID-19 (Disease); Academic libraries – Ghana; Library services for dis-
tance education; Digital libraries – Planning; Electronic reference services (Libraries)

Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic broke out in Wuhan, China in December 2019 (Ifejeh and
Yusuf 2020; Kandola 2020). The early response from most African countries includ-
ing Ghana was either sending help to China or repatriating their citizens who were
stranded in China, including students. The response changed when the pandemic
spread into African countries including Ghana. Ghana recorded its first case of
COVID-19 in March 2020 (Frimpong 2020). The early trajectory of the virus and the
Ghanaian response have been traced. To curb the spread of the virus, the response of
the President of Ghana in his first televised broadcast to the nation on March 15, 2020,
was a ban on all public gatherings and the closure of all public facilities and educa-
tional institutions, including universities and their libraries, senior high schools and
basic schools (Ablordeppey 2020). An abrupt end was put to all academic activities as
all students and workers were forced to leave their various institutions.
Ghana is located a few degrees north of the equator on the Gulf of Guinea in
West Africa. With a population of over 31 million people, Ghana is the second-most
populous country in West Africa, after Nigeria. The capital and largest city is Accra;
Ghana is a stable unitary presidential constitutional democracy and a member of
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-005
46 Amy P.A. Asimah

the Non-Aligned Movement, the African Union, the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS), the Group of 24 (G24) and the Commonwealth of Nations.
The Ghanaian education system comprises three parts: basic, secondary and ter-
tiary. There are fifteen public universities in Ghana and a growing number of
accredited private universities. The Consortium of Academic and Research Librar-
ies in Ghana (CARLIGH) comprises forty-two members, including eight public
and nineteen private university libraries, and six technical university libraries.
CARLIGH provides access to a network of electronic information resources.
Academic libraries in Ghana are established by their patron institutions to
provide relevant information resources and services necessary for supporting
teaching, learning, and research. They include libraries in Ghanaian universi-
ties, technical universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education. The academic
libraries of the University of Ghana (UG), University of Health and Allied Sciences
(UHAS), the University of Cape Coast (UCC), the University of Professional Studies,
Accra (UPSA), Ho Technical University (HTU), Accra Technical University (ATU),
Cape Coast Technical University (CCTU), Ashesi University, Evangelical Presbyte-
rian University College (EPUC) and Pentecost University (Pentvars) were selected
for this study. Most of the library systems comprise the main library and other
branch libraries at various schools, institutes, departments, residence halls and
satellite campuses. The focus of the study was on the main libraries of the selected
universities. The libraries contain books, periodicals, microfilms, CDs, tapes and
electronic resources covering all academic programmes of the various institutions.
Teaching and learning in Ghanaian universities have followed traditional
methods, with face-to-face classes in lecture halls and seminar rooms. Only a few
universities in the country operate electronic learning platforms, involving the
uploading and downloading of lecture notes and submission of assignments. Simi-
larly, the university libraries in Ghana operate traditionally, with some provision of
off-campus access to electronic resources and some other library services provided
via virtual reference options including email, online chat, chatbots, or Ask-a-Librar-
ian platforms. As a result of the stay-at-home order and the bid to curtail the spread
of the virus in the country, educational institutions moved quickly to online learning.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly transformed the global higher educa-
tion sector, as well as academic library information service provision. As the main
providers of information resources and services for teaching, learning and research,
all academic libraries in Ghana responded quickly to the public health emergency by
discontinuing all on-site visits and services as directed by the President of Ghana. Aca-
demic libraries commenced the provision of online services for students, researchers
and faculty enabled by Information and Communications Technology (ICT), national
and international telecommunication networks, institutional networks and soft-
ware platforms, social media and institutional websites while the libraries remained
 3 User Services in Ghanaian Academic Libraries in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic 47

closed. The libraries were challenged to provide substantial services to disseminate

accurate, timely and reliable information to users amidst the pandemic, to support
the emergency online teaching and learning, and to assist in maintaining a sustain-
able society. This chapter describes a study which surveyed ten selected Ghanaian
academic libraries to discover new approaches being taken to the provision of user
services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify the challenges.

The Role of Libraries in Emergency Situations

Information plays an essential role in public health crises. There is a rich literature
on how libraries address, anticipate and respond to different health information edu-
cation and needs of persons and communities (Dalrymple and Galvin 2020; Guo et al.
2020; Kosciejew 2020; Whiteman et al. 2018; Whitney, Dutcher, and Keselman 2013).
Various research has been conducted on the role of libraries during public health
emergencies and disasters with considerable focus on libraries’ user services. Accord-
ing to Featherstone, Lyon, and Ruffin (2008), libraries have played major roles in
emergency and disaster response such as providing access to collections, disseminat-
ing accurate and reliable information to users and institutions, community support,
government partnership, education, training and community building. In relation to
information services, libraries provide institution and/or community-based disaster
information outreach services during disasters and emergencies (Featherstone 2012).
The services provided involve gathering emerging and essential health information,
evaluating pandemic information services and delivering specific information sum-
maries to meet the needs of health care staff, students, faculty, researchers and the
general public during a public health emergency (Kosciejew 2020).
In 2014, there was an Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa. It was
described as the ”largest, most severe and most complex Ebola epidemic the world
has ever seen” (WHO n.d.). The US National Library of Medicine (NLM) together
with academic libraries in the affected West African countries responded to the
EVD crisis by disseminating health information to the public (Love, Arnesen, and
Phillips 2015). They created awareness of the existence of EVD, provided informa-
tion on how the virus spread, and outlined preventive measures. Although, Ghana
did not record any case of EVD, there was a high level of preparedness by the gov-
ernment and the health officials (Adongo et al. 2016). In a similar way, libraries in
Ghana championed the creation of awareness of EVD and disseminated informa-
tion on the spread of the virus and potential preventive measures. Health institu-
tions together with academic libraries continued to provide accurate and timely
information to the public which reduced people’s fear of EVD.
48 Amy P.A. Asimah

According to Guo et al. (2020), Chinese researchers studied library user ser-
vices in response to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) which broke out
in China in 2003. Guo et al. (2020) states that academic libraries provided users
with the useful information services when the libraries were shut during the SARS
epidemic. The timely and accurate information provisions by the academic librar-
ies, according to Feng (2003), eased the fear and panic of the public on SARS and
Chinese researchers suggested an extension of Chinese libraries’ disaster emer-
gency information services to an appreciable level.
Much has been written on how academic libraries respond to health emer-
gency crises such as EVD, SARS, Zika Virus and H1N1 or swine flu; however there
is little information on how libraries should respond to the Coronavirus pandemic
because of its novelty. At first libraries focused on disaster preparedness for system
and collection protection and not necessarily on the provision of information ser-
vices during or after public health emergencies. However, the importance of infor-
mation service provision during and after public health emergency is evidenced by
attention given to the topic in scholarly literature and academic conference pro-
ceedings (McKnight and Zach 2007). Technological advancement has transformed
the global information environment compared to the past. Widespread use of
the Internet and modern ICT including tablet computers and smartphones, along
with the acceptance and use of social media networks and digital platforms, have
allowed academic libraries to employ many new features and innovative services
for emergency service provision in public health emergencies (Guo et al. 2020).
Most university libraries have employed digital means of providing services
and accepted the use of social media platforms in delivering information and ref-
erence services. A study by Mehta and Wang (2020) revealed a tremendous shift
from traditional service provision to digital library service provision during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Allen (2010) observed that from a survey of social media use
by over 1200 libraries across Europe, social media platforms like Facebook, blog-
ging, widgets and micro-blogging were used by libraries in advertising the library,
improving library image and supporting specified content provision. Social media
platforms are helpful in virtual reference and information services, as well as dis-
seminating emerging health information to the general public during health emer-
gency crises (Ifijeh and Yusuf 2020). According to Cook (2015), cited in Ifijeh and
Yusuf (2020), the American Public University connects online students with library
resources through social media. This is a common trend among libraries in devel-
oped countries. However, the use of digital tools and social media platforms for
library services is at the cradle stage in most developing countries, including Ghana
(Adewoyin, Onuoha, and Ikonne 2017; Ifijeh and Yusuf 2020). Studies by Ahen-
korah-Marfo and Akussah (2016), Owusu-Ansah et al. (2015) and Mingle, Lamptey,
and Hassan (2014) on social media and Web 2.0 technology use for service provi-
 3 User Services in Ghanaian Academic Libraries in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic 49

sion in Ghanaian academic libraries confirmed the slow adaptation of social media
and web 2.0 technology for service provision in academic libraries.
For academic libraries to meet the information needs of users during the
COVID-19 pandemic and to remain relevant post-COVID-19 in support of online
teaching and learning, they must adopt new methods of service provision (Iwu-
James, Haliso, and Ifijeh 2020).

Service Provision in Ghanaian Academic Libraries

in Response to COVID-19
User service provision and the emergency service measures in ten Ghanaian aca-
demic libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic were examined and the challenges
inherent in the adoption of new approaches noted. The findings revealed that 90%
of the academic libraries were closed during the pandemic; 40% released Covid-19
information on their library websites; the majority changed their service focus from
traditional face-to-face to partially or completely remote online service delivery with
remote access, free digital resources, and remote reference services reachable 24/7;
and print material services were changed to ebooks for expediency. The challenges
included anxiety about being infected with Covid-19; constant maintenance of social
distance and disinfecting the library environment whilst working in-house; lack of
appropriate ICT; poor internet connectivity; lack of technical skills; and dealing with
children while working from home. Details of the conduct of the survey are outlined
followed by the findings. The challenges are reported separately subsequently.

The Survey Details

As already noted, the ten academic libraries in Ghana selected for the study
included the libraries from four public universities, three technical universities
and three private universities. The universities were: the University of Ghana (UG),
University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), the University of Cape Coast (UCC),
the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Ho Technical University (HTU),
Accra Technical University (ATU), Cape Coast Technical University (CCTU), Ashesi
University, Evangelical Presbyterian University College (EPUC) and Pentecost Uni-
versity (Pentvars).
Data for the survey was collected by examining the website of each institution
and the social media platform provided, and through direct correspondence. The
50 Amy P.A. Asimah

survey period covered March to October 2020. The researcher first visited online
the official websites of the ten academic libraries to confirm the websites were
functional and that user services were provided during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The researcher recorded and counted each library’s user services. The official
social media platforms of the various academic libraries were also visited online to
confirm whether they were active and whether they provided user services during
the pandemic. Some of the social media platforms used by the libraries include
Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Telegram and others. The researcher accessed the
networks to find out whether they were used for library communication, interac-
tion, information sharing or dissemination of information to users.
Lastly, the researcher corresponded with the heads of the libraries selected for
the study through online questionnaires to confirm the reliability of the survey data
from the websites and social media networks. The researcher used her designed
survey to obtain data from the websites and the official social media networks. The
respondents from the libraries studied pointed out the challenges that the shift to
digital library resources and service provision during the pandemic posed to them.
While the survey input came from ten individuals, it reflected institutional perspec-
tives because they were the heads of their libraries.

The Survey Findings

The findings from the study are examined under various headings including the
closure of the libraries, provision of remote access, provision of free access to ere-
sources, remote reference services, and suspension of print-based services.

Closure of Libraries and Release of COVID-19 Information

As of March 18, 2020, the survey of the ten academic libraries found that 90%
of the libraries were closed. To curb the fast spread of infection caused by large
gatherings, the libraries informed their users about preventive measures to adopt
towards the virus; 50% of the libraries’ websites issued emergency closure notices;
and 40% of the libraries released COVID-19 information on their library websites
as suggested by Kosciejew (2020). The correspondence from the libraries authenti-
cated the website investigation that had been undertaken by the researcher and it
was determined that, apart from the library websites, various other means were
used to inform users about library closures and to provide information on COVID-
 3 User Services in Ghanaian Academic Libraries in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic 51

19. For example, UCC used Facebook to inform users about the library closure and
COVID-19 preventive measures (Figures 3.1 and 3.2).
As teaching and learning moved online during the pandemic, most of the
academic libraries surveyed also moved their resources and services online. For
example, the services provided by the UG Libraries included off-campus access,
research guides, past exam questions, article requests, free electronic resources,
subscribed databases A–Z, access to emerging research on COVID-19 and Ask-a-Li-
brarian (Figure 3.3). The UG Libraries also used social media networks such as Face-
book, WhatsApp and YouTube to interact with their users and educate them on
how to use the online services, for example how to register for off-campus access,
how to access past questions and how to obtain peer-reviewed journals (Figure
3.4). Before the COVID-19 pandemic, digital library service provision and the use
of social media for library service delivery was minimal in Ghana. However, with
the emergence of the pandemic and the stay-at-home order, there was a drastic
shift towards the use of Web 2.0 technologies and social media for library service
provision. The survey results revealed that some of the academic libraries had
previously provided resources and services that could be used off-campus. Some
had also used social media for service delivery but not to the extent that it was
embraced during the COVID-19 era. It must however be noted that, few of the aca-
demic libraries selected for the study were providing off-campus access to library
services and resources pre-COVID-19; some however did not engage users through
social media platforms even during the pandemic.

Fig. 3.1: UCC Sam Jonah Library Facebook COVID-19 Information.

52 Amy P.A. Asimah

Fig. 3.2: UCC Sam Jonah Library Facebook COVID-19 Closure Notice.
 3 User Services in Ghanaian Academic Libraries in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic 53

Fig. 3.3: Services on the UG Balme Library Website during COVID-19.

Fig. 3.4: UG Balme Library YouTube Step-by-step Guide for Online Services.
54 Amy P.A. Asimah

Remote Access Replaced Face-to-face Services

In response to COVID-19, all universities in Ghana were closed which brought an

abrupt end to the activities of the second semester of the 2019/2020 academic year.
To continue with teaching and learning online and to conclude the second semes-
ter, libraries needed to ensure that eresources and services could be used widely.
The survey of the academic library websites and of their official social media net-
works demonstrated that limited-time free electronic resources offered by elec-
tronic resource database providers and other channels were generally being used.
This finding reflects work undertaken by Mehta and Wang (2020) which revealed
the drastic shift from traditional service provision to electronic service provision
during the pandemic.
The survey of the ten academic libraries found that the library websites were
heavily used as off-campus routes to the library resources and services; users could
obtain access to subscribed database resources. Generally, the usage mode was:
–– Log on to the academic library website directly or via the University website
with navigation to the library portal, and click on Off Campus Access
–– Enter username and password, usually student or staff ID depending on the
operating system, if already registered, to access the electronic resources; if not
registered follow the step-by-step instruction given by the system to register,
and
–– After successful logging on to the system, access the library’s electronic
resources.

Other resources and services such as open access databases, ebooks, past examina-
tion questions, theses/dissertations from the institutional repository and services
such as article request, literature search and many others were provided for users
through the library websites.
Many electronic database vendors provided free limited-time use of eresources
in support of society’s COVID-19 prevention and response work. Academic librar-
ies listed and linked free resources for users to access directly without the usual
off-campus access requirements. In addition, leading publishers like Elsevier,
Oxford, Wiley, Nature, BMJ, CDC, Emerald and Cambridge provided free access to
the latest literature on COVID-19 through Google Scholar (Figure 3.5). The survey
found that Google Scholar was listed on library websites under the A–Z databases,
or Free and Open Databases (Figure 3.6) and the Google Scholar widget was embed-
ded in some online library research guides.
 3 User Services in Ghanaian Academic Libraries in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic 55

Fig. 3.5: Free Access to Literature on COVID-19 on UG Website.

Fig. 3.6: Free and Open Databases including Google Scholar on UG Website.

To facilitate users’ access to electronic resources generally, some libraries produced

and published user guides to help faculty and students use the library network
services and the various digital resources effectively during the COVID-19 preven-
56 Amy P.A. Asimah

tion and control stage. The libraries improved online digital resource acquisition
methods and increased digital service provision methods.

Free Access to Electronic Resources

As already noted, to support the emergency online teaching, learning and research
conducted during the pandemic as well as to curtail the spread of the virus, several
publishers, internet providers and database vendors launched free access to online
academic resources for a limited time. Many academic libraries made these free
resources available for users on their websites after testing and confirming success-
ful access.
The survey found that during the pandemic the academic libraries launched
free ebook sections on their websites and published their availability and step-by-
step guide on usage via social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Tele-
gram; Figure 3.7 from UCC provides an example of the ebooks made available for
use. The libraries collected multimedia academic resources for users and provided
guidance in their use.

Fig. 3.7: UCC List of free ebooks available.

 3 User Services in Ghanaian Academic Libraries in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic 57

Remote 24/7 Reference Service Provision

During the pandemic, library users did not appear to encounter many problems
in using resources and services of the library or in obtaining the assistance of

Fig. 3.8: Virtual reference service provision.

librarians although face-to-face services were suspended. The survey revealed that
virtual reference services were provided by some of the libraries surveyed and
their methods included email, telephone, WhatsApp, Telegram and Chat through
library management systems and their online interfaces. 40% of the libraries pro-
vided no virtual reference services. The libraries provided virtual reference ser-
vices on various devices and were reachable 24/7 while the libraries remained
closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and at the same time met the needs of
users with traditional face-to-face services unavailable.
According to the survey, 60% of the libraries provided reference and contact
information on library websites, Facebook accounts, YouTube and Twitter during
the COVID-19 health crises. The survey results which included multiple responses
(Figure 3.8) indicate that 20% of the libraries provided telephone reference services
and 40% of the libraries offered email reference services to users who needed lit-
erature searches or assistance with electronic resources. Concerns of users during
the use of electronic resources were sent through emails to library staff and assis-
tance was given at the earliest convenience. 10% of the libraries used Telegram for
messaging; 10% used WhatsApp; and 10% used chat approaches provided through
library systems. The survey found that research support services were provided
online by 60% of the surveyed academic libraries. However, 40% of the libraries
58 Amy P.A. Asimah

did not provide adequate online subject service support during the COVID-19 pan-
demic.

Suspension of Print Material Services

Most of the libraries surveyed were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and sus-
pended book returning services. Most of the libraries sent notices to inform users
that books on loan would not be regarded as overdue and would not therefore be
subject to penalty, thereby relieving user concerns. It is worth noting that few of the
libraries provided print material services during the pandemic The respondents
indicated that library staff adopted a non-contact delivery approach to avoid being
infected. For instance, HTU reported: “Individual users contacted the library either
through phones or email requesting particular books. Such were delivered physi-
cally to the persons or were kept at the university security office for the persons
to pick up at later time and users’ particulars entered in the signed short loan reg-
ister provided by the library”. As shown in Table 1, the UG Balme Library website
investigation indicated the provision of a print material service. According to the
UG library respondent, some users contacted the library by phone or email request-
ing particular books, and delivery was done physically, but the COVID-19 protocols
were observed to prevent infection. These services helped users who were desper-
ately in need of some print materials.

Challenges Encountered
The study sought to establish the nature of the challenges encountered by library
staff working in-house during the pandemic, and by staff working from home.
Table 3 provides details on responses received. The results reflected the personal
and institutional perspectives provided by the ten individuals contacted since they
were heads of libraries and received complaints or reports from their subordi-
nates on the challenges they faced. The majority, 80%, were anxious about being
infected with COVID-19 despite the in-house hygiene protocols observed. 70% of
the respondents were constantly maintaining social distance and taking extra care
by wearing face masks and frequently washing hands for personal reasons as well
as concern for the library collections and their users; and frequently disinfecting
the library environment. Some respondents, 30%, had the additional challenge of
quarantining library materials that were handled. Fewer respondents, 10%, experi-
enced problems dealing with requests for scanned materials used in teaching and
 3 User Services in Ghanaian Academic Libraries in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic 59

learning. Some staff took things for granted and failed to observe the protocols
appropriately.

Table 3.1: Challenges Encountered by Staff Working In-House. Source: Field data 2020.

Responses Frequency Percentage

Constantly maintaining social distance 7 70

Frequent disinfecting the library environment 7 70
Anxiety about being infected with COVID-19 despite the in-house hygiene 8 80
Taking extra care by wearing face and nose mask and hand washing for 7 70
their health-care, library collections and their users
Quarantining library materials that were handled 3 30
Staff are taking things for granted and hardly observe the protocols 1 10
Dealing with requests for scanning of materials used in teaching and 1 10
learning

The researcher was also interested in determining the challenges encountered

by library staff working from home during the pandemic. The analyses of the
responses are shown in Table 2.

Table 3.2: Challenges Encountered by Staff Working from Home. Source: Field data 2020.

Responses Frequency Percentage

a. Lack of ICT devices at home 5 50

b. Intermittent power supply 4 40
c. Poor internet connectivity 8 80
d. High cost of data for browsing 10 100
e. Lack of technical skills to operate computers, access documents 6 60
saved in clouds off-campus and shared network drives to provide
services efficiently from home
f. Inability to have a private working space at home 5 50
g. Dealing with children at home while working 9 90
h. Negative emotional feelings such as uncertainty, isolation and stress 6 60
resulting from the inability of library staff to collaborate, support,
social network and to join others
i. Newness of telecommuting 1 10
j. Lack of personal contact with colleagues 1 10

The study showed that the high cost of data and Internet use for browsing was the
most encountered challenge for staff working from home. In addition, 90% had to
deal with children at home while working and 80% had poor internet connectivity.
60 Amy P.A. Asimah

It was clearly shown in the analysis that a large proportion of staff, 60%, lacked ICT
skills required and some experienced negative emotional feelings such as uncer-
tainty, isolation and stress resulting from a lack of association with colleagues; 50%
lacked ICT devices and private working spaces at home; and 40% of staff had inter-
mittent power supply at home. A few staff, 10%, were new to telecommuting and
unable to gain help through personal contact with colleagues.
The researcher sought to find out the level of preparedness of the academic
libraries for emergency remote service provision. Responses revealed that 70%
were partially prepared, 10% indicated they were fully prepared, and 20% were
not prepared.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The COVID-19 outbreak has redefined the narrative for everyone and led to partic-
ular issues in the global educational sector. Traditional face-to-face teaching, learn-
ing and research have contracted as educational institutions migrated to virtual
learning spaces which directly affected the service provision of academic libraries.
According to the website investigation, the analysis of social media access, and
direct correspondence with staff from the libraries surveyed, Ghanaian academic
libraries have placed great importance on responding to COVID-19 and constantly
updated the methods of user service provision starting from rapid library closure
to the delivery of innovative online services. The use of social media platforms for
the delivery of library services which, according to Ahenkorah-Marfo and Akussah
(2016), was low pre-COVID-19 has become well accepted and adopted during the
pandemic and will linger on.
The study found that library websites and social media platforms especially Face-
book, WhatsApp, Telegram and YouTube, were heavily used as a means of interaction
between libraries and users and also for the provision of professional services and
assistance tailored to individual users. The study revealed some lapses in academic
libraries’ preparedness for emergency remote service provision and identified signif-
icant challenges encountered by staff in providing services to users during the pan-
demic. The survey was conducted between March and October 2020 and might not
have captured all relevant data including updates on the library websites and social
media networks used by the libraries. Offline data was not analysed extensively. The
survey was limited to ten academic libraries in Ghana; however, it is considered that
the findings reflect the situation throughout Ghana and indeed elsewhere.
Recommendations for the future include the provision of education and train-
ing services to staff and users in information and media literacy, the enhancement
 3 User Services in Ghanaian Academic Libraries in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic 61

of electronic resources and services and the delivery of online services. Fear and
panic caused by rumours and an explosion of information are inevitable during
public health emergencies. Libraries should help keep the general public calm
through education and training services to enable users to improve their informa-
tion and media literacy; they should strive to make available reliable information
sources to reduce misinformation and rumours and provide guidelines on preven-
tive measures. Librarians must be trained and improve their emergency remote
service competencies so that virtual reference services, ICT related activities,
research and other teaching support services can be provided to users. Academic
libraries must enhance their electronic resource services to offer users appropriate
resources for study, work and life in general at all times, but particularly during
public health emergencies with potential closures. Libraries must enhance the ease
of access to electronic resources and provide guidelines for effective use. Libraries
have the capacity to help students and faculty in remote teaching and learning pro-
cesses through the provision of eresources, digital library instruction and effective
links to the best tools and resources available.
Academic libraries must ensure users have off-campus access to eresources
at all times and prioritise online document delivery to satisfy the research needs
of faculty, students and staff. Libraries must provide timely responses to virtual
reference enquiries, especially when users encounter challenges during library
use. through live chat, emails, social media, online request forms and many other
means. Libraries have a significant role to play during health crises and emergency
situations.

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Agnes C. Chikonzo, Masimba C. Muziringa, Collence Takaingenhamo
Chisita and Rexwhite Tega Enakrire A

4 R
 edefining Academic Library Services
During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A View
from Zimbabwe
Abstract: At the end of 2019, a novel coronavirus was identified in Wuhan, a city
in China. It rapidly spread throughout the world, resulting in a global pandemic
declaration by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2019. The Gov-
ernment of Zimbabwe (GoZ) reported its first case of COVID-19 on March 20, 2020,
and quickly responded by instituting infection prevention and control measures to
prevent the spread of COVID-19. The government encouraged the public to remain
in their homes, work from home, practise hand hygiene, adopt physical distancing,
and wear face masks in all public places. These measures meant that all schools and
universities closed for face-to-face contact learning and adopted elearning. Librar-
ians as trusted lieutenants for access to quality information, working with scien-
tists, have a vital role to combat disinformation. This chapter reports on a quali-
tative content analysis of posts on COVID-19 on the University of Zimbabwe (UZ)
digital platforms. The UZ Library responded with an implementation framework
and adapted proven techniques to empower researchers and students with tools to
address harmful and false information. The chapter presents the key lessons learnt
in addressing science disinformation at the peak of the information disorder. The
implications of science disinformation to library practice post the pandemic are
explored, along with the impact of the pandemic on staff skills development and
service delivery in what has become known as the new normal.

Keywords: Disinformation; COVID-19 (Disease); Academic libraries – Zimbabwe

Introduction
The Coronavirus is an important human and animal pathogen. At the end of
November 2019, a novel coronavirus was identified as the cause of a cluster of
pneumonia cases in Wuhan, a city in the Hubei Province of China. The virus rapidly
spread across all continents, resulting in the World Health Organization (WHO)
declaring it as a global pandemic. The disease is designated COVID-19, which stands
for coronavirus disease 2019 (Ghebreyesus 2020). Infection control interventions to
reduce transmission of COVID-19 include covering the nose and mouth to contain
respiratory secretions, early identification and isolation of patients with suspected
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-006
 4 Redefining Academic Library Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic 65

disease, the use of appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) when caring
for patients with COVID-19 and environmental disinfection. To achieve these
non-pharmacological interventions, governments across the world instituted lock-
down measures (Kumar, Priya, and Srivastava 2021). The lockdowns involved total
or partial bans on venturing out of homes for all people, sometimes with the excep-
tion of those providing service in critical fields such as health, food and security
industries (Koh 2020). As a result of the lockdowns and infection prevention and
control measures, nation-wide school closures were implemented globally result-
ing in loss of schooling and education for millions of children (UNICEF 2022).
Although the school closures were important public health interventions in
the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, they had significant adverse effects on stu-
dents in a myriad of ways (Conto et al. 2020). The students were not only missing
out on education, but were also adversely affected in access to quality, reliable and
authentic information. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a
massive production and bombardment of information, much of which is not scien-
tifically correct (Naeem and Bhatti 2020). Fighting the infodemic became the new
battlefront in the COVID-19 pandemic. The infodemic is an overabundance of infor-
mation, both online and offline and includes deliberate attempts to disseminate
wrong information to undermine the public health response as well as advancing
alternative agendas of groups or individuals (Patel, Kute, and Agarwal 2020; WHO
n.d.). This chapter explores the approach, strategy and initiatives of the University
of Zimbabwe (UZ) Library in combatting the COVID-19 infodemic among research-
ers and students.

The Context Agnes C. Chikonzo, Masimba C. Muziringa, Collence T. Chisita and Rexwhite T. Enakrire

Zimbabwe reported its first confirmed COVID-19 case on March 20, 2020, and the
number increased steadily (Murewanhema et al. 2020). In Zimbabwe, from March
20, 2020, to August 19, 2021, there were 121,498 confirmed cases of COVID-19
with 4,181 deaths (Murewanhema et al. 2020). As a result of the restrictions and
containment measures put by the Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ), all schools and
universities closed for face-to-face contact learning and adopted elearning. This
meant that all learning was undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. To those
students who sometimes experienced access challenges, it meant that sometimes
learning took place without the mediation of teachers and the trusted expertise
of librarians. During the global pandemic, disinformation and anti-science beliefs
emerged strongly with negative effects on the response to COVID-19, vaccine roll-
out programmes and in addition on concerns about climate change. During the
66 Agnes C. Chikonzo, Masimba C. Muziringa, Collence T. Chisita and Rexwhite T. Enakrire

peak of the COV|ID-19 pandemic, it was estimated that over 1.6 billion children were
out of the classroom globally (Pokhrel and Chhetri 2021). As a result of the closure of
schools and colleges, learning and access to information changed dramatically. There
was an increase in the use of social media platforms driving access to content.
The University of Zimbabwe is the founding and premier institution of higher
education in Zimbabwe and was established in 1952. It is located in Mount Pleas-
ant, a suburb in Harare. UZ offers 175 accredited undergraduate programmes and
122 taught master’s programmes along with MPhil and DPhil programmes across
nine faculties and the College of Health Sciences.. The institution closed its campus
to approximately 21,000 students and staff on March 23, 2020 (Tarisayi and Mun-
yaradzi 2021). During the period from March 2020 to July 2020, there was a state
of awe as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the population and the total number of
infections and deaths increased. Learning and access to content and correct infor-
mation almost came to a standstill (Nhatuve 2021). It is probable that during this
period a lacuna was created in terms of access to correct, scientific and verifiable
information. There was an exponential rise in disinformation and misinformation
which resulted in a “pandemic of disinformation” (Tagliabue, Galassi, and Mariani
2020). The University gradually transited to learning from home using the Moodle
elearning platform complemented by the RemoteXs software to enable expanded
remote access to ejournals and ebooks platform. Users were provided with the
opportunity to access online resources remotely after registering for the service
through the library website.
The UZ Library provided access to the digital learning management system
together with course materials and provided online guidance in its use. The UZ
Library which is mandated to provide access to all information, knowledge and
information and communication technologies (ICT) stepped up to bridge the gap
in information access created during the early days of the pandemic. UZ devel-
oped several online digital platforms which were mapped through the institutions’
website landing page. The University adopted Google Analytics to track the perfor-
mance of the website pages which had been populated with authentic, quality and
verifiable information on the infection, prevention and control of the COVID-19
pandemic. Google Analytics is a web-based service that tracks and reports on the
quantum of web traffic at any given time (Plaza 2011).

Library Service Provision during the Pandemic

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is the first global pandemic in history in which
technology and social media have been used on a massive scale to keep people safe,
 4 Redefining Academic Library Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic 67

informed, productive and connected (Sathish et al. 2020; WHO 2020). At the same
time, the technology keeping the world connected and informed has enabled and
amplified an infodemic that continues to undermine the global response and jeop-
ardize measures to control the pandemic (Saltish et al. 2020). During the COVID-19
pandemic, most university libraries were physically closed to users but engaged
online with them. Libraries revamped their web pages, reassigned resources to
the support of remote access, and planned robust online offerings with the view
of fighting a surge in misinformation, disinformation and anti-science by various
communities (Rafiq et al. 2021). Librarians are known to be trusted lieutenants in
the provision of scholarly information sources (Chisita 2020).
As already noted, an infodemic is an excess supply of information, both online
and offline. It includes deliberate and purposeful attempts to create, share and dis-
seminate wrong information to undermine the public health response and advance
alternative agendas of groups or individuals (Zhang et al. 2021). Mis- and disinfor-
mation in medical areas can be harmful to people’s physical and mental health,
increase stigmatization, threaten precious health gains and lead to poor obser-
vance of public health measures, thus reducing their effectiveness and endan-
gering countries’ ability to stop the COVID-19 pandemic (Jaiswal, LoSchiavo, and
Perlman 2020; Vusumuzi, Sisasenkosi, and Nodumo 2020). It is within this context
and particularly during the current uncertain times that academic libraries have a
collective sacrosanct institutional and national responsibility of societal and edu-
cational dimensions.
The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent infodemic have forced academic
libraries to rethink, restrategise and adopt a novel pedagogical strategy in the form
of metaliteracy. Mackey (2020) viewed metaliteracy as a befitting pedagogical strat-
egy of the post-truth era. Metaliteracy as a model was initially developed to update
the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy
Competency Standards for Higher Education and to realign the American Library
Association (ALA) definition of information literacy with 21st century challenges.
The ACRL standards written in 2000 were rescinded in 2016 following considerable
discussion (Jackman and Weiner 2017). Metaliteracy serves as a pedagogical frame-
work to engage students in the evaluation, production, and sharing of truthful and
trusted information. Garrett and Sharot (2017, 15) noted how established beliefs
can be extremely resistant to change despite the availability and accessibility of
empirical evidence to counter such narratives. This assertion emphasises the need
to adapt metaliteracy as a pedagogical strategy that will build and sustain a crit-
ical mass of critical thinkers. The importance of metaliteracy and metacognition
is emphasised in the revised definition of information literacy and related frame-
works (Fulkerson, Ariew, and Jacobson 2017).
68 Agnes C. Chikonzo, Masimba C. Muziringa, Collence T. Chisita and Rexwhite T. Enakrire

Hill and Mackey (2021) noted that metaliteracy influenced the development of
the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education by redefining
the learner as a philosophical and dynamic producer of content in collaborative
information environments. Digital platforms enable users to access and create as
well as share content. The proliferation of Open Educational Resources (OERs) on
the digital platforms of academic libraries is testimony of the ability of academic
institutions to mobilise their staff to produce content in support of teaching, learn-
ing and research. Hill and Mackey (2021) contend that the 21st century has wit-
nessed an unprecedented production of born digital content accessible through
mobile devices emphasising m-learning and m-libraries as users expect instant
access. New convenient means of access require users to be weaponised with
skills to critically evaluate content. Hill and Mackey note that the transition from
traditional editorial filters to decentred digital environments, where everyone
thinks they are an expert, necessitates the need for a higher level of individual
and civic responsibility to create and share information ethically. Durodolu,
Chisita, and Dube (2021) state that the challenge of information disorder in the
wake of the COVID-19 pandemic requires a pedagogical methodology that instils
critical thinking skills. They indicate that lessons could be drawn from librarians
and related information professionals who have adapted information literacy
and metaliteracy programmes for the benefit of their users to counter COVID-19
fake news. Dunn et al. (2021) highlight interventions positioned on social media
platforms to limit the spread of misinformation by adding friction to sharing. For
example, Twitter has secreted and labelled problematic posts, and in some cases
has removed the option to retweet certain posts or share certain links, with the
intention of limiting the spread of misinformation without suspending influential
users.
Libraries and library associations led by the International Federation of Library
Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the global voice of the library and informa-
tion profession, have developed various templates, models and guidelines during
the COVID-19 pandemic (IFLA 2020). Lim (2020) notes that various approaches
have been used to guide users in evaluating information resources and the use
of LibGuides or librarians’ guides represent recommended methods or strategies
for evaluating the news. The various guides available suggest a checklist approach
to spotting fake news or assessing news sources in a broad sense. LibGuides and
other documents prepared by many libraries emphasise evaluation criteria to be
used in determining the veracity of information and provide help to their users in
discerning fake news with reference to media stories. Some criteria and assistance
provided include:
–– CAARP (currency, authority, accuracy, relevance, and purpose) or CRAAP test
which is useful in evaluating academic resources for discerning fake news
 4 Redefining Academic Library Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic 69

–– SMART (source, motive, authority, review, two-source test) can be offered by

academic libraries to discern fake news with reference to media stories (Okeya
2022, 135)
–– How to Fact Check Like a Pro (Gray 2017) provides ten tips for checking fake
news, and
–– International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
resources, for example, How to Spot Fake News, an infographic checklist of
criteria to check in identifying the veracity of information. The criteria include
the author’s credentials, media bias, source, currency, and the reader or view-
er’s own judgement.

The call for applicants for the 2nd WHO training in infodemic management (WHO
2021) identified that the world was faced with a double pandemic of the COVID-
19 infection and the accompanying infodemic. It noted that there was an urgent
need to address the infodemic accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic, as most
countries were battling both. As the world accelerated the development and rollout
of public health measures, such as the vaccine rollout to achieve herd immunity,
making quality health information available, accessible and stimulating its usage
became a critical milestone towards ending the pandemic. WHO which is the global
leader and watchdog on all matters related to promotion and fostering health and
wellbeing has developed activities that support and anchor national pandemic
preparedness to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic and the infodemic (Javed and
Chattu 2020). WHO has recognised infodemiology as a strategic field of interest in
the post-modern society characterised by hyperconnectivity of individuals, societ-
ies, communities and nation-states (WHO n.d.). The term infodemiology is a port-
manteau of information and epidemiology. “Infodemiology can be defined as the
science of distribution and determinants of information in an electronic medium,
specifically the Internet, or in a population, with the ultimate aim to inform public
health and public policy” (Eysenbach 2009). The aim is to foster a coordinated and
evidence-based approach to ensure universal access to reliable information.

Determining the Nature of the Response to the Pandemic by

the University of Zimbabwe

This chapter explores the redefinition of library services which occurred as a result
of the COVID-19 pandemic at the UZ. The approach taken adopted a qualitative
summative content analysis to determine the presence of certain keywords, terms,
themes and concepts on information created, shared and disseminated within data
on the COVID-19 pandemic generated by the UZ community following the work of
70 Agnes C. Chikonzo, Masimba C. Muziringa, Collence T. Chisita and Rexwhite T. Enakrire

Hsieh and Shannon (2005). Using qualitative summative content analysis, research-
ers can quantify and analyse the presence, meanings and relationships of certain
words, themes, or concepts (Elo and Kyngäs 2008; Mayring 2004; Morgan 1993).
Concomitant with the qualitative content analysis, the data from the analysis was
examined using implementation study design to determine the effectiveness of
academic library interventions in combatting disinformation during the COVID-
19 pandemic. Implementation study research design is the scientific study of the
use of strategies to adopt and integrate evidence-based interventions into com-
munity settings or groups of people to improve outcomes that directly benefit the
community (Hwang et al. 2020).

Implementation research links evidence with practice to advance public health policies and
programmes. It helps identify what, why and how interventions work on the ground, where
cultural context and other factors can significantly impact their success. It also monitors and
evaluates interventions to improve their outcomes (UNICEF n.d.).

Academic libraries provide the engine room for access to authentic, reliable and
timely information. The academic library is the anchor providing secure accurate
information for academic and learned communities. The emergence of coronavi-
rus was uncharted territory in which academic libraries responded to the duty to
serve by providing trusted ways of combatting disinformation and fake news. The
UZ Library manages the digital platforms of the University. The library collected
posts by the University community related to COVID-19 misinformation published
between July 2020 and June 2021. Qualitative content analysis was used to identify
the quantum, authenticity and source of the information which was then classified
into themes related to the COVID-19 infodemic continuum.

The Data Analysis

The analysis of qualitative data can be either a simple or complex procedure depen-
ding on the quantum of data involved (Rafiq et al. 2021). The content analysis of
the qualitative data at UZ was simplified by developing a keyword framework for
analysing all posts on the digital platforms around three key themes. Public health
intervention is a complex matter and various measures have been classified by the
WHO and others along a continuum of infection prevention and control. WHO has
developed general approaches to infection prevention and control and to COVID-19
in particular (WHO n.d.).
The three-keyword framework of Infection, Prevention and Control. was
adopted for the classification of data to provide a flexible approach. Table 4.1 pro-
 4 Redefining Academic Library Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic 71

vides a summary of the thematic analysis of the data posted by members of the
UZ community for the period July 2020 to June 2021. A total of 12,725 posts were
analysed and categorised into the infodemic continuum. All social media by the
university uses handles which include Facebook and Twitter. During the COVID-19
pandemic, when the University community published posts on the social media
handles, other users would interact through sharing, liking and commenting on
the posts.

Table 4.1: Infodemic Chart of COVID-19 Infection Prevention and Control (July 2020 to June 2021).

Thematic Category Example of the Infodemic (Verbatim) Frequency of Comments,

Sharing and Likes

COVID-19 Infection Our environment protects us from the COVID-19, 5,233

Our genes (Black African) protect us from the 6,255
COVID-19 infection
The COVID-19 infection only affects the white 5,222
population
We already have some for coronaviruses in the 5,243
country which give us other forms of colds

COVID-19 Prevention Use of steaming prevents the COVID-19 infection 6,567

The use of snuff prevents COVID-19 infection 4,589
The use of the Zumbane herb (Lippia javanica) 8,254
prevents COVID-19 infection

COVID-19 Control The vaccine will give you COVID-19 6,569

The Vaccine will give change your DNA 5,660
The vaccine will give rise to infertility issues 5,253
The vaccine is part of the mark of the beast 4,243
The vaccine will alter your melanin content and 4,360
you will begin to look like white

The academic library has been regarded as a key stakeholder in the delivery of
quality information. The UZ conducted internal capacity building training for staff
and university stakeholders on infodemic management skills. The focus was on the
provision of skills required to provide a host of infodemic management interven-
tions. The expected outcome of the intervention was to equip stakeholders with
skills and competencies to detect potential misinformation and to promote self-ef-
ficacy for members of the university community.
Additionally, the targeted intervention involved the mapping of a critical mass
of quality, credible and reputable information through the UZ digital platforms. The
information resources listed provided facts and resources on COVID-19 and advice
72 Agnes C. Chikonzo, Masimba C. Muziringa, Collence T. Chisita and Rexwhite T. Enakrire

to students and staff on minimising the risk of infection. The resources that were
developed and made available are presented in Table 4.2.

Table 4.2: Evidence-based Resources to Promote Access to Credible Information.

Resource Description

COVID-19 Guidelines https://www.uz.ac.zw/ The institution developed a COVID-19 Taskforce

index.php/about-uz/uz-policies/covid-uz- consisting of various experts and conducted a
guidelines rigorous rapid evidence synthesis exercise. Various
quality documents were developed which included:
I. COVID-19 Infection, Prevention and Control Guide
lines
II. Zimbabwe COVID-19 Case Management Guidelines
III. COVID-19 Delta Variant Frequently Asked
Questions
IV. COVID-19 Protocol

UpToDate Clinical Database The platform provides access to evidence-based

https://www.uz.ac.zw/index.php/research- information on Covid-19 to the University community.
libraries/uptodate

The Internet has revolutionised access to information with the development of

web analysis (Plaza 2011). Through the use of Google Analytics which is a web
traffic analyser, the UZ has tracked the performance and visibility of the web
pages that have been created as a means of fighting disinformation. Google Ana-
lytics provides time series data on web performance (Cutroni 2010). It is also
employed because Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google. It gener-
ates detailed statistics about the visits to a website and is a user-friendly applica-
tion with the guarantee of Google technology. This tracking application, external
to the website, records traffic by inserting a small piece of HTML code into every
page of the website. Google Analytics tells the web owner how visitors found
the site and how they interact with it (Hasan, Morris, and Probets 2009). For the
period December 2020 to June 2021, Table 4.3 provides web traffic statistics on
the key web pages.
 4 Redefining Academic Library Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic 73

Table 4.3: Website Traffic on COVID-19 Webpages.

Month Most Popular pages Traffic Visit Location

December 2020 COVID-19 Guidelines, Up-To- 8,235 Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya

Date database, Homepage
January 2021 COVID-19 Guidelines, Up-To- 10,267 Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zambia, South
Date database, Homepage, Africa
News
February 2021 COVID-19 Guidelines, Up-To- 11,235 Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, South Africa
Date database, Homepage,
eLMS
March 2021 COVID-19 Guidelines, Up-To- 12,345 Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania
Date database, Homepage,
eLMS
April 2021 COVID-19 Guidelines, Up-To- 12,678 Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania
Date database, Homepage,
eLMS
May 2021 COVID-19 Guidelines, Up-To- 13,256 Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania
Date database, Homepage,
eLMS
June 2021 COVID-19 Guidelines, Up-To- 14,230 Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, South
Date database, Homepage, Africa
eLMS, News

The figures illustrate that the availability and accessibility of correct, quality and
reputable information on the website provided an impetus for increased traffic for
accessing reputable information. The intervention of providing access to reputable
information was successful in flattening the curve of use of fake news and disinfor-
mation (Durodolu, Chisita, and Dube 2021).

Future Impact
While change is occurring, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage the world
with outbreaks of new variants, increased infection rates and negative effects on
economic activity. The world has witnessed the infodemic pandemic. Infodemiol-
ogy has emerged as a discipline of strategic importance for the world. The suc-
cessful management of fake news to stem the tide of COVID-19 has become vital.
Libraries are the gatekeepers of access to credible, reputable and quality informa-
tion that anchor all facets of socio-economic development. The experiences at the
UZ and the handling of information on COVID-19 have stimulated the increased
need for capacity skills development and the development of a robust framework
74 Agnes C. Chikonzo, Masimba C. Muziringa, Collence T. Chisita and Rexwhite T. Enakrire

on addressing infodemic applications for COVID-19, and other future pandemics.

The skills development will require expertise that goes beyond the boundaries of
epidemiology, communication, digital media and community engagement.

Conclusion
Misinformation, disinformation and fake news have become global threats to sus-
tainable future socio-economic development as they directly affect communities
and nations in their efforts to build sustainable mechanisms for future develop-
ment. However, infodemiology is an emerging discipline within health information
which characterises a sign of our times. It is not so much the availability of infor-
mation that challenges us, but its aggregation, analysis and dissemination. The field
is highly interdisciplinary and requires the collaboration of information scientists,
computer scientists, epidemiologists, medical experts, public health informatics
experts, behavioural scientists, and statisticians. Metrics and methods developed in
other disciplines of infometrics, webometrics, and in the open-source intelligence
community may have direct applications in infodemiology. Librarians are at the
centre of the continuum from creation, processing, and storage of information to
communication, dissemination and effective utilisation. Skills development and
cross-cutting collaborations are essential to stem the infodemic tide.

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Laura Millar
5 S eeking Order in Chaotic Times: The
Importance of Evidence in the Fight for
Truth
Abstract: This chapter draws on Laura Millar’s book, A Matter of Facts: The Value
of Evidence in an Information Age (2019) and argues that the paradigm for records
and archives management must move away from a custodial, after-the-fact
approach toward a more participatory and inclusive model. Millar explains the
critical distinctions between truth, facts and evidence and examines how digital
data and electronic records need to be protected from the moment of creation,
to support accountability, identity and memory in society, and she proposes key
actions to increase support for the protection of digital records as evidence. The
actions include modernising records- and evidence-related legislation and regula-
tions; strengthening ethical frameworks for records and information management;
raising public awareness of the value of records and archives; and educating and
inspiring the public about the value of records, archives, data and other forms of
documentary evidence as sources of proof. The author concludes by arguing that
the records professional’s job is to keep the evidence, with its authenticity intact,
but that if records professionals are to succeed, they must engage the public more
actively in the recordkeeping mission to help protect evidence for today and the
future.

Keywords: Archives; Records – Management; Data curation; Evidence; Misinfor-

mation

Introduction
What is truth? What are facts? And why do both truth and facts depend on evi-
dence? And why is it so important, and so challenging, to protect evidence as the
source of facts and truth in a digital world? These topics are addressed in this
chapter, which draws on the author’s book, A Matter of Facts: The Value of Evi-
dence in an Information Age (Millar 2019). The author hopes that this chapter helps
records, information and archives professionals find the strength and focus needed
to direct their efforts toward the critical task of changing the traditional paradigm
of archival management away from a custodial, after-the-fact approach toward a
more participatory and inclusive model. In a digital age, the public needs to be
drawn into archival work, to help preserve facts and proof, that is the evidence, to
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-007
 5 Seeking Order in Chaotic Times: The Importance of Evidence in the Fight for Truth 79

support a more respectful, democratic, socially inclusive and self-aware society. A

more inclusive and participatory approach will help build societies that value the
order of mutual respect and care over the chaos of factionalism and division.

Living in Chaotic Times

In North America, and around the world, people have been living through chaotic
times for years, perhaps decades. The chaos conceivably started centuries ago, but
that is a conversation for another time. The chaos has turned into a crisis, an evi-
dence crisis as real as the environmental crisis facing the world today (Andersen
2017; D’Ancona 2017; McIntyre 2018). In this crisis, fake news holds power over
truth. Oppressive and authoritarian governments are crushing free speech. Faith
in governments, in the media, in politicians, in each other, is diminishing. Society
is rapidly becoming polarised into us versus them, and people live with a sense of
dread, maybe even despair, that what is read or what is seen cannot be trusted.
There is no shared sense of truth, which can lead to chaos. Societies throughout the
world cannot have equality without truth. There is no justice without truth. There
is no peace without truth. But there can be no truth without facts, and no facts
without evidence.
In October 2003, at a conference for the International Council on Archives
(ICA), Archbishop Desmond Tutu spoke to delegates about his work on the South
African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South African Truth and Reconcil-
iation Commission n.d.). The Commission had completed its work by the time of
the conference, and the Archbishop reflected on the power of records as sources of
authentic proof in South Africa’s quest to replace the apartheid regime with a new
environment, one that sought both justice and reconciliation. In his remarks, the
Archbishop said:

The records are crucial to hold us accountable. They are indispensable as deterrents against
a repetition of this ghastliness and they are a powerful incentive for us to say, “Never again.”
They are a potent bulwark against human rights violations (Tutu 2003).

Canada held a similar Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 2008 to 2015
(Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada n.d.). The goal of the Canadian
commission was to document and illuminate the extent and impact of residential
school experiences. From the 1880s to 1996, children, primarily but not only indige-
nous, were taken from their home communities and moved into residential schools,
most of which were operated by religious institutions. In these schools, the children
80 Laura Millar

lived 24/7 lives, disconnected from their homes, their families, their languages and
their culture. The negative impacts have lasted for generations.
The vision of the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission was to bring
this critical story of Canada’s past into the light, to find a path to justice and rec-
onciliation. Canadians have, perhaps, become more litigious than those in South
Africa. There are ongoing debates about the success of the Canadian effort, but the
initiative is still new; positive structural changes may take decades to unfold.

Recordkeeping in a Digital Age: What is Truth?

Both the South African and Canadian commissions sought truth to achieve justice,
in hopes of achieving reconciliation. But what is anyone seeking when he or she is
looking for the truth? What is truth?
The years from 2016 to 2021 have seen a multitude of challenges to the concept
of truth. The coronavirus pandemic that erupted in 2020 has led to millions of deaths
from COVID-19. Some people agree that the virus is real. Others are convinced it is a
hoax. Despite the overwhelming statistical and scientific proof, many people refuse
to accept the value of vaccines, or the risks posed by the disease (Salvi et al. 2021).
In American politics, the attempts to manipulate the 2016 US presidential election,
along with protests over the result of the 2020 election, have resulted in a frighten-
ing divide in the population. Some believe the 2016 elections were manipulated but
the 2020 elections were fair. Others believe that the 2016 elections resulted in the
right outcome, but the 2020 election was stolen (Ferrara et al. 2020; Persily 2017).
In the UK, the British Exit or Brexit referendum in 2016 led to political turmoil.
Some politicians presented disinformation in an attempt, which was ultimately
successful, to convince voters to choose to leave the European Union rather than
remain part of the collective. Among the most egregious public disinformation
campaigns involved Facebook and the British consulting firm Cambridge Analyt-
ica (Meredith 2018). There is also compelling evidence that foreign governments
attempted successfully to interfere in the campaigns. Indeed, some have argued
that the manipulation was so significant that the very referendum itself could be
called into question (Cadwalladr 2019; McGaughey 2018).
The challenges to truth reach even wider. Are Uighur minority populations in
China being oppressed, or is that a lie? Are protesters in Hong Kong under threat of
imprisonment, or are they free to express their displeasure with the government
in Beijing? Are citizens in Myanmar being controlled, or are the international news
reports exaggerating the facts? Which story is true? Which is false? And is a false
story false by mistake, or false by design?
 5 Seeking Order in Chaotic Times: The Importance of Evidence in the Fight for Truth 81

Understanding truth is critically important to the work of records profession-

als, including records managers, archivists and others in the information-records
field. The word truth has many meanings. Truth does not mean accurate, precise
or fact bound. The word comes from the Old English triewð, which refers to faith,
faithfulness, fidelity and loyalty. To be true means to be loyal, faithful and stead-
fast. With this definition, someone who is true is equivalent to a knight in shining
armour, a faithful pet or a devoted spouse.
But the concept of truth is much broader than a shorthand definition allows.
Philosophers devote whole bookshelves to concepts of truth: personal truth, spir-
itual truth, conditional truth and on and on. One person’s personal, spiritual or
philosophical truth, his or her belief, might be dramatically different from another
person’s. Everyone deserves to have his or her personal beliefs respected, as long
as the beliefs of others are also respected. The challenge, of course, comes when
someone’s beliefs are based on faulty or incorrect facts. Personal truth can be per-
sonal, but fact-based truth needs to be based on some external form of information.
Which means that to assess the validity of a particular statement, to determine its
objective truth, facts are needed.

What are Facts?

Facts are actions. Facts are things done. From the Latin factum for event, occur-
rence, deed or achievement, a fact is something that is known to be true because
it actually occurred. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission was
premised on the truth that segregation and apartheid happened; that non-whites
were not allowed to travel with whites; and that coloured people were treated diffe-
rently from white people. The Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission was
premised on the truth that indigenous children were sent to church-run schools;
that they were mistreated in those environments; and that their family and culture
and identity were damaged by the experience.
The truths of segregation, apartheid and discrimination are premised on facts,
on things done. But if those things were done at some time in the past, how can one
know today that they actually occurred? How can one verify and validate the facts
and confirm the truth? How can one know what happened if the parties involved,
the children, the dispossessed and the segregated are not here to provide testimony,
or if the witnesses are no longer able to resurrect their memories easily? To take the
next step to validation, evidence is required.
82 Laura Millar

What is Evidence?
The word evidence comes from the Latin evidentia for proof, or, more precisely,
from evidens or obvious or apparent. Evidence is a form of proof, whether it be
witness testimony, physical objects or documentary sources of confirmation and
proof. There cannot be truth if there are no facts. And there cannot be verification
of facts if there is no proof.
To prove the claims of those oppressed during apartheid, the South African
Truth and Reconciliation Commission relied on witness testimony, government
records, personal diaries, photographs, films and other sources of proof. To prove
the claims of residential school students, the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation
Commission turned to testimony from former students, photographs of children
in schools, registers of students and teachers and other forms of documentary or
testamentary proof.
The challenge with evidence is that it is defined differently in different cul-
tures. A signed contract is considered important evidence in one society. A formal
ceremony witnessed by several attendees may be defined as evidence in another
society. To protect evidence in a global world, it must be recognized that one soci-
ety’s concept of evidence may not be another society’s concept of evidence. When
societies intersect, respecting all types of evidence is crucial.
The primary focus in this chapter is on recorded evidence, some form of docu-
mentation captured in a physical form, evidence that is taken, secured, preserved
and protected to stand ready as a source of proof. Because the proof is captured in
some tangible way, it can be used not just when it is created but also later, in a week,
a year or a century into the future. But the focus on the tangible does not negate
the value of other forms of evidence. The work of memory making and memory
keeping is specific to different cultures. That is as it should be, and any distinctions
should be respected and supported. But it is not possible to revisit a fact from a
century ago if one does not have the proof or evidence of that fact.
It is also important to acknowledge that evidence is neither neutral nor objec-
tive. On the contrary, records or archives, data and other forms of evidence are
always infused with the opinions, perspectives and cultural assumptions of the
individuals and agencies responsible for creating, using and managing that evi-
dence. The whole point of keeping evidence is not just to protect the plain facts but
also to protect and make available the opinions, ideas and perspectives underlying
the facts.
It was a fact that, in Canada, indigenous children were removed from their
homes and placed in residential schools. It was a fact that people of colour were
forcibly segregated from the white population in South Africa. The evidence proves
those facts. But the evidence also sheds light on the stories behind those facts. Why
 5 Seeking Order in Chaotic Times: The Importance of Evidence in the Fight for Truth 83

did the churches in Canada think it was their right to step into other people’s lives
in that way? Why did the Canadian government let them do it? Why did the South
African government think it was okay to subordinate and oppress people because
of their skin colour? Why?

The Evidence Deluge

Truth relies on facts and facts rely on evidence. Evidence is subjective and imper-
fect. The nature of evidence is being transformed as computers dominate the
information environment. What should recordkeeping professionals do to protect
evidence in a digital age? The world of evidence is changing fundamentally. Record-
keeping must change as well.
The greatest challenge with managing and protecting digital records and
information is the volume of content, along with the speed with which it is being
created, used and changed. The Internet Live Stats website, which tracks daily
social media and Internet usage, reports in September 2022 that people send more
than 500 million tweets, share more than 64 million photographs on Instagram and
conduct more than 57 billion Google searches every day (Internet Live Stats n.d.).
How can such a vast quantity of information be captured and preserved? What is
the evidence which should be retained? What is ephemeral? What is digital junk?
The second challenge is that, with so much evidence, and so much of it in a
form that cannot be seen, touched or felt, how can people trust it? The volume of
data generated is so great that it cannot be managed. CDs and DVDs are old technol-
ogies. Data tapes are crumbling. Digital photographs can be manipulated. What is
the difference between data, information and evidence? If it is evidence, how can
its trustworthiness be established? Quite simply, it cannot.
The third challenge is that all this fragile evidence is living in many different
places. People have access to more information now that the sources of proof are
no longer locked away in the treasure chest of a king or emperor. But people also
need to wade through a great deal of detritus to get to the valuable evidence. There
are many digital information channels in use today. One cannot hope to know
about them all, let alone use them all. It is impossible to keep up with the deluge of
data and evidence that crosses the airwaves.
In the digital information ecosystem, people inevitably start to create silos.
People go to their own chosen sources of information and evidence and ignore or
reject someone else’s sources of information and evidence. After a while, groups
form, with a dangerous us-versus-them dynamic. What happens as a result? Divi-
sion, discord and disharmony come to the fore. Instead of justice and reconcilia-
84 Laura Millar

tion, vengeance and retribution emerge. Disharmony leaves the average person
feeling overwhelmed and unable to consume or understand all the sources of proof
or sources of untruth coming their way. People stop believing in facts and focus
instead on feelings, which helps foster the post-truth world of today.
If computers can be manipulated and data changed, then where are the facts?
What are the facts? Was the US election stolen? The facts say no. But tens of millions
of people say yes. It is not enough to ignore them. If ignored, they storm the halls of
government. Is COVID-19 a lie? Scientists and medical experts do not think so. But
enough people do think so, and their reluctance to take public health precautions
endangers the recovery of the whole planet.
Today evidence is overwhelmingly digital. It is ephemeral and eternal at the
same time. To records professionals, the word archives means sources of evidence
with enduring value. No date is attached: a document with archival value could
have been created this morning or it could have been created a decade ago. But to
the average punter, the word archives means old, static, dusty or dry.
Similarly, the word records conjures up images of bureaucracy, of stuffy file
clerks, of rows and rows of documents. But tweets from a government official’s
Twitter account can be defined as records and may stand as proof of government
policy. As can be seen from the tweets of the former president of the US, Donald
Trump, those tweets are not boring or bureaucratic. They are crucial sources of
proof, which can be used as evidence in a court of law (Forgey 2021).
The word data implies dynamic, fluid, digital and modern. But the data in a
medical database is proof of physical condition and health risks: it stands as evi-
dence. The statistics that drive public policy around the COVID-19 pandemic come
directly from medical data: hospital admission records, invoices for medical equip-
ment and, sadly, death certificates. Without the documentary source, the statistics
would be meaningless. Protecting evidence is not helped by defining archives as
tools for history, considering records as something different from archives and per-
ceiving data as something that is always changing and unworthy of protection. The
understanding of evidence must be broadened. Why is evidence so necessary?

Accountability, Identity and Memory

Evidence is used for many functions, from validating a decision to tracing the
ancestors in a family tree. In essence, evidence supports three purposes, whether
for individuals or for communities and societies: accountability, identity and
memory. Evidence helps uphold accountability by supporting just and honest
dealings between people. Sources of proof help to ensure power brokers are held
 5 Seeking Order in Chaotic Times: The Importance of Evidence in the Fight for Truth 85

responsible by confirming their responsibilities and validating their decisions. A

contract between parties holds the parties accountable for their agreement. A gov-
ernment report confirms a course of action. The report can be used to challenge
departments that do not follow the recommended course. Ideally, evidence helps
to prevent misdeeds before they happen, but if that does not work, then at least
evidence helps the parties involved seek restitution and justice after the fact.
Evidence also helps foster a sense of identity and connection. Records and
data connect people with their forebears, giving a broader sense of identity. Ship
captain’s logs and passenger manifests help the descendants of immigrants know
where their family lived before they went to new homes. The diaries and journals
of farmers and housewives and shopkeepers tell what life was like for people in the
community long ago. The sense of connection that comes from knowing about peo-
ple’s origins helps build compassion and understanding. After all, everyone came
from somewhere.
Finally, evidence helps preserve memories and supports the creation of narra-
tives used to share people’s stories of themselves and their worlds. The archives of
a poet or painter describe the person behind the art, and family photograph albums
pass stories and experiences down to children and grandchildren, keeping details
alive in people’s minds long after the individuals involved are gone. People and
communities pass on their legacies through crafting and sharing remembrances.
Evidence is required to ensure memories are as accurate as possible.
Records, information and archives professionals and society at large want to
support justice, reconciliation, equality and inclusion in a digital world. What must
be done? Four actions are central to change: modernising legislation and regula-
tions around information and evidence management; strengthening ethical frame-
works for records and information management, including the use of information
and communication technologies; raising public awareness of the enduring value
of different sources of evidence; and educating and inspiring the public, from
senior managers to schoolchildren, about the value of records, archives and data
as invaluable sources of proof.

Modernising Legislation
The first action is to modernise legislation and regulations, from access and privacy
requirements to the duty to document obligations. The European General Data Pro-
tection Regulation or GDPR legislation is a good model, although it has its flaws
(GDPR.EU n.d.). The temporary ban on Facebook by the Australian government
raised public awareness of challenges of holding Facebook accountable for the
86 Laura Millar

content on its platform (Clayton 2021). Such newsworthy events demonstrate the
need for, and challenge of, trying to hold social media companies more accountable
for their part in the dissemination of harmful content.
The decision to ban Donald Trump from Twitter at the end of his presidency
was not censorship but a step in the direction of ending hate speech. Such changes
in communications and information sharing need to be made thoughtfully, as they
affect freedom of speech, and the ideal scenario is one where legislative and reg-
ulatory changes do not limit freedom of expression but support transparency and
honesty. Social media is a source of much of today’s evidence; protecting its evi-
dence is crucial for holding power brokers to account.

Managing Evidence Ethically

The second action that must be taken to ensure the future is to support the adoption
of ethical approaches for the creation and use of data and evidence, particularly in
the use of machine learning or artificial intelligence. Is it right to use algorithms
for facial recognition to create and manage the evidence of faces when the algo-
rithms are biased and skewed? Is it right to allow private companies to add tracking
devices to online tools such as Siri or Alexa in the age of the Internet of Things? And
is it appropriate to let companies harvest the data that is the evidence generated
when a machine is listening to people in their homes?
Societies need to consider the ethics of records and data management in rela-
tion to social and economic imbalances. Attempts in Canada and the United States
to have people use online tools to register COVID-19 vaccines, for example, have
been fraught with difficulty. The problem is not just a result of hasty planning; all
governments deserve credit for working hard to deal with constantly changing
medical needs and supply chain problems. But assuming that people have easy
access to digital tools and technologies is a mistake. Many people cannot use a
computer or a smartphone to book a vaccine appointment. Others might not have
telephone access. How can societies manage the work processes, and the evidence
and data generated, when they are simultaneously trying to help those who cannot
afford up-to-date technologies, do not have access to electricity or do not even have
a home, let alone a power plug? Ethics, not income, should drive decisions that
affect the world, including decisions around the use of computers and the manage-
ment of the documentary products they generate.
 5 Seeking Order in Chaotic Times: The Importance of Evidence in the Fight for Truth 87

Raising Awareness
The actions outlined for the future constitute heavy lifting for records and archives
professionals who cannot change laws or impose ethical framework by themselves.
The next action is to encourage recordkeeping professionals to collaborate with
partners and allies. The first natural partners, the usual suspects, are historians.
But lawyers, statisticians, economists, human rights advocates and average citi-
zens all need access to evidence. Perhaps the closest allies today are journalists,
who immerse themselves in evidence to highlight the news stories of the day. What
happens if a news reporter does not have access to sources of evidence, old or
new? Newspapers die. Civic engagement shrinks. A local government could stop
supporting its archives, because no one is filing access to information requests for
public information. A business could say: “No one seems to be using our records or
archives. Why should we bother to preserve them?”
Records professionals must work more closely with journalists, helping them
understand how records and archives operate and why records managers and
archivists need the support of journalists. All citizens should pay for local journal-
ism, from subscribing to community newspapers to purchasing copies of locally
relevant magazines or books. If more people support the mediators who use evi-
dence, then those mediators will continue to demonstrate the value of records,
archives and data in tangible and dynamic ways.

Educating and Inspiring the Public

The last action that records professionals, along with educators and others in
society, can take is to educate, illuminate and inspire others and bring the next
generation into the mission of protecting evidence. One example is a 2018 study
reported by the BBC, which involved academics in Uganda and Norway who
worked with 10,000 students in Kampala to assess how well children could learn
critical thinking skills. The BBC broadcast, cleverly titled You Can Handle the Truth,
showed that children as young as ten were able to distinguish between myth and
science. They could understand the medical and scientific underpinnings of viruses
like HIV/AIDS or, today perhaps, the coronavirus that leads to COVID-19 disease. All
the children needed was some basic education and training (BBC 2018).
Education in history, social studies and civics is sadly lacking in countries
around the world. Children, indeed everyone, must understand that:
–– Data are not just bits and bytes
–– The Internet is both ephemeral and eternal, and
88 Laura Millar

–– Evidence is not just a static physical object but might also be a form of digital
proof that needs to be managed effectively for as long as necessary.

The Role of the Recordkeeper

The records professional’s job is to keep the evidence with its authenticity intact, so
that no one can question that it is proof of a fact. The act of capturing and protecting
evidence is crucial to ensuring societies have some tangible documentation to help
explain not just what happened, yesterday or a century ago, but also why it hap-
pened. Recordkeepers must bring their own sense of professionalism and ethics.
The work undertaken is not neutral; it is highly political. Recordkeepers are not
unbiased actors or impartial, faceless bureaucrats. Recordkeeping decisions draw
not only on professional knowledge but also on personal understandings of right
and wrong.
Recordkeepers are no more or less fallible than other human beings, but they
have an obligation to be as professional as possible. If not neutral, they must aspire
to be impartial and trustworthy. The task is to protect evidence so that it can be
reviewed, used, interpreted and reinterpreted, over and over again, while remain-
ing unassailable evidence comprising facts, opinions and ideas.
Recordkeeping professionals must be guided by professional codes of ethics,
institutional or government oaths of office and a sense of public duty and service.
They must be accountable for all that they do. Mistakes are inevitable. Trustworthy
professionals do their best, seek forgiveness when errors are made, ensure mis-
takes are not repeated and carry on. The future will judge the efforts of today just as
the present judges the efforts of the past. Honesty and openness will ensure future
understanding of decisions and choices made now.
If records professionals focus on their mission, and adhere to a strong ethical
framework, then they will act in the best interests of society and not themselves, in
the same way as a judge or a doctor acts in the best interests of the defendant and
the plaintiff, or the patient and the family, and not in the interests of the judge or
the doctor. In this vision of open public service, special thanks go to those archivists
who work for truth and reconciliation commissions, human rights tribunals, war
crimes courts and institutions with difficult pasts, like churches or governments.
Records professionals know that evidence is not neutral and that everyone is full
of prejudice. They know that managing evidence is a political act, one of the most
important political acts in society.
 5 Seeking Order in Chaotic Times: The Importance of Evidence in the Fight for Truth 89

Conclusion
Records and archives management is a noble profession. It is hard work. It is crit-
ically important. Recordkeepers should be proud to have chosen it. They must do
everything possible to help the public understand the central importance of evi-
dence, especially in a digital age, as a way out of the chaos of misinformation and
untruths, into the order that comes when evidence is available to uphold account-
ability, support identity and foster memory. As a records management consultant
with decades of experience, I am proud to be surrounded by colleagues with integ-
rity and commitment to the public good. All any professional can do is understand
his or her biases, hold on to professional ethics and work diligently. No more can
be demanded.
But it is time to ask more of others: of the public served, and of the leaders and
decision makers who can help ensure that evidence is protected for today and the
future. Without evidence, the facts cannot be validated. Without facts, the truth
cannot be confirmed. To move past the chaos of a post-truth age, evidence must be
protected and defended. Let us all work together to achieve this important goal.

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to_democracy.
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Olefhile Mosweu
6 T o Wear Gloves or Wash Hands? A
Perusal of Archives Preservation Policy in
Botswana
Abstract: Archival documents have become vital for preservation purposes to
ensure their availability and accessibility to users for future use. The regular con-
sultation of archives by users is also a danger to the archives themselves as they
inevitably deteriorate through regular use. Some archival institutions require that
documents be handled with washed clean hands while others require that users
wear gloves. As a preservation measure, national archival institutions normally
document policies that govern the handling of archives, including precious manu-
scripts. This chapter outlines a study which sought through literature review and
interviews to determine whether Botswana National Archives and Records Ser-
vices (BNARS) had a documented archives preservation policy. Secondly, it sought
to establish how archival documents were handled, whether with clean washed
hands or with gloves. The study was qualitative and used emailed interviews with
archivists at BNARS who were purposively selected. The study revealed that BNARS
did not have a documented archives preservation policy but a draft Archives Han-
dling Regulations document to guide the preservation programme. Secondly, the
study revealed that archives were handled without gloves with the expectation that
hands would have been washed clean. The chapter includes future recommenda-
tions to document an archives preservation policy to guide and minimise deteriora-
tion of archival documents and minimise damage arising from handling.

Keywords: Archives – Botswana; Archives – Access and control

Introduction
Endeavouring to preserve records and archives has a long history It is mentioned
in the Bible in the book of Jeremiah 32:14, which says “Thus says the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open
deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long
time”. In this context, the preserved records would later on serve as evidence and
proof of the transaction should there be any doubts about the owners of the prop-
erty. Human activity produces records. The documentary heritage produced from
human activities is recorded on media that is damaged by unstable environments,
biological factors, careless handling, natural and human-made disasters, inferior
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-008
92 Olefhile Mosweu

paper, impermanent and acidic inks, and technological obsolescence resulting from
outdated hardware and software formats that render information inaccessible
(Ngulube 2007). Archives are vital to society’s functioning:

Archives play a critical role in the preservation of culture and heritage. Future successive
generations will know what we valued most as the current generation through the archival
material we preserve. In essence, archive material is a conversation with posterity. It, there-
fore, follows that if our archives lack integrity or reflect biases then this will be an injustice
to future generations who may never get to know the true stories of our times (Sibhidla-Sa-
phetha 2013, 74).

In 1970, Botswana’s first President, Seretse Khama in a graduation ceremony at the

University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland further illuminated the importance
of archives to society, when he said:

It should now be our intention to try to retrieve what we can of our past. We should write
our own history books to prove that we did have a past, and that it was a past that was just
as worth writing and learning about as any other. We must do this for the simple reason that
a nation without a past is a lost nation, and a people without a past is a people without a soul
(Boddy-Evans 2020).

A fragmented record of the past results in gaps in our knowledge of historical

events (Jimerson 2008), hence President Khama’s call for the past to be recorded to
retain the soul of a people.
The composite material of paper archives by nature is acidic and inevitably
leads to deterioration with the passage of time. Other factors that lead to the degra-
dation of archival documents include fluctuations in, or high levels of, temperature
and relative humidity; excessive exposure to light; air pollution; water damage;
destruction from biological agents such as mould or insects; or abuse and mishan-
dling (IRMT 1999). Archives need to be preserved to ensure longevity of access for
current and future users.
Archives provide the glue which binds not only the past with the present but
forges it into the future. Archival institutions develop and implement preservation
policies to guide interactions with archival documents. This chapter describes a
study which examined the availability of a documented archives preservation
policy and the methods of handling of archival documents at Botswana National
Archives and Records Services (BNARS).
 6 To Wear Gloves or Wash Hands? A Perusal of Archives Preservation Policy in Botswana 93

The Context
The Botswana National Archives and Records Services (BNARS) was established by
an Act of Parliament in 1978 known as the National Archives Act (NARS) (Botswana
1978). BNARS predates the legislation that established it as it commenced opera-
tions in 1967 following the movement of the seat of government from Mafikeng,
South Africa after attainment of independence by the Republic of Botswana from
Britain in 1966. BNARS is mandated by NARS to make provision for the preser-
vation, custody, control and disposal of public archives including public records
of Botswana. In 2007, the Act was amended to give BNARS authority to manage
records across the public service of Botswana. The amendment extended the defi-
nition of a record to include electronic records. With the amendment in 2007, the
legislation became known as the National Archives and Records Services Act. A
brief overview of the role archives play in society is presented in the next section to
further contextualise the study.

The Importance of Archives to Society

Archives have a role to play in national development. Archival scholars such as
Jimerson (2008), Ngoepe and Keakopa (2011) and Yakel, Duff, Tibbo, Kriesberg
and Amber (2012) aver that national archival institutions can contribute towards
national development if they adopt vigorous public programmes to publicise their
services. A study by Venson, Ngoepe and Ngulube (2014) revealed that public
archives contribute towards economic development and political and adminis-
trative accountability. Specifically it showed that in South Africa public archives
played an important role in society in holding previous administration account-
able retrospectively and also by preserving the memory of the nation and cultural
heritage which can be used for attracting tourists, storytelling and theatre activity.
The same study stated that it was only Botswana and Zimbabwe whose National
Development Plans (NDPs) mention efforts towards an improvement of archives
and records management systems, while Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Zam-
bia’s NDPs were silent. In essence, lack of recognition of national archives as con-
tributing partners in national development means they have been unable to realise
their potential.
In addition, archives express, hold and support numerous contrasting posi-
tions: memory and forgetting, suffering and hope, power and accountability, con-
finement and liberation, oppression and justice, conformity and diversity, and
silence and speaking. Archives often serve the interests of entrenched power, but
94 Olefhile Mosweu

they can also empower marginalized groups in society (Jimerson 2008). Duff, Flinn,
Suurtamm and Wallace (2013) point out that archives can be used to serve justice
and even deny it. This depends on the decisions made on how archives shaped
the past and how they engage with the present. In the case of serving justice, the
border dispute between Botswana and Namibia over the island of Sedudu (name
used in Botswana) and Kasikili (Namibian name) was settled by the International
Court of Justice in 1996 through the use of archival records (Kasikili/Sedudu Island
(Botswana/Namibia) 1999).
Archives constitute the documentary evidence for actions and can be used to
hold decision makers accountable (Briston 2004). Laws and regulations prescribe,
circumscribe, or prohibit particular actions, and hold people or entities to an
account. Records and archives used to ensure and support accountability can be
found in record centres or archives. Parkinson (1993) notes the seminal work of
Schellenberg (1956) who underscored the importance of preservation and access
to public records in holding government officials accountable for their actions. The
need to preserve archives is in no doubt. Their nature dictates that they be jealously
guarded as most are rare, special and cannot be sold on the market or purchased
from vendors or inside bookshops (Asogwa and Ezema 2012). Developing and
implementing archives preservation programmes ensures that archives remain
accessible for use by communities both in the short and long terms.

Policies Related to the Preservation of and Access to

Archives
Archives need to be preserved to ensure longevity of access for current and future
users. According to Ngulube (2003), preservation of archives ensures that they are
made available for access in the long term. In the words of Cloonan, “Preservation
allows for the continuity of the past with the present and the future” (2001, 235).
Archival institutions develop and implement preservation policies to ensure con-
tinuing availability of materials in their collections through stipulating protection
measures and determining conditions of both storage and use.
The British Library has identified the benefits of a strong archives preservation
policy. It will

–– Clarify the relationship between the organisation’s mission and preservation activity
–– Clarify the scope of preservation activity by identifying the collections to be preserved,
their significance and the desired retention period
 6 To Wear Gloves or Wash Hands? A Perusal of Archives Preservation Policy in Botswana 95

–– Act as a focal point for collaborative working across organisations and in some cases
between organisations
–– Clarify relationships with other aspects of collections management such as collections
acquisition, access and security
–– Provide a statement of accountability against which performance can be monitored
–– Demonstrate the organisation’s long-term commitment to its collections to funders and
users, internal and external
–– Act as a communication tool, internally and externally
–– Provide a basis for the development of preservation strategy and preservation pro-
grammes
–– Provide a basis for establishing priorities and justifying investment
–– Demonstrate responsible stewardship for the benefit of current and future users, and
–– Explain to users why certain actions are taken while others are not. (British Library 2013,
2).

Without a dedicated preservation policy, archival documents deteriorate. To regu-

late access to archives, and facilitate preservation, archival institutions formulate
preservation policies. A policy refers to a formal statement of intent which embod-
ies the aims and objectives of an organisation usually over a specified period of
time. During planning and decision making processes, reference is made to policy
(Chapman 1990). As already noted, archival institutions house collections which
over time deteriorate and need to be taken care of through implementing docu-
mented preservation measures. Conway (1990, 26) defines archival preservation
as “the acquisition, organization, and distribution of resources (human, physical,
monetary) to ensure adequate protection of historical information of enduring
value for access by present and future generations.” The Public Records Office of
Northern Ireland defines archival preservation as:

the means by which archives are protected for the use of resent and future generations. It
is a word commonly used by record offices, libraries and museums to describe the ways in
which their collections are safeguarded and kept in good physical condition. This can be
done through a variety of measures aimed both at minimising the risk of loss of records and
slowing down, as much as possible, the processes of physical deterioration which affect most
archive materials. the measures adopted to protect archives for the use of present and future
generations (Northern Ireland 2006, 2).

To promote archival preservation, it is crucial for national archives to implement

preservation policies as they are an indispensable tool for organisations that are
committed to facilitating the survival of materials in their custody. Policies are
important because they set out goals to be achieved as well as guidelines for imple-
menting them (Forde 1998). Ngulube (2005) notes that most of the archival agencies
96 Olefhile Mosweu

in the Eastern and Southern African Regional Branch of the International Council
of Archives (ESARBICA) region do not have archives preservation policies.
The scope of preservation policies includes provisions for:
–– Common standards for records preservation
–– Acquisition and selection of records
–– Records storage
–– Reformatting copying of records
–– Public displays and exhibitions
–– Disaster planning, and
–– Handling of archives (Bhebhe, Masuku, and Ngulube 2013); URMT 1999; Ngulube
2005).

In a study which investigated archival preservation practices at the Records and

Archives Management Department of Tanzania, Pendo and Mnjama (2014) found
that both staff and users mishandled archives. Measures regarding handling
archives with gloves or just clean hands is a controversial issue as a preservation
policy and was the subject of this study. The controversy is presented in the next
section.

Handling Archival Materials

As already noted, over the passage of time, archival documents deteriorate. Regard-
ing paper, Ngulube observes that “the stress and treatments applied during print-
ing, converting, handling and storage as well as the process by which the paper
is made all affect the useful life of paper” (2003, 44). Among activities that lead to
the deterioration of archival documents are poor photocopying practices, excessive
use of materials, deliberate acts of vandalism, theft of material, inadequate secu-
rity and rough handling of archival documents with dirty hands (Mutero 2011).
Dealing with these issues calls for deliberate measures to be implemented not only
to protect materials in archival storage but also to ensure that all who come into
contact with archives in one way or another, such as researchers, archival reposi-
tory staff and office personnel understand the need to properly handle records and
archives carefully.
Handling archives in repositories is a controversial issue. Some advocate
for archival documents to be handled with gloves while others prefer just clean
and washed hands. This is an archival preservation policy matter. The policy on
handling archives at the National Archives of the United Kingdom is that it is not
necessary to wear gloves unless easily-damaged material, such as photographs, is
 6 To Wear Gloves or Wash Hands? A Perusal of Archives Preservation Policy in Botswana 97

being consulted. Rather, members of staff and patrons are required just to wash
their hands and handle archives with clean and dry hands. Activities such as apply-
ing hand cream or licking fingers before handling documents are prohibited (UK
National Archives n.d.). At the Churchill Archives Centre, the Collections Care and
Conservation Policy is that archival material should be handled with gloves as a
measure to protect them from deterioration. Users commit to do so when they reg-
ister as users prior to consulting archival documents. They are even asked to watch
a short video on handling archival resources (Churchill Archives Centre 2021).
In their seminal paper entitled “Misperceptions about White Gloves”, Baker
and Silverman (2005) argue that precious archival materials which included paper
based collections and historical books should be handled not with white gloves but
washed clean hands. Their argument is that wearing gloves handicaps the person
using the archives and leads to more damage than if handled with bare hands.
Notably, the Arizona State Library Archives and Public Records (2013) adopts prac-
tices referring both to wearing gloves and washing hands. Arizona’s preservation
policy on handling archival material is that materials should be handled with
washed and dry hands. Users are also encouraged to wear white clean lint free
cotton gloves, particularly when using media. IFLA suggests the use of cotton gloves
for handling valuable material and the placement of signs indicating that hands
must be washed before using materials (Adcock 1998).

The Approach Taken by the Study

This study was qualitative in nature and collected data from participants using
interviews. The interviews targeted purposively selected participants who were
archivists. They were contacted by email with follow-up through telephone calls.
The choice of the method adopted was due to the advent of COVID 19 with health
protocols which sought to control its spread by calling for social distancing and
wearing of masks. Greef (2020) acknowledges that the COVID 19 pandemic has
brought challenges to qualitative researchers, including difficulties with normal
research processes like obtaining informed consent with an independent person
being present during signing. Planned customary face-to-face data gathering
methods could not be used. Restrictions related to the pandemic, such as lockdown,
restricted travelling and barred physical contact brought difficulties to research
conduct.
The restrictions prevented face-to-face interviews, hence the preference for
emailed interviews as a way to conform to COVID 19 health protocols demanding
social distancing and minimal contact between people. Prior to conducting the
98 Olefhile Mosweu

study, permission to undertake it was sought in writing from BNARS and granted.
Participants’ consent was requested and given. To maintain confidentiality and
preserve privacy, the findings were not linked to participants as individuals. Eight
archivists were selected for the study and were coded as Archivist 1 through 8
when invited to participate. Archivists 5 and 7 did not seem able to participate and
appeared uninterested when a follow up was made, hence their exclusion from the
findings.

The Findings of the Study

The study sought firstly to determine whether BNARS had a documented archives
preservation policy and secondly to establish how archival documents were being
handled, whether with clean washed hands or with gloves. The next section pres-
ents the findings.

Availability of a Documented Archives Preservation Policy at

BNARS

The first objective of the study was to find out whether BNARS had a documented
archives preservation policy to guide its preservation practices. Participants’
responses indicated that BNARS is yet to document such a policy. The participants
indicated that in the absence of a policy, there were guidelines which informed
preservation practices. For example, the archivists reported the following;

Archivist 1: No documented Archives Preservation Policy. The BNARS Conservation Policy

was approved but never really implemented due to budgetary constraints
Archivist 2: The department uses BNARS Regulation of 2011.
Archivist 3 and Archivist 4 put forward the BNARS Regulation of 2011, National Archives
and Records Services Act of 1978 (Amended 2007) and Handling Rules and Regulations as tools
providing guidance in place of an undocumented Archives Preservation Policy.
Archivist 6 elaborated further by saying; Even through BNARS does not have a preservation
policy it relies on BNARS regulations of 2012, BNARS Act and handling rules, it even relies on
the Internet to search information relating to preservation issues. Archivists are expected to
provide researchers with education on how to handle archives during the reference service.
Archivist 8: We have a draft on General Handling Rules, Guidelines and Procedures For
Researchers (2012).
 6 To Wear Gloves or Wash Hands? A Perusal of Archives Preservation Policy in Botswana 99

What emerged from the study was that BNARS did not have a documented Archives
Preservation Policy. That said, it does not mean that there was no direction to
inform archives preservation practices. Available guiding tools such as the BNARS
2011 Regulations were used to promote proper preservation of archival docu-
ments. However, it is of considerable benefit to have an authoritative and focused
archives preservation policy to guide all preservation programmes in an archival
institution.

Handling of Archival Documents at BNARS

The study also sought to establish whether archival documents at BNARS were
handled with gloves or with washed clean hands. Responses from the participants
are presented below:

Archivist 1: Archival documents are handled without gloves. There is not enough budget for
that exercise.
Archivist 2: Archives are handled without gloves.
Archivist 3: Without gloves. It is not mandatory for users and archivists to put on their gloves.
We encourage our users to have their hands clean.
Archivist 4: Gloves are used to handle archives but it is not mandatory.
Archivist 6: Archives are handled without gloves. Customers use their bare hands to come
in contact with documents. BNARS bought cotton gloves to be used by customers, the gloves
were never issued to customers, now those cotton gloves are used by archivists for processing
archives. The problem with gloves not being used was archivists couldn’t reach a consensus
on how customers would use the gloves,(if to dispose after use or has to wash them after usage
and use them in his/her next visit to the archives). Disposing gloves seems to be costly for the
department. BNARS has taken a good initiative to procure gloves for use at the search room
but the idea has never been implemented. According to BNARS handling rules customers are
expected to wash hands before coming into contact with archives, but this has not been imple-
mented since there is no water basin to be used for washing hands.
Archivist 8: It depends on the state of the materials. In our handling rules and regulations
manual draft # 5, it says “Use cotton gloves and hold by the edges when working with photo-
graphs”. We have lint free cotton gloves that are used by researchers and archivists when the
need arises. Researchers are advised to use them when the materials they are handling are
fragile and can be damaged by “naked hands”.

Participant responses clearly show that that archival documents are handled
without gloves at BNARS. Archives users are expected to wash hands so that
they handle archives with clean hands. Lack of resources to enable the washing
of hands, with no washing basin, is a challenge. Forde (1998) observes that archi-
val institutions are unable to attract funding to perform basic archival tasks such
as the protection of collections and the procurement of necessary materials and
100 Olefhile Mosweu

equipment. Both Mosweu (2019), and Ngoepe and Keakopa (2011) note that heri-
tage institutions generally suffer from insufficient funding for various programmes
including public programming.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The study determined that an Archives Preservation Policy is yet to be documented
at BNARS but other guiding tools such as the Handling Regulations and the BNARS
Regulations are used to guide the preservation programme. It also revealed that
archives are handled without gloves with the expectation that hands would have
been washed clean. Some collections such as fragile archives and photographs have
to be handled with gloves to protect them from deterioration. Lack of funding to
procure appropriate equipment and materials also emerged as a challenge faced
by BNARS in its management of the nation’s heritage.
The following recommendations are made to BNARS management for the
improvement of the archives preservation programme:
–– BNARS develop and document an archives preservation policy to guide pres-
ervation efforts to minimise deterioration and prevent damage by managing
risks for the storage, handling and display of archival materials
–– BNARS finalise the draft Handling and Use of Archives Collection Guidelines
to guide the handling of archives. The guidelines would supplement the devel-
oped archives preservation policy
–– Provide a washing basin and/or hygienic wipes and enforce compulsory clean-
ing of hands, allocating priority in the budget for their purchase, and
–– Ensure that both archivists and users are made aware of the importance of
handling archives appropriately with clean washed hands, or with gloves
when dictated by particular circumstances or media.

Implementing these recommendations will minimise deterioration of archival doc-

uments and damage arising from handling. Archival documents will remain acces-
sible and available for current and future users.

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Charles J. Farrugia
7 N
 ational Archives Institutions During
Turbulent Times: The Case of COVID-19
Abstract: This chapter examines the reaction of national archival institutions
during turbulent times. Do such phases inspire institutions to transform themselves
into active participants for social change, or do they often end up shying away as
passive observers? The examination analysed the literature on the topic and built
on it through organisational observation. The chapter focuses on COVID-19 and its
impacts on national archival institutions in Denmark and Malta. There are indica-
tions that archival institutions reacted differently during the pandemic. In some
cases, the institutions took a break from uninterrupted contact with the public and
used the time and resources for much-needed, and often overdue, housekeeping
and stocktaking. Others took the opportunity to interact more with the public and
tap into new audiences. New outreach approaches were dependent on the avail-
ability of technology. The research undertaken for the study is at a preliminary
stage but has the potential to pave the way in the future for more in-depth analysis
of the changes occurring in underlying attitudes and perspectives of archives insti-
tutions.

Keywords: Archives – Information technology; Archives – Denmark; Archives –

Malta; Archives – Administration; COVID-19 (Disease)

Introduction
Many studies have been carried out investigating the reaction of the archival pro-
fession in times of war, natural calamities and other forms of social distress. The
resulting effects of such disasters top the list in terms of the academic debate they
generate. Issues such as displaced archives and the impact these have on much
wider phenomena have been under investigation for a number of decades. The
International Council on Archives (ICA) was inspired to set up an Expert Group on
Shared Archival Heritage (ICA n.d.). This initiative augurs well for a more holistic
approach and a shift from traditional regional perspectives to a more international
dissection of the issues.
Several authors are revaluating the work on such topics as reactions by archi-
val institutions to calamitous situations and using new approaches to revisit the
canonical theories that have become sacred to the profession. In one such work,
Anne Gilliland revisits concepts such as the physical and moral defence of archives

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-009
 7 National Archives Institutions During Turbulent Times: The Case of COVID-19 105

emanating from the views of authoritative persons such as Hilary Jenkinson and
Ernst Posner. Gilliland’s work contemplates how historical examples might help
the field to prepare today’s archivists for the realities of acting and advocating on
behalf of records, archives, and their constituents in situations of conflict and exi-
gency around the globe (2018).
The international debate about the reaction of archives and libraries in turbu-
lent times is extensive and far-reaching. In one of her writings, Eira Tansey argues
that no one owes their trauma to archivists (2020) and raises valid questions about
the extensive efforts in different countries to document trauma. She questions core
issues such as the extent documentation can truly reflect the realities of specific
situations. Another dimension is the issue of the right to be forgotten and to what
extent conscious efforts geared towards the commodification of contemporary col-
lecting might be creating new issues. The list of archival projects dealing with doc-
umenting COVID-19 is extensive and has been continually updated in Google docs
(Documenting COVID-19 n.d.).
This chapter focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic as a phase of world-wide dis-
tress (Collins, Florin, and Renn 2020) and contributes to the rising academic debate
about how cultural institutions are reacting and should react to the situation. The
pandemic has forced an inevitable slowdown or disruption to normal routines. For
some, stressed with the burden of overlapping diary appointments, such a pause
might initially have looked like a providential welcome break. But counteracting
this, was the uncertainty of what comes next, coupled with the risks in terms not
only of health but also of financial stability. The development of a number of vac-
cines to combat the virus brought a ray of hope, although several scientific studies
argue that the Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) may be here to stay (Anderson et al.
2020).
What is the role of national archival institutions during turbulent times, with
particular emphasis on the current reality of the COVID-19 pandemic? Do archival
institutions play active roles at times of distress and disruption or shy away into a
passive observer’s role? The hypothesis is that archival institutions can take centre
stage at such times, as communities often retreat into a soul-searching mode during
periods of uncertainty. Disruptive experiences provide an opportunity for archives
to draw the spotlight to themselves and redefine their position in society. This study
focuses on the reactions of the Rigsarkivet/National Archives of Denmark and the
L-Arkivji Nazzjonali ta’ Malta/ National Archives of Malta to COVID-19, and the proj-
ects they launched which were triggered by the circumstances of the pandemic.
106 Charles J. Farrugia

Theoretical Background
Archives represent the permanent memory of the actions and feelings of people
as they act and react to the events of daily life. The role of archives in preserving
collective memory is what makes them vital to society, as well as powerful and
precious (Farrugia 2018). As already noted, the focus of this chapter is on the role
of national archival institutions during turbulent times. For the purposes of this
study, turbulent times are defined by circumstances of disruption on a national or
international scale that adversely affect the lifestyle of large sectors of the popula-
tion. In the recent past, war, earthquakes, flooding and other natural disasters have
been the most troubled times which created archival dilemmas, some of which are
still lingering to be resolved.
One ongoing debate is the issue of displaced archives, referred to by terms such
as “trophies of war” (Grimsted 2001) or under the more positive umbrella termi-
nology of “shared archival heritage”. Writing about the issue in the foreword to
Grimsted’s book two decades ago, Charles Kecskeméti underlined how challenging
and difficult such situations are and highlighted the need for international organ-
isations to steer discussions on such topics. In his words, “when passion opposes
passion, rational arguments advocating a negotiated agreement can hardly prevail”
(Grimsted 2001, xi). At that time, he argued that the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and ICA had to satisfy themselves
with a thesaurus rather than the real settlement of issues. The institutions had not
resolved anything and resorted instead to focusing on terminology. The debate is
ongoing with the coining of the concept of shared archival heritage which is still
contested.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a case of troubled times of a different dimension.
It is a reality affecting all nations and a phenomenon which has reconfigured the
way everyone lives (WHO n.d.). It will undoubtedly also reconfigure the archival
record for future generations. Due to the dimension of the crisis, the leading inter-
national professional organisations have tried to guide the international commu-
nity and their membership cohorts on how to best deal with the situation. UNESCO
took the lead and issued a statement titled “Turning the Threat of COVID-19 into an
Opportunity for Greater Support to Documentary Heritage”. The representatives of
the various collaborating bodies argued in the opening paragraph of the statement
that:

The way the world is responding to this unprecedented global crisis will be part of history
books. Memory institutions, including national archives, libraries, museums, as well as edu-
cational and research bodies, are already recording the decisions and actions being made
 7 National Archives Institutions During Turbulent Times: The Case of COVID-19 107

which will help future generations to understand the extent of the pandemic and its impact
on societies (UNESCO 2020).

UNESCO produced four principles and directions urging memory institutions to

turn the threat of COVID-19 into an opportunity for greater collaboration across
borders and investment in documenting mankind’s actions.
When it comes to the information professions, the International Federa-
tion of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) produced on its website “Key
Resources for Libraries in Responding to the Coronavirus Pandemic” (IFLA 2020).
The resources listed touch on a variety of topics, some of which might be consid-
ered controversial, as different role players in the system assess the situations from
different personal perspectives. Amongst the topics discussed and guidelines pro-
vided, there are issues of closing libraries, handling and sanitising materials, social
distancing in library environments and options of working remotely. As opposed
to normal office work, libraries and archives contain physical artefacts that make
several workflow processes impossible to conduct remotely. Notwithstanding, most
archives tried to shift to online work through devising roster systems for their staff.
The sudden need to work from home also resulted in a renewed focus on catalogu-
ing and a more positive perspective towards what work archivists and librarians
could do from their own homes.
The position document issued by the ICA (2020), appealed for three import-
ant principles to be put into action during the pandemic. The first principle was
that decisions must be documented. The second was that records and data should
be secured and preserved in all sectors and the final point highlighted was that
security, preservation and access to digital content should be facilitated during the
shutdown. The statement argued that:

Archives are the custodians of the 1918 influenza pandemic records, which are being studied
by scientists around the world and these institutions will eventually be the stewards for
records related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The economic and societal impact of the current
pandemic needs to be evidenced, not only to prevent and/or anticipate similar events but to
understand the effect this event will have on current and future generations…Records and
archives are more than paper documents marked ‘official record.’ ...As the economic impact
of COVID-19 is felt around the world, it will also be critical to secure, capture and preserve the
records of defunct companies and/or private entities. This way, the social, cultural and even
economic significance of former undertakings can live on (ICA 2020).

One can say that as a result of the pandemic, most institutions forced themselves
towards better use of information technology to interact with the outer world, taking
advantage of the opportunities provided. When compared with other players in
the information domain such as libraries and museums, archives might previously
108 Charles J. Farrugia

have been considered less competitive in occupying digital space (EURBICA 2020).
The International Internet Preservation Consortium recognised the importance of
maintaining archival content related to the pandemic and its Content Development
Group established a collection, Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), in collaboration
with Archive-It to preserve web content related to COVID-19.

Identification of seed websites and initial web crawling began in February 2020, and the col-
lection will continue to add new content as needed during the course of the pandemic and
its containment. High priority subtopics include: coronavirus origins; information about the
spread of infection; regional or local containment efforts, including vaccine development
and implementation of vaccinations; medical and scientific aspects; social aspects; economic
aspects; and political aspects. Websites from anywhere in the world and in any language are
in scope (Archive-It n.d.).

Side-by-side with archives and libraries, it is worth looking at museums and the
extent the pandemic is affecting their modus operandi. What is most interesting
with museums is the impact on collecting policies rather than the services which
were also severely hit due to decline in audiences. An article by Sandro Debono
revisited the concept of “rapid response collecting”, an initiative developed after
the September 11, 2001 New York disaster, commonly known as 9/11, which empha-
sised collecting historical artefacts in real time. Such processes form part of the
collecting policies of a number of museums and aim to empower museums to
collect the ephemeral momentous documents and artefacts that might be difficult
to acquire once the phenomenon is over. Debono quotes Aaron Bryant, a curator
at the National Museum of African American History and Culture who argued that
“It is critical that we collect so this moment does not get lost. … History is happen-
ing right before us. … If we don’t collect this stuff, who knows what happens to it”
(Debono 2021, 179).

The Design and Conduct of the Study

The approach taken in the study examining the reactions of archival institutions
during the pandemic built on the available literature and applied a case study style.
The outcomes were supplemented by observations from the author’s own experi-
ence in the field as a practising national archivist. The focus was on case studies of
two successful projects that turned the COVID-19 pandemic into an opportunity for
interacting with audiences and redefining the traditional canons of archival prac-
tice. The projects related to preservation and accessibility.
 7 National Archives Institutions During Turbulent Times: The Case of COVID-19 109

The case studies came from two European national archive institutions: the
Danish Coronavirus web collection of the Rigsarkivet/Danish National Archives
(Kjellberg 2020) and the COVID pandemic theme under the Memorja Project of the
L-Arkivji Nazzjonali ta’ Malta/National Archives of Malta (NAM) (Vella 2020). What
follows is an explanation of the rationale of the two projects and the archival per-
spectives that can be derived from them.

Case Study 1: National Archives of Denmark

One of the national archives that embarked on a COVID-inspired project is the Rig-
sarkivet/ Danish National Archives. The institution closed its reading rooms due to
the national lockdown and consequently the COVID project was an important way
to keep active communication with the general community.
The Danish web collection on coronavirus is part of a project embarked upon
by the main memory institutions in the country collecting general documenta-
tion on the Corona lockdown in Denmark in 2020 (Schostag 2020). The stakehold-
ers in the project were the Rigsarkivet/National Archives, the Nationalmuseet/
National Museum, the Arbejdermuseet/Workers Museum, local archives and the Det
Kongelige Bibliotek/Royal Danish Library. The plan to capture COVID lockdown doc-
umentation was supposed to be conducted in phases. The first focused on the “here
and now” collection of documentation during the corona lockdown and was to be
followed by a more systematic development of collecting material from authorities
and public bodies.
The first phase of the project consisted of a national call to all Danes to contrib-
ute to the COVID lockdown documentation by sending photos and narratives from
their daily life while enduring the lockdown. The call under the banner “Days with
Corona” was mainly led by the Dansk Folkemindesamling/Danish Folklore Archives
run by the Nationalmuseet/National Museum and the Det Kongelige Bibliotek/Royal
Danish Library. The initial effort was supplemented by Netarkivet/Netarchive, the
organisation responsible for preserving the Danish part of the Internet as part of
the Danish legal deposit act, in the form of a public call for help by nominating URLs
of web pages related to coronavirus, social media profiles, hashtags, memes and
any other relevant material (Schostag 2020).

Case Study 2: National Archives of Malta

A second institution to embark on a similar project was the L-Arkivji Nazzjonali

ta’ Malta/ National Archives of Malta (NAM) (Debono 2020; Vella 2020). In this case,
110 Charles J. Farrugia

the initiative fitted in as a thematic focus under an already established memory

project. The initial phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic Memory Project was to collect
any material, for example journals and photographs, which documented peo-
ple’s experiences during the pandemic. Calls for public collaboration were issued
through various means, such as social media, virtual interviews on local television
programmes and newspaper articles. The goal was to connect with many people
from different backgrounds and to build a rich collection which would enable
researchers, in the near and distant futures, to look at the situation through differ-
ent perspectives. Anyone interested in donating their material was subsequently
directed to contact the NAM via email in order to avoid any direct contact. A PDF
document with further information about the project was sent to enquirers in
response. A donation declaration form authorising the NAM to provide access to
the deposited material for research and educational purposes was also included.
The response by the public was enthusiastic. A total of 71 persons interested
in the project contacted NAM within the first six months from the first campaign
during the first three months of the pandemic. The respondents included families,
the elderly, Maltese citizens, foreigners living abroad, educators including teachers
and lecturers, poets, music composers, religious personnel, photographers, social
workers and students. In addition, a large variety of material had already been
deposited at NAM. Materials included journals, photographic albums, poems, phil-
osophical ramblings, paintings and video recordings. The project continued to a
second phase. Following a more structured approach, interviews were conducted
to capture an additional perspective through which one can view the effects of the
pandemic on local society. All who were directly involved in the management of the
pandemic, including government officials, healthcare workers, business owners,
police officers and people who had been infected by COVID-19 were included.
NAM decided to showcase an innovative approach whereby interviews would
be conducted in a virtual manner to serve as an example highlighting the applica-
tion and effectiveness of an unusual fieldwork methodology in oral history research.
In addition, the recording of information through virtual means would also further
reflect the difficult situation and be especially beneficial to the researcher.

Comparing the Case Studies and the Countries

From a comparison of the two case studies and the two countries, it was possible
to extract certain patterns of thinking with regard to the aims of the projects; the
acquisition process by which materials were collected; the marketing strategies
 7 National Archives Institutions During Turbulent Times: The Case of COVID-19 111

for publicising the projects; the public relations activities explaining the value and
purpose of archives projects; and the types of materials acquired and accessioned.

Project Aims

The patterns that COVID-19 imposed on national archives institutions seem to have
been similar in the two countries under review, Denmark and Malta. Both the
Danish National Archives and the National Archives of Malta stated that the impor-
tance of preserving corona pandemic evidence emanated from two needs: firstly, to
document and preserve what happened; and secondly as an effective tool in brand-
ing the archives institutions, establishing their role and purpose and demonstrat-
ing the relevance of national archives institutions within society.

The Acquisitions Process

The same effect was also traced when it came to the acquisition process. The main
challenge the COVID-19 event posed was the fact that documentation had to be
acquired as events were unfolding. This has put on the institution the need for anal-
ysis and discipline in distinguishing between what can be acquired instantaneously
and what can wait. The collecting approaches were different between Denmark
and Malta. The Danes chose a specific website for content delivery and included
a form seeking basic personal details about the contributor, photo title, date when
the image was taken and the creator of the photo. The same platform was used to
acquire the necessary consent details. In the Maltese case study, the infrastructure
on an on-going oral archives project called Memorja (Farrugia 2018) was used. It
encourages more formal interviews. Due to the challenge of conducting face-to-face
interviews, the emphasis was put on the first phase of the project, that of collecting
written diaries and ephemera.

Marketing Strategies

Both institutions used all possible social media platforms and other means of dis-
semination including to get a public appeal out, inviting private individuals to
donate COVID-related material. The Denmark campaign used the slogan: “Your
story of the corona crisis is an important part of Danish history!” A similar call for
action in Malta was: “Do you wish to join our efforts to make sure that persons born
in 50 years from now may know our life during this pandemic?” The messages were
112 Charles J. Farrugia

repeated in press releases, TV interviews and social media via Facebook, Instagram
and LinkedIn. Facebook seemed to be the most popular primarily because it was
easy to use and widely available. Many of the Facebook postings remain. The insti-
tutions highlighted the downside of platforms such as Facebook. Topping the list
of the difficulties is the fact that there are extensive cohorts of the population that
do not use Facebook. The popularity of Facebook and other social media platforms
such as Twitter and Instagram varies from country to country, and according to
age.
Amongst the marketing challenges was the difficulty of defining a target audi-
ence. COVID-19 affected all populations all over the world. Thus, contrary to most
themes under memory projects that can focus on a defined sub-set of the popula-
tion, the impact of the pandemic needed to be captured in its widest dimension.
Using social media demands a constant online presence. People expect immediate
reactions if not answers. Achieving satisfactory outcomes takes time and resources
which can only be acquired gradually and not overnight.

Public Relations

A significant difference in metrics emerged between the members of the public

who showed initial interest in participating and the actual numbers who kept their
word and followed through. In the case of Denmark, from around 30,000 people
who clicked on the Facebook advertisement and related webpage, only 275 contrib-
uted to the initiative. In the case of Malta, the clicks on the Facebook advertisement
totalled 10,000 of whom 71 initially contributed to the initiative. In both countries
under 1% of people expressing interest followed through.
The team in Denmark thinks that the reasons for the funnelling down of
numbers might have been the formal requirements for making the donation. The
detailed information requested, and the required consent form might have not gone
down well with an audience accustomed to one-click social media processes such
as the use of Likes and Share. While contributors might be discouraged by consent
processes, public institutions cannot abdicate their legal and ethical responsibili-
ties in view of European Union General Data Protection Regulation and other con-
siderations. The challenge is to strike a balance between regulatory frameworks
and the potential benefit of such projects to the community. People’s use of social
media is enthusiastic and ubiquitous and must be harnessed by archival activism.
 7 National Archives Institutions During Turbulent Times: The Case of COVID-19 113

Material Obtained

When it comes to the material received by the two initiatives, there are also
common patterns. Most of the accessions came from private persons and, as much
as possible, no appraisal was done of the donated material. Most donations con-
sisted of pictures from everyday life, highlighting how people adjusted their home
working environments, public signs, special occasions, and people wearing protec-
tive equipment.
The two projects are ongoing. The main target of the National Danish Archives
is to work on the second dimension of the project, focusing on structured active
acquisition from private and public companies. The Danish National Archives
is reaching out to private companies to submit documentation to show how the
pandemic affected their businesses and how they dealt with it. A select number of
private companies have been approached and have helped in planning this phase
of the project.
A similar approach was taken in Malta and a number of private companies
took inspiration from the NAM project and launched internal initiatives. Two such
organisations are CareMalta and the Richmond Foundation. The interaction with
various organisations led to enhanced recognition of the value of archives and
is one of the great benefits of such projects. Apart from organisations looking to
national archive institutions for inspiration, the refined marketing infrastructure
of the organisations was brought into play to assist the archives.

Conclusion
The pandemic is ongoing and developing at times in very unpredictable ways.
The international and national responses have been scaled down as its impact is
normalised. The disparities between countries, both in terms of the severity of the
pandemic and the responses by authorities and the public vary considerably. The
study was undertaken at a time when the institutions involved were continuously
adapting themselves to the realities of time, without having time to take an evi-
dence-based approach in a gradually planned manner. The suggested outcomes and
changes in the role of archives may not be reliable. There has been insufficient
time to develop tried and tested methodologies or to take advantage of historical
evidence. A systematic survey of similar initiatives taken by other national archives
could be conducted to examine wider initiatives in other parts of the world. Further
study of the impact of projects documenting COVID-19’s implications would help
determine their impact on traditional services being provided and on the views
114 Charles J. Farrugia

and perspectives users might have in relation to the institutions themselves. The
two national archives included in the study were able to think creatively and to
launch new initiatives even during troubled times. Their initiatives were warmly
welcomed by the media in the respective countries and garnered wide publicity
and facilitated reaching out into the community. There are indications that those
who participated in the projects feel that they contributed to the nation’s history
at a crucial phase in its trajectory. There is not enough available evidence as yet to
determine what will be the long-standing impact, if any, of the initiatives.

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Justice Kasiroori and Josiline Phiri Chigwada
8 T he Impact of Library Resources on Block
Release Students’ Academic Achievement
in Zimbabwe
Abstract: This chapter reports on a research project using learning analytics and
big data to establish the correlation between usage of the library and its resources
at the Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE) in Zimbabwe and the aca-
demic grade gained by students undertaking block release programmes, which
involved attending campus in back-to-back blocks of time, while also learning
online when not on campus. Data was collected from usage statistics of library ser-
vices from the library management system, proxy log files and online interaction
of learners with the library on various social networks. The data was integrated
into a data warehouse and a single dataset generated for analysis. Data analysis
was conducted through machine learning technologies using decision trees for
the classification and analysis of the data. The findings showed a weak correla-
tion between usage of library resources and academic achievement for the block
release students. Block release students used physical resources more frequently
than the electronic resources. It is suggested that learning analytics should include
all data generated by learners at their institutions and that libraries should be more
visible in the support of teaching and learning.

Keywords: Research – Data processing; Teaching and learning in higher education;

Data analysis; Academic libraries – Evaluation

Introduction
Student demographics and modes of study in tertiary education are shifting all
over the world and more people are studying part-time and pursuing distance
learning (Buruga and Osamai 2019), or undertaking block release mode, attend-
ing campus in back-to-back blocks of time, while also learning online when not on
campus (Kwandayi and Muyambo 2022; Makombe, Mapfumo, and Makoni 2016).
The changing trends are magnified in the African context where the number of
mature students is growing. The block release mode of learning has gained traction
in the Southern Africa Region (Makombe, Mapfumo, and Makoni 2016). In the same
way that the mode of learning for block release students differs from that of con-
ventional students, so too do their patterns of library use and the challenges they
face in accessing library resources.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-010
 8 The Impact of Library Resources on Block Release Students’ Academic Achievement 117

The library is often referred to as the heart of the university or academic

institution as it has the duty of supporting research, teaching and learning at an
academic institution. The advent of the Internet has brought great challenges to
the library as students resort to using the Internet as a major, and sometimes sole,
source of information. Search engines like Google are popular with students; social
networks are heavily used; and online wikis like Wikipedia are seen as authorita-
tive sources of information by many students (Ford 2016; Sahoo and Sharma 2015).
The library faces the task of changing its role and service provision particularly
in relation to the support of use of digital media and proving its impact in the aca-
demic environment especially given the hostile economic environment that has
seen budget cuts in the education sector. Since the mid-90s, the declining trend in
library use in some parts of the world has been well-documented and librarians
are being challenged to prove the relevance of libraries given that the Internet has
become a major source of information (Alabi and Omoike 2020; Dresang 2006). The
biggest challenge is that the difference libraries make is less tangible and harder to
measure (Ball 2019; Creaser 2018).

The Changing Academic Library

The role of the library in an academic institution is to support its research, teaching
and learning processes. The library fulfils its role through many activities including
collecting, archiving and disseminating of information and information resources.
Library and information resources serve the informational, academic and some-
times entertainment needs of users. Traditionally, library resources were printed
books, encyclopaedias, journals, newspapers and other documents which were
housed in a building and could be accessed only by visiting the library. The situ-
ation has however changed, and library resources can now be accessed electron-
ically and remotely. Digital sources of information include, but are not limited to,
online libraries and journals, encyclopaedias, wikis, blogs, audiovisual resources,
images, and institutional repositories. Digital resources are hosted on institutional
infrastructure, shared regional, national or international sites or commercial
sites like YouTube for videos. Library resources encompass the whole spectrum of
information sources and reference services and include social media, books and
journals in electronic and print form, digital libraries and many other resources
that the library holds or to which it provides access on behalf of its users. For the
purposes of the discussion in this chapter, research library resources include ref-
erence services, or any assistance rendered to users from a specific institution and
preclude resources that are available freely on the Internet or through open access.
118 Justice Kasiroori and Josiline Phiri Chigwada

The academic library serves a wide variety of users. Students undertaking

block release constitute a growing demographic in institutions of higher learn-
ing, particularly in African countries. Issues include lack of access to a nearby
library with relevant textbooks and journals; poor Internet connectivity; limited
assistance from library staff; lack of training in accessing online library resources;
and geographical isolation from the parent institution (Buruga and Osamai 2019;
Huwiler 2015). Block release students use distance learning extensively and many
use library resources provided by alternative academic institutions located near
them or general search engines and Internet resources to find and use open access
resources (Huwiler 2015). Alternative library use presents a problem in that the
usage patterns of distance learning students are unknown to the parent institution.
In developed countries the challenge of access to remote information resources
has been partially addressed by the use of federated access which is a form of
single sign-on that allows users to use one credential to authenticate access across
multiple systems and websites. Many libraries are part of consortial agreements
which support such access (Garibyan, McLeish, and Paschoud 2014). Supporting
distance learning students effectively and understanding how support is best pro-
vided remotely are becoming increasingly important in academic libraries. Budget
cuts are affecting academic institutions and their libraries. Academic libraries must
provide evidence of their impact on student performance and ultimate academic
success to ensure their continuing financial support.

Learning Analytics
Big data analytics is “the research into large amounts of data in order to reveal
hidden patterns and secret correlations” (Hadi et al. 2015, 16). A more encompass-
ing definition of big data has been offered: “Information assets characterized by
such a High Volume, Velocity and Variety to require specific Technology and Ana-
lytical Methods for its transformation into Value” (De Mauro, Greco, and Grimaldi
2015, 103). The use of big data analytics in institutions of higher education has been
termed learning analytics.
Learning analytics (LA) is a new field in academia that refers to the measure-
ment and collection of data about students’ learning patterns with the objective
of delivering an improved teaching and learning environment. Most of the litera-
ture agrees that LA makes positive contributions to learners’ experiences (Gašević,
Kovanović, and Joksimović 2018; Jordaan and Van der Merwe 2015; Lemmens and
Henn 2016; Lim and Tinio 2018; Perry et al 2018; Prinsloo and Slade 2016; Sclater
and Mullan 2017). In contrast, Viberg et al (2018) and Mwalumbwe and Mtebe
 8 The Impact of Library Resources on Block Release Students’ Academic Achievement 119

(2017) are more sceptical and found little evidence in their research to demonstrate
improvements in learners’ practices. It is important to note that Viberg et al (2018)
conducted their research using a literature review and Mwalumbwe and Mtebe
(2017) used analysis of logs from a learning management system.
LA incorporates the plethora of digital platforms with which today’s learner
engages during the course of academic activity. The digital resources used include
various elearning platforms, library eresources, library management systems,
student registration systems, university websites, social media and various online
activities. It might be concluded that LA using big data is yet to be fully understood
and researched to produce concrete evidence that will support its widespread adop-
tion in institutions of higher education. Yet universities are slowly beginning to
harvest valuable insights and discover interesting patterns from the data, thereby
permitting institutions of higher education to gain a fine-grained understanding
of the student academic journey and ideas for improving and strengthening the
student experience.

Learning Analytics and Libraries

The use of LA in institutions of higher education has provided a spotlight on their
capacity to assist and improve the learning environment whilst maximising out-
comes for learners. The library can use LA to improve learning practices by recon-
structing the ways by which it supports teaching and learning processes (Viberg et
al. 2018). The library in the 21st century emphasises interactivity and participation
of users in library planning and service development. Social media are used by
libraries to market their services (Jones and Harvey 2019). Libraries collect lots
of data during the execution of their functions (Jantti 2016). Many scholars have
examined the data available in evaluating their offerings to students and used the
resulting data analysis to illuminate the library’s service delivery.
It is important to note that most analysis and evaluative research undertaken
does not utilise the big data that is available to the library. Zhan and Winden (2017)
argue that the library is perfectly set-up to collect, manage and use big data and
extend their roles within the community as a result. Since the advent of digitisa-
tion of library collections, it is now possible to mine library data as a whole or
in part to evaluate and measure service delivery and to use various data analy-
sis methods (Ball 2019). The extensive acquisition of digital data by libraries and
projects involving the conversion of older knowledge to digital formats helps the
library to provide a service, widens the availability of resources, and at the same
time creates data for further analysis.
120 Justice Kasiroori and Josiline Phiri Chigwada

Despite the collection of large quantities of big data by libraries, library data
is not typically included in institutional enterprise reporting systems and data
warehouses meaning that the critical act of student use of library information
resources is omitted from LA by default (Jantti 2016). Zhan and Widen (2018) prof-
fered the view that big data is under-utilised in libraries. This view is supported by
Al-Barashdi and Al-Karousi (2016). Gašević, Kovanović, and Joksimović (2017), posit
that LA is defined at the intersection of three disciplines: data science, big data and
computer science. In the research undertaken, LA was defined as the analysis of
large volumes of historical and dynamic student data, in order to discover action-
able insights with the objective of improving the academic process for the student.

Challenges in Using Learning Analytics

There are challenges in using LA. The first is that the data and information are
fragmented and must be collected from various sources like library management
systems or learning management systems and formatted in readiness for data
analysis. Records of students’ interactions with the library and social networks are
not in a format which can be used directly. Information must be extracted from
the data sources and represented in a suitable structural format for analysis. This
poses a major technical challenge to libraries and institutions of higher education.
Scholars have highlighted the ethical issues related to the use of student data by
institutions, particularly in terms of student consent and privacy (Jones and Salo
2018; Princeloo and Slade 2016; Shacklock 2016). Various recommendations have
been proposed to ensure that institutions of higher education have clear ethical
policies and codes of practices to govern the use of student data in analytics and
other digital systems (Shacklock 2016). Areas that can be addressed by such policies
include student privacy and security of data and consent and should be updated
whenever there is a change to the data used or the analytics undertaken (Shacklock
2016). Jordaan and Van der Merwe (2015) proposed a number of best practices that
institutions of higher education must have in place before embarking on the LA
journey.

The Research Project

The research project was conducted at the Bindura University of Science Education
(BUSE). The University is located in Bindura in Zimbabwe and began as a college of
the University of Zimbabwe in 1995 to overcome the shortage of science teachers
 8 The Impact of Library Resources on Block Release Students’ Academic Achievement 121

in Zimbabwe. It became a university in its own right in 2000. BUSE has 15,000 stu-
dents and five faculties: Agriculture and Environmental Science, Social Sciences
and Humanities, Commerce, Science Education, and Science and Engineering. The
BUSE Library holds over 40,000 physical items, mainly books, and 100,000 eresour-
ces including ebooks and ejournals which are available through various academic
and publisher databases like Elsevier’s Scopus, IEEE Xplore, Sage journals, Taylor
& Francis Online and Research4life. The library provides training, guides to use
and various support services. Students undertaking study at BUSE include block
release students who attend lectures in the form of hybrid teaching and learning.
They spend a minimum of two weeks on campus and then go back to their places of
residence while learning online.
The project analysing the impact of the library on students undertaking block
release sought to:
–– Link the role of academic libraries with learning analytics
–– Ascertain the association between usage of library resources and the grades of
students undertaking block release programmes
–– Determine the challenges faced by block release students in accessing library
resources, and
–– Establish the challenges using learning analytics in institutions of higher learn-
ing and academic libraries.

A survey using a qualitative approach and a case study methodology was con-
ducted. Usage of library resources was determined by examining use of electronic
resources, borrowing of books, registrations in the library and assistance received
through various library platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Live Chat facility
and email. Data spanning a five-year period from 2015 to 2020 was collected from
various sources at the university. The sources included log files, student records,
library management system records, and social media. The data collected was in
different formats mostly in SQL, CSV and log file format and text. The proxy servers
created a new entry for each search done. All searches done within twenty minutes
were characterised as a single interaction for each user. The log files were parsed
using Python. For the data from social media platforms and live chat, only the
initial interaction on a topic or query was recorded, the rationale being that such
interactions would count as a single visit to the library. The statistics were then
captured in a CSV file. The data in all the other data sources was integrated using
the student registration number as the unique identifier. For the services which
the student did not use, a zero was added to remove all the null values. Students
who did not have any interaction with the library were eliminated from the study.
RapidMiner a tool that allows automatic modelling of datasets to provide for the
best machine learning was used. Eight machine learning models were run: Naïve
122 Justice Kasiroori and Josiline Phiri Chigwada

Bayes, Generalised Linear Model, Logistic Regression, Fast Large Margin, Deep
Learning, Decision Tree, and Gradient Boosted Trees. The best performing models
were the Decision Tree, Random Forest and Gradient Boosted. The Decision Tree
algorithm was chosen as it was the best performing model.

The Findings
Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) processes were run to ensure that the data was
of high quality. The first EDA process was to compare the grades of the students at
graduation. The group with the highest number of students was the group gaining
a Credit with 3298 students accounting for 45.09% of the total students. The group
gaining a Merit had 3193 students representing 43.66% of the cohort, and the Pass
groups had 602 students and 8.23%. The Fail group comprised seven students repre-
senting just under 1%. The highest mark that could be attained was Distinction
which was gained by 213 students or 2.91%. Figure 8.1 shows the visual representa-
tion of the results across the graduating cohorts.

Fig. 8.1: Visual representation of the grades attained at graduation.

A correlation matrix was run on the dataset with the results for all variables to
determine the relationships between the variables and the dependent variable. A
 8 The Impact of Library Resources on Block Release Students’ Academic Achievement 123

correlation heat map is presented in Figure 8.2 to show the correlations between
the various items in the dataset vis-à-vis the final mark or the grade.

Fig. 8.2: The correlation heat map.

The Correlation Heat Map in Figure 8.2 presents an overview of the correlation
between library resource usage and the attainment of a grade. The following vari-
ables were examined: download data, browsing data, items borrowed, logins into
library systems and logins into eresources platforms. The heat map shows a strong
correlation between library systems logins and items browsed and also items
downloaded. There is however a negative relationship between eresource logins
and items downloaded or items browsed. The days between visits variable does not
show a significant correlation to any of the variables. The heat map reveals that
124 Justice Kasiroori and Josiline Phiri Chigwada

only three variables have a positive relationship to the final grade of the student.
At 0.11, 0.15 and 0.28 the variables library systems logins, count of items borrowed
and days between eresource logins, are the only variables that show a limited pos-
itive relationship with the variable final mark. All other variables have a negative
relationship with the dependent variable.
The data from the items borrowed was categorised for further analysis. The
categories were labelled Very High, High, Medium, Low and Very low. The usage
patterns based on the items borrowed from the library were then assigned to each
category by range. The ranges were as follows; fewer than five transactions were
put in the Very Low category; more than five but fewer than fifteen transactions
were categorised as Low; more than fifteen but fewer than fifty transactions were
categorised as Medium; more than fifty transactions but fewer than one hundred
transactions were categorised as High and all transactions above one hundred
were categorised as being Very High.

Table 8.1: Number of items borrowed by category.

Category Frequency

Very Low 7138

Low 75
Medium 49
High 34
Very High 17

Table 8.1 provides details on the students’ use of the library’s physical resources.
The Very Low category accounts for 97.6% of the statistics. The use of physical
resources was juxtaposed with the usage of electronic resources to arrive at the
preferred mode of library resources usage. The preferred mode of library resources
usage was determined by comparing the number of items borrowed against the
total items downloaded.
Given that block release students are not on campus for the same time as con-
ventional students, it is important to see how much they interacted with the library
and its resources. The average time calculated included the time between use of
eresources, borrowing of physical items and use of library computers. Visits to the
library were calculated using the times students borrowed items or logged into
the library computers. The library does not have a gate counter whereby students
are logged on entry to the library. On average, block release students used library
resources every 6.93 days (Table 8.1). Figure 8.3 shows that most students do not
spend much time between use of library resources. The first step was to run a check
 8 The Impact of Library Resources on Block Release Students’ Academic Achievement 125

Fig. 8.3: Comparison of days between usage of library resources.

on the correlation between the various aspects of eresources, including download

data, browsing data and the number of items downloaded.
The correlation checks between total download and the final grade showed
that the correlation between total downloads and the final mark was 0.087. This
implies a weak relationship between the resources downloads and the attainment
of a higher grade. The correlation between the borrowing of physical resources and
the grade was also run and the correlation between the two was 0.15. This shows
a positive correlation albeit a low one. The relationship between library systems
usage and grade was also examined to identify any relationship between the use
of library systems, the online catalogue, discovery services, reference services and
others, and the grade attained by students. The result showed a positive correlation
between library systems usage and the grade attained, but again the correlation is
very low.
126 Justice Kasiroori and Josiline Phiri Chigwada

Fig. 8.4: Comparison of item downloads vs physical items used.

A comparison on the usage of eresources and physical resource usage was con-
ducted. Block release students preferred physical items to eresources, despite the
apparent advantages of access provided by electronic resources. Figure 8.4 shows
a comparison of the modes of library resource usage. Whether the preference is
due to personal reasons, barriers to access or some other cause would need to be
further assessed.
After several analyses of the variables, and examining each of the library
usage elements separately, it was found that all had a weak correlation with the
final mark or grade. Collectively the findings showed that the correlation between
library resource usage and the overall grade attained by students was weak. The
only feature that had a significant relationship was the number of days between
eresource logins. The findings showed that the use of the physical library by block
release students was low, probably because the time spent on campus was limited.
The findings echo the research into student library use by Buruga and Osamai
(2019), Garwe and Thondhlana (2019), and Huwiler (2015). In particular, students
who study remotely or spend limited times on campus face unique challenges in
accessing library resources. One would expect that difficulties in physical access
should be offset by the availability of electronic resources given that libraries
provide off-campus access to eresources. On the contrary, the use of eresources
was also low. Overall, the use of library resources was very low. The use of library
systems in particular was low, although the use of computers on the other hand
was very high. The average time spent by block release students between logins
was significantly low. The block release students logged onto the library eresource
platforms frequently although the logins did not translate into an increase in down-
loads.
 8 The Impact of Library Resources on Block Release Students’ Academic Achievement 127

The low usage of eresources by block release students mirrors the findings of
Mawere and Sai (2018) who drew attention to generally low eresources usage in
Zimbabwean academic institutions. The reasons for low use of eresources and an
apparent preference for physical items from the library might relate to the various
challenges faced by the Zimbabwean scholar. The difficulties include high cost of
data, poor network infrastructure, poor marketing strategies and power supply
issues. (Mawere and Sai 2018).
If the usage of the library resources is low, how does it relate to the student’s
grade? The study found a weak correlation between the grade received and the
usage of library resources. It would be easy to infer that the library played little to
no role in the student’s attainment of a good grade in class. However, the role of the
library is to facilitate access to information through the provision of physical infor-
mation resources, eresources, computers and software. The impact of the library
resources usage would be more fully ascertained through access to other data like
university proxy logs indicating all online interaction by students

Conclusion and Future Action

The research project used learning analytics to examine the impact of the library on
block release students at Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE). It focused
on establishing the relationship between the usage of various library resources and
the grade attained by the students. Various metrics already collected by the library
measure the usage of the various library resources and were used in the research.
No strong correlation between the use of library resources and the grade acquired
by block release students was found. Conversely, the grade acquired by block
release students was independent of the library resources. The approach taken
proved useful and provided insights into student behaviour. The findings corrob-
orate conclusions by previous researchers who identified the low usage of library
resources in academic institutions as a major challenge facing academic libraries.
The fact that many students obtained good grades without library use is challeng-
ing to interpret. The grades acquired might relate to the forms of assessment used
and the styles of teaching and learning adopted within the institution. It might
also mean that students obtained information required from other sources such
as Google, Wikipedia and other Internet-based sources, including pirate libraries
which host a wide range of data and information. Another explanation could be
that students are accessing open access content and bypassing usage of the library
systems. The LA used for the study might not have tracked all information use.
128 Justice Kasiroori and Josiline Phiri Chigwada

The study highlighted further questions which need to be addressed. What are
the students using as sources of information? Understanding current information
use would shine a light on whether the library should change its focus. In addition
to LA, a survey and/or an observational study could be conducted to learn more
about student behaviour and library use. Anecdotally, it has been said that block
release students visit the library frequently during their block sessions. Why are
the students visiting the library and the library systems and what are they using? It
would also be useful to examine library resource usage in individual courses, and
not just across the full degree.
Suggestions for future action emerged from the study undertaken. Further
investment in information and communications technology infrastructure for
remote access is required. Libraries and institutions of higher education must
invest in infrastructure to ensure availability of library services to all students.
Remote access should be the default mode of availability for library resources.
Availability of regional libraries or hubs would facilitate access to resources for
students when they are not on campus. The distance to the library should be short-
ened for the student. Learning analytics should also be used holistically and com-
prehensively through the integration of all aspects that contribute to the learners’
academic achievement. Libraries and academic institutions should ensure they
are capturing all usage statistics including usage from sister institutions, perhaps.
through implementation of federated identity and access management.
Libraries must embrace the Internet and the availability of alternative sources
of information including material on open access. Libraries in Zimbabwe must
expand their offerings beyond data and information produced by the institution.
All libraries must be digital and at the forefront of assisting students and ensuring
they discover legal sources of information, obtain easy access to a wide range of
information resources and use information effectively to extend their own knowl-
edge and learning and gain good grades in their formal studies.

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Adeyinka Tella
9 E xploration of Data Sharing and
Information Exchange among Nigerian
Library and Information Science
Researchers
Abstract: This chapter examines data sharing and reuse and associated issues. It
explores how LIS researchers in Nigeria engage in data sharing practices along
with the problems and challenges encountered. The chapter tracks a study which
examined data sharing practices and information exchange behaviour among Nige-
rian LIS researchers. Data was collected through an open-ended survey of twenty
LIS researchers selected from four library schools in south-west and north-central
Nigeria. The findings showed that data sharing among LIS researchers is gaining
pace. Aside from conferences, workshops, seminars, and scholarly publications,
LIS researchers shared data through social media and other online platforms.
LIS researchers reused data for teaching and learning, replication of studies, new
studies, and investigation of new problems. Challenges associated with data sharing
were found to be inadequate access because of policy and guidelines failures, inad-
equate skills, and fear of placing data in the public domain.

Keywords: Data management; Library and information science – Research; Library

and information science – Nigeria

Introduction
Advances in technology have increased the popularity of data and the need for
effective creation, use and reuse of data. Data sharing is increasingly perceived to
be beneficial to knowledge production and is gradually being required by federal
funding agencies, private funders, and journals (Mannheimer et al. 2018). The
developments have led to the emergence of many concepts relating to data includ-
ing data science, data analytics, data exchange, big data, and data sharing. Provision
of access to data is the rationale behind making research findings available in the
published literature to enable other scholars and researchers to reuse and process
the data for other purposes and reanalyse findings. There have been services
implementation and policy developments to motivate researchers to share their
data. Some higher education institutions have made it compulsory for researchers
to make data more widely available (Higman and Pinfield 2015).

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-011
132 Adeyinka Tella

Librarians and other information professionals have over the years agitated
for data sharing and information exchange (Borgman, Wallis, and Enyedy 2007;
Wallis, Rolando, and Borgman 2013). There are rationales behind the pressure
for data sharing. The reasons include, but are not limited to, enabling access to
research data to improve the integrity of the research process by enabling others to
reproduce research results in novel ways (Warren 2016). Some journals mandate
data supply prior to acceptance of content for publication.
This chapter reports on a study which sought to examine data sharing prac-
tices among LIS researchers in Nigeria to develop an understanding of data sharing
behaviour, communication and information exchange dynamics, and knowledge
discovery mechanisms for effective and productive data sharing and reuse. The
specific objectives were to:
–– Determine the data sharing practices of LIS researchers in Nigeria
–– Identify communication and exchange dynamics and knowledge discovery
mechanisms for effective data sharing by LIS researchers
–– Determine the reuse of data among LIS researchers and the purposes for reuse,
and
–– Identify the challenges associated with data sharing among LIS researchers in
Nigeria.

What is Data Sharing?

Data sharing is the practice of making data used for scholarly research available
to other investigators. It is an exchange process where open, freely available data
formats and process patterns are known and shared. The data used for research
can be made available to others through numerous mechanisms. Data sharing can
be described as the processes involved in the exchange of data by researchers and
scholars for further reuse (Ibrahim and Tella 2020). Guédon (2015) pointed out that
across the centuries researchers have learned to share their papers; now they must
learn to share their data. The types of data that can be shared include, but are not
limited to, raw data, data entries in a database, analysable data, reports generated
from data, publications, registry results and language summaries, clinical reports,
and metadata.
Some funding institutions, publication outlets, and agencies have policies
regarding data sharing since transparency and openness are considered by many
to be part of the scientific method (Tella and Onyancha 2020). Some journals and
funding agencies require authors of peer-reviewed papers to share supplemental
information which sometimes includes source code or statistical methods, and raw
 9 Exploration of Data Sharing and Information Exchange 133

data essential to develop, understand, or produce published research. Many scien-

tific research policies and guidelines are not subject to data sharing requirements
or have liberal exceptions. When there is no binding requirement, data sharing is
at the discretion of the scholars themselves. Some institutions and governments
forbid and restrict data sharing to protect the proprietary interest, national secu-
rity, and subject/patient/victim confidentiality. Data sharing may be restricted to
protect scholars and institutions from using data for political reasons.
There are ideal practices in data sharing in use. Some research organisations
feel strongly about data sharing. For instance, Stanford University’s WaveLab has
a philosophy about the need for reproducible research and the disclosure of all
algorithms and source code necessary to reproduce the research (Buckheit et al.
2005). Problems and difficulties encountered when trying to reproduce research
were identified (Buckheit and Donoho 1995) and steps taken to ensure storage and
sharing of data. Researchers became convinced of the importance of disclosing
source code and sharing of data. Rimmer (2005) outlined some of the controversial
issues attached to the sharing of data and noted that genomic databases should be
a global public good.
The European Union is pushing for a set of research norms and behaviours
encapsulated in the concept of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) which
includes an emphasis on ensuring free and open access to research outputs, includ-
ing data. In moving towards RRI,
It is suggested that the principles, measures and guidelines be structured into
these groups
–– Formulation of general and common ethical issues
–– Formulation of project specific guidelines, procedures, handling, monitoring,
and
–– Formulation of data specific issues (Von Schomberg 2011, 118).

Discussions of principles relating to open data propose various models and

approaches. The principle of availability and access means that data must be avail-
able as a whole and at no more than a reasonable reproduction cost, preferably over
the Internet, in a convenient and modifiable form. The principle of reusability and
redistribution concerns the provision of data under terms that permit reuse and
redistribution including synthesis with other datasets. The principle of universal
participation implies that others must be able to use, reuse, and redistribute with
no discrimination against fields of endeavour or persons or groups Transparency
is an important principle (Lyon 2016). Some data sharing policies advocate for the
FAIR guiding principles for data management: “Findability, Accessibility, Interop-
erability, and Reusability” to guide data producers and publishers (Wilkinson et
al. 2016). These principles highlight the need for sharing data in a format that is
134 Adeyinka Tella

machine-readable, with sufficient metadata to be understandable by humans and

machines, and with a licence that makes it clear how data may be reused.
McGrath and Nilsonne (2018) examined the reasons for sharing of data:
“Earlier debate has pointed to the value of data sharing for discouraging research
fraud and permitting critical scrutiny. We elaborate on this discussion by highlight-
ing the value of data sharing for cumulative science, for re-use, and to maximise
the value of the participants’ contribution.” Critical scrutiny is an essential part of
the scientific process, and likely to reduce the risk of falsification and fabrication,
at the same time strengthening scientific integrity, argued Ten Cate et al. (2013) and
Pusic (2014). Cumulative science refers to the iterative process by which evidence
is gathered leading to progressive growth of knowledge. More complete under-
standings are developed with conclusions assessed against prior evidence leading
to clearer support for some theories over others. The first requirement for cumula-
tive science is that results are reported. New theories and methods may prompt a
re-evaluation of earlier data. Access to existing data is vital to assessing and inter-
preting data in the light of the current state of knowledge. Reuse of existing data
may serve to investigate new and old questions in a new way or to validate findings
made in relation to other datasets. Resources can be saved, and risks to participants
reduced when existing data is used instead of gathering new data.
Data sharing can help researchers fulfil ethical obligations towards research
participants to realise the most value from their data. Research participants run
risks with potential damage from a lack of privacy, but the expected knowledge
benefit exceeds the risks. If data is lost and not made available, there is no benefit
to knowledge growth, and the research cannot be justified from an ethical point of
view (Pusic 2014). Through the sharing of data, use of the data is optimised leading
to the achievement of significant gains (Poldrack and Gorgolewski 2014). The value
gained from data reuse may be seen as a benefit to participants in research studies,
particularly when such value can lead to improvements for the population from
which participants have been drawn, for example, in terms of improved health
care or teaching practices. Besides, data sharing in academia can verify research,
accelerate the pace of research, encourage the development of new research ques-
tions and design, make results of publicly funded research available, help to avoid
duplication of research, provide resources for student research, advance research
and innovation, and lessen the burden on research subjects (Borgman 2012; Lyon
2016). In addition, data sharing can promote research transparency and reduce
misconduct, increase researcher visibility and research partnerships, and maxi-
mise the payoff of public investments in research and education (Fry et al. 2008;
Piwowar and Vision 2013; Perrino et al. 2013). Sharing data helps to create richer
multivariate datasets, which in turn allows for more significant insights to be
extracted.
 9 Exploration of Data Sharing and Information Exchange 135

Data Reuse
Reuse is the action or practice of using an item again, whether conventionally for
its original purpose, or creatively for repurposing to fulfil a different function.
Reuse by taking, but not reprocessing, previously used items help save time, money,
energy and resources. Data is reused when it is collected for one use and then used
a second time (Francis and Francis 2017). Data is repurposed when the second use
has a different aim from the first. Sun and Khoo (2018) posited that as long as data
is used for purposes other than that for which it was originally collected, data is
reused. The term “secondary use of research data” is sometimes used to refer to this
type of reuse. Yoon explained that data reuse refers to the secondary use of data
not for its original purpose but for studying new problems (2015, 2017). Law (2005)
refers to the use of research data to study a problem that was not the focus of the
original data collection. Data might originally have been collected for administra-
tive, health or educational purposes, as part of census data, or as part of a previous
study (Ponk 2019; Van de Sandt et al. 2019). The secondary analysis may involve
the combination of one data set with another, address new questions or use new
analytical methods for evaluation (Szabo and Strang 1997). According to Rolland
and Lee (2013), data reuse is the work done by the recipient of the shared data. It
involves identification of a dataset of interest, receipt of the dataset and appropri-
ate use of the data for analysis.
Data reuse techniques eliminate repeated accesses to the same data, saving
such data in internal registers and/or in faster access memories than where the
data was originally stored. Frequently accessed data can be saved in registers and
reused subsequently. Data availability is enhanced and access to the main storage
avoided. The UK Data Service provides guidance on data sharing and reuse and
notes:

Data sharing is increasingly encouraged or required by research funders and journal publish-
ers, but also from within the research community itself. Research funders want to maximise
the scientific outputs and benefits to society from their investments and make sure that data
can be reused for future research (UK Data Service n.d.).

Data reuse encourages scientific enquiry and debate and the improvement and val-
idation of research methods; maximises transparency and accountability through
scrutiny of research findings; promotes innovation and potential new data uses;
leads to new collaborations between data users and data creators; reduces the cost
of duplicating data collection; increases the impact and visibility of research; and
provides credit to the researcher as well as improved resources for education and
training (Ansorge 2013).
136 Adeyinka Tella

Issues and Challenges in Data Sharing

While benefits associated with data sharing have been identified, the literature
has also listed many challenges. Issues include difficulties in anonymising partic-
ipants; concerns that critical views on workplace or clinical environments might
not be shared for fear of reprisals; and an unwillingness of participants to offer
information for exposure in the public domain (Saunders, Kitzinger, and Kitzinger
2015). Further concerns may relate to disciplinary and paradigmatic boundar-
ies. For example, in Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine (STEM) disci-
plines, views and arguments concerning the possibility and value of aggregating
data involving large data sets, may exist and be different from those in research in
medical education conducted using interviews (Braver, Thoemmes, and Rosenthal
2014). Papa noted additional issues: standards/protocols, security, exchange, updat-
ing, pricing, network administration, equipment upgrades requirements, sustain-
able funding, and technically qualified personnel (2012). It has been observed from
the literature that specific and idiosyncratic values of the original study context are
evoked to dominate arguments for and against sharing data, particularly in quali-
tatively driven research.
In relation to stakeholder views on data sharing, Mozersky et al. (2020) found
no studies in the United States that explored research participants’ perspectives
on sharing their qualitative data. The authors present findings from interviews
with thirty individuals who participated in sensitive qualitative studies to explore
understandings and concerns regarding qualitative data sharing. An overwhelm-
ing majority supported sharing qualitative data as long as the data was deidenti-
fied and shared only among researchers. However, the participants raised concerns
about confidentiality and potential misuse of data by secondary users if shared
beyond the research community. The concerns did not however deter them from
participating in research. Notably, participants hoped data would be shared and
expected or assumed that it would. If individuals view data sharing as an extension
or integral part of their participation in qualitative research, researchers may have
a stronger obligation to share data than previously thought. Mozersky et al. (2019)
recommended guidelines and tools to assist researchers and institutional review
board members in ethical and responsible sharing of qualitative data.
The capacity to reuse research data is currently considered a crucial benefit
for the wider research community. Researchers irrespective of disciplines are faced
with pressure to share research data so that it can be reused. Van de Sandt et al.
presented definitions of use and reuse, described the research landscape and con-
cluded that “we define (re)use as the use of any research resource regardless of
when it is used, the purpose, the characteristics of the data and its use” (Van de
Sandt et al. 2019, 14). New terminology will help shape open science strategies.
 9 Exploration of Data Sharing and Information Exchange 137

Shen (2016) presented the results of a research data assessment and landscape
study in the institutional context of Virginia Tech to determine the data sharing and
reuse practices of academic faculty researchers. Faculty researchers were asked to
self-reflect on sharing and reuse from the perspectives of both data producers and
data users. The localised and sporadic data management and documentation prac-
tices of researchers contribute to the obstacles often encountered when reusing
existing data.
Wallis, Roland, and Borgman undertook a ten-year study of data reuse at the
Center for Embedded Network Sensing (CENS), a National Science Foundation
Science and Technology Center (2013). The study found that CENS researchers
were willing to share their data, but few were asked to do so, and in only a few
areas did their funders or journals require them to deposit data. Few repositories
existed to accept the data. Data sharing tended to occur only through interpersonal
exchanges. CENS researchers obtained data from repositories, and occasionally
from registries and individuals, to provide context, calibration, or other forms of
background for their studies. Neither CENS researchers nor those who request
access to CENS data appeared to use external data for primary research or replica-
tion of studies. CENS researchers were willing to share data if they received credit
and retained the rights to publish their results. Practices of releasing, sharing, and
reusing of data reaffirmed the gift culture of scholarship, in which goods are bar-
tered between trusted colleagues rather than treated as commodities.
Tenopir et al. (2011) explored where and how researchers are willing to share
data, along with the motivation and disincentives for sharing. The results showed
minimal sharing, which was historically affected by availability of time, funding,
staffing, policies, standards, competition, ownership, conventions, discourse, and
technical capabilities, as well as other limiting factors.

Data Sharing in Libraries and in Library and

Information Science
Availability of data assists both researchers and librarians and information pro-
fessionals become more engaged in the research enterprise. Librarians and infor-
mation professionals become integral partners in research. Librarians and infor-
mation professionals develop skills that bridge traditional liaison work with the
increasingly data-driven requirement of scientific research, supporting research-
ers in data management, and assisting users to discover data across various collec-
tions and resources (MacMillan 2014). Libraries and librarians play a significant
role in facilitating data sharing.
138 Adeyinka Tella

Mannheimer et al. (2018) described how data repositories and academic librar-
ies can partner with researchers to support three challenges associated with data
sharing:
–– Obtaining informed consent from participants for data sharing and scholarly
reuse
–– Ensuring that qualitative data are legally and ethically shared, and
–– Sharing data that cannot be de-identified.

Three continuing challenges of sharing qualitative data that data repositories and
academic libraries cannot specifically address were also outlined by Mannheimer
et al.:
–– Research using qualitative big data
–– Copyright concerns, and
–– Risk of decontextualization.

While data repositories and academic libraries cannot provide easy solutions to all
challenges, they can partner with researchers and connect them with other relevant
specialists to find solutions. Data repositories and librarians can help researchers
address challenges associated with ethical and lawful qualitative data sharing.
As the active campaigning for wider availability of data continues, it is high
time for the librarian agitators to practise the actions they are espousing and share
their own data, and exchange information related to their published research. Sim-
ilarly, sharing data is important to motivate users of information to follow stan-
dards of data sharing practices and strictly adhere to them.
The existing literature contains some empirical and documentary evidence on
knowledge and information sharing behaviour among LIS researchers in Nigeria.
Little empirical evidence focuses on data sharing practices in Nigeria, even though
transforming data into evidence for policymaking and business opportunities
requires enhanced capacities to discover, access, and integrate diverse data in a
distributed context has been emphasised. The literature indicated limited knowl-
edge of the support that the discovery, reuse, repurposing, and integration of data
in creative ways can provide to address new questions or grand challenges in LIS
research. It is essential to understand how library and information scientists com-
municate, exchange and interact with data to create benefits and value that impact
information service practices, government policies and knowledge enhancement
in the context of LIS research in Nigeria.
Librarians have played a key role not only in providing data for others but also
in taking action to ensure reuse of data, as noted in the introduction to this chapter.
Librarians and other information professionals have promoted data sharing and
information exchange (Borgman, Wallis, and Enyedy 2007; Wallis, Rolando, and
 9 Exploration of Data Sharing and Information Exchange 139

Borgman 2013). Library practitioners and researchers, librarians, archivists,

records managers and other information professionals share data for reuse them-
selves in seeking to understand user behaviour, collection development, library
design, training projects, improvement of service delivery, strategic planning and
other activities. In LIS research, data is reused to reproduce research, replicate
research, verify or validate research, and integrate with other data. Librarians and
LIS researchers have promoted reuse of LIS data in various ways:

Providing access to the data underlying research results in published literature allows others
to reproduce those results or analyze the data in new ways. Health sciences librarians and
information professionals have long been advocates of data sharing. It is time for us to prac-
tice what we preach and share the data associated with our published research. (Read et al.
2018, 155).

Few studies have focused on knowledge and information sharing among librarians
and LIS researchers (Ahmed and Bin Mohammad Noor 2021; Marouf 2016). Even
fewer have focused on data sharing among LIS information professionals and LIS
researchers in Africa and Nigeria in particular. Most of the available studies used
quantitative methods and collected data through questionnaires. It is important to
understand data sharing practices and information exchange behaviours among
Nigerian LIS researchers, to create awareness of the importance of data sharing,
and to increase the practice of data reuse and to change behaviour among LIS
researchers – hence the study.

The Design of the Study of Data Reuse of LIS

Researchers in Nigeria
This section outlines the methods adopted for the study and includes details of the
design, choice of participants, administration, and data collection and analysis.

Methodology

The study adopted a purely qualitative method and focused on obtaining data
through an open-ended survey. The method was chosen because qualitative
methods usually give room for in-depth and additional probing and questioning
of respondents with both respondents and researchers to understand motivation
and feelings. Understanding what the LIS researchers perceived as data sharing,
and gaining insight into data sharing behaviour, were essential to useful outcomes.
140 Adeyinka Tella

The design was chosen because the descriptive results would enable the researcher
to make inferences from the data obtained. The qualitative method is inexpen-
sive especially when it is self-administered. The use of an open-ended survey
enabled the researcher to gather relevant data on data sharing practices. Although
many types of qualitative methods are available (Creswell and Poth 2018), the
open-ended survey was chosen because it is one of the most common qualitative
research methods and because it was considered the most practical method during
the second wave of the pandemic when social distancing was being observed.

Choice of Participants

The LIS researchers in the study were the library and information science experts
conducting research in LIS and included lecturers in library schools. The lectur-
ers were information science lecturers in the South-west and North-central Nige-
rian library schools located in the following states: Ekiti, Kwara, Ogun, and Oyo.
A library school was purposively selected from each of these four states. The
study did not extend beyond the library schools in these states. The lockdown and
pandemic limited the extension of the study to other regions of the country. The
number of lecturers in each of the library schools varied with six at Ekiti, fifteen at
Kwara, twelve at Ogun, and fifteen at Oyo. The study targeted five lecturers from
each of the library schools, making a total of twenty LIS researchers for the study
which represented 41.6% of the staff in the four library schools. Informed consent
of the respondents was sought and each delightedly expressed an intention and a
willingness to take part. Participants were permitted to withdraw if their involve-
ment proved difficult.

The Instrument

An open-ended survey included questions relating to the four objectives:

–– Data sharing practices
–– Communication, exchange dynamics and knowledge discovery mechanisms
–– Extent and purpose of data reuse, and
–– Challenges in data sharing.

The survey contained instructions on how to respond and defined the concept
of data sharing for the respondents to ensure an effective understanding. Prior
observation had revealed that most of the respondents had been engaging in data
sharing without understanding what it was.
 9 Exploration of Data Sharing and Information Exchange 141

Survey Administration

A planned initial interview with each participant by the researcher did not proceed
because of COVID-19 which restricted physical contact with the respondents. Alter-
natively, an open-ended questionnaire was mailed to respective respondents who
were asked to complete the survey and return it to the researcher at the earliest
possible time. Eighteen of the twenty surveys distributed were correctly completed
and returned for analysis.

The Results

Data Sharing Practices

The first objective of the study was to determine data sharing practices among LIS
researchers in Nigeria. The respondents were asked about their perceptions of
data sharing and the avenues through which they shared data. Overall, the results
revealed that LIS researchers in Nigeria share their data. Just over three quarters
of the participants, fifteen out of eighteen, indicated they were sharing data but
explained that they were only beginning to do so. Sharing data was only beginning
to gain pace. One respondent among those who indicated they shared data stated:

It has not been usual in LIS, but based on the current policy of some journals, researchers are
requested to attach their dataset or the data used in their research along with their academic
papers when submitting for publication. This practice is increasing the popularity of data
sharing among the LIS researchers.

Another respondent added:

Sharing of data has not been a common practice among Nigerian LIS researchers, however, it
has started gaining pace now but not all LIS researchers are engaging in the practice. I can say
just a limited percentage of Nigeria LIS researchers of about (25%) regularly engage in data
sharing practice, and I hope that the percentage will increase in the future.

The results indicated that the primary avenue for data sharing among LIS research-
ers, was through scholarly communications, publications, seminars, workshops,
and conferences. One respondent stated that:

The advancement in information and communication technologies has increased the avenue
through which LIS researchers just like their counterparts in other parts of the world share
142 Adeyinka Tella

their data. Due to this development, we now see colleagues sharing their data through the
institutional repositories, personal repositories, institutional websites, personal websites,
personal blogs, social media (such as Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp), online forums, online
research databases such as Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Academia.edu, Kudos, Publon, etc.

The results indicated that data sharing was gaining pace with LIS researchers
although a limited percentage of LIS researchers in Nigeria was involved in the
study. LIS researchers were sharing data through social media and other online
platforms in addition to conferences, workshops, seminars, and scholarly publica-
tions.

Communication, Exchange Dynamics and Knowledge Discovery

Mechanisms

The second objective of the study was to identify the LIS researchers’ communica-
tion and exchange dynamics and knowledge discovery mechanisms for effective
data sharing.
The findings revealed that communication and exchange centred on their pub-
lications and sharing of published data with colleagues through journal articles in
print peer-reviewed journals, scholarly books, and edited collections. Sixteen of the
eighteen respondents made this response. One explained that:

Through communication and exchange of ideas in scholarly communication, I have an under-

standing about events that I am not familiar with in my discipline and this most often has gin-
gered and aroused my interest to investigate such areas. Through the reading of the scholarly
communication shared by colleagues, I have discovered some knowledge that is now one of
my research areas of interest.

Another respondent stated:

I believe so much in exchange of ideas through paper writing. However, it is not a best prac-
tice to continually exchange ideas in journal outlets in one’s discipline only. I published in
other journals not focusing on LIS and I read research reports published in other disciplines
and journals outside of LIS. Based on this, I have been able to discover interesting research
areas that I have applied to and still applying. In other words, this practice has broadened my
knowledge of research in LIS concerning other disciplines. Therefore, I consider sharing data
of this kind of research very important as new knowledge is discovered by others through
the reading and exchange communication, and it also increases knowledge discovery in that
areas too.

The results showed that LIS researchers’ communication dynamics and knowledge
discovery focused on scholarly publication and discovery of new ideas through
 9 Exploration of Data Sharing and Information Exchange 143

diversification into research in other disciplines making it possible to publish and

communicate research in journals in other disciplines outside LIS. This finding con-
trasted with the report by Mannheimer, Sterman, and Borda (2016) whose study
reported three significant factors contributing to data discovery: publishing in dis-
cipline-specific repositories; indexing in more than one location on the web; and
using persistent identifiers.

Extent and Purpose of Data Reuse

The third objective was to determine the reuse of data among LIS researchers and
for what purpose. To achieve the objective, respondents were asked about their
reuse of data and the reasons. The findings revealed that LIS researchers in Nigeria
were in the practice of reusing shared data from their colleagues. Data reused
included facts and figures for teaching and learning in LIS and it was used to illus-
trate research arguments, certify the credibility of research results, provide context
and background, conduct primary research, replicate studies, examine new prob-
lems or calibrate other findings. All eighteen respondents supported reuse of the
data shared. One respondent said:

Yes, there is the issue of the reuse of shared data among LIS researchers, however, this is not
paramount because the percentage of LIS researchers who conduct regular researches are
limited. LIS researchers in Nigeria are engaged in reuse for the original purpose which is also
conventional reuse or to fulfils a different function i.e., for creative reuse or repurposing.
Therefore, in Nigeria LIS research today, there is conventional reuse that relates to replica-
tion, reproduction, or reanalysis. This means that the purpose for reusing the shared date is
the same as it was in the first time. Creative reuse, on the other hand, differs from the previ-
ous because the intention is distinguishable from the original purpose.

The study found that LIS researchers in Nigeria were engaging in the reuse of
data for teaching and learning, replication, and new studies or problems. Using
research data for purposes other than that for which it was originally intended
is in line with the findings of others (Faniel and Jacobsen 2011).

Challenges in Data Sharing

The fourth objective of the study was to identify the challenges associated with data
sharing among LIS researchers in Nigeria. Respondents were asked to indicate the
challenges encountered. All eighteen respondents reported challenges including
lack of skills, inadequate access to data because of poor policies and guidelines,
144 Adeyinka Tella

unwillingness to provide access because of fears of putting it in the public domain.

One respondent emphasised that:

Mostly there is the issue of difficulty, to discover, access and reuse data. Furthermore, issues
such as difficulty in integration with one’s data, misinterpretation, investing longer hours
than conducting new research, lack of trust in other researchers’ data, lack of common stan-
dard and format, inadequate data description information, inadequate skills for data process-
ing, the difficulty in sharing due to lack of skills, among others.

Clearly the study found there were challenges associated with data sharing and
the findings corroborated previous work by Van de Sandt et al. (2019) who iden-
tified barriers such as difficulty in accessing and working with datasets, a lack of
knowledge about institutional licences, and a need to facilitate sharing and reuse of
datasets generated by researchers internally.

Limitations

The study included universities with library schools in only two geopolitical zones,
the south-west and the north-central, of the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria. Extend-
ing the study to universities in the remaining four geopolitical zones would bring
worthwhile and valuable insights which could be generalised to LIS researchers
in all universities in Nigeria, and perhaps to researchers in other disciplines. Data
in the study was collected using a self-reported open-ended instrument and the
sample size was limited to twenty LIS researchers from four library schools (with
eighteen respondents) and might not be representative of the entire population
of LIS researchers in Nigeria. Extension of the study to other library schools, and
the use of alternative research methods, would elucidate and validate the findings.
Future research should examine specific areas, domains, or academic disciplines to
determine how to capture and preserve data and its associated contexts and values
effectively to enable future reuse and sharing of data.

Conclusion and Going Forward

This chapter examined data sharing and data reuse and the associated issues
and challenges and commented on the role of libraries and librarians in support-
ing data reuse. The details of a study of data sharing practices and information
exchange behaviour among Nigerian LIS researchers were provided. The study’s
findings showed that data sharing by LIS researchers was gaining pace in Nigeria.
 9 Exploration of Data Sharing and Information Exchange 145

Aside from conferences, workshops, seminars, and scholarly publications, LIS

researchers indicated they were sharing data through social media and other
online platforms. The communication dynamics and knowledge discovery of LIS
researchers focused on scholarly publications. LIS researchers in Nigeria engaged
in the reuse of data for teaching and learning, replication of studies, the conduct of
similar studies, and for addressing new problems. Challenges associated with data
sharing among LIS researchers in Nigeria were identified as inadequate access to
data because of poor policies and guidelines, insufficient skills, and fear of putting
the data in the public domain. The study contributed to understanding how LIS
researchers in Nigeria engage in data sharing and the problems and challenges
encountered.
Based on the findings of the study and an examination of the international
literature on data sharing and reuse, the following future actions are suggested.
Universities and their libraries and library schools must:
–– Promote a university culture that values and rewards good data practice
–– Foster data reuse in research generally and LIS research in particular through
creating data stores with data appropriately indexed and catalogued to ensure
its easy and effective discovery
–– Develop policies with clear definitions of data use and reuse
–– Establish metrics for a comprehensive scholarly record of individuals, institutions,
and organisations
–– Mandate deposit of data for reuse
–– Promote the reuse and sharing of data through hosting events like datathons
where LIS researchers demonstrate reuse through case studies and are encour-
aged to reuse data in innovative ways
–– Showcase data sharing and its contribution to new problem solving and suc-
cessful research outcomes
–– Sponsor interactive data activities and focus group exercises involving
researchers in related disciplines or with interconnected questions
–– Encourage engagement of peer review of the data of other researchers and the
identification of data reuse possibilities, and
–– Ensure researchers and particularly LIS researchers understand current and
future trends in data sharing through further education and training.

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Joachim Schöpfel and Otmane Azeroual
10 E thical Dimensions of Research
Information Management: A New
Challenge for Information Professionals
Abstract: The evaluation and monitoring of research performance are major chal-
lenges of research management. Research information management (RIM) systems
are designed to assess this performance and to contribute to the steady improve-
ment of research. Based on former studies on RIM systems, a recent exploratory
survey on ethical aspects of current research information systems and expert
interviews with members of euroCRIS, the International Organisation for Research
Information, this chapter provides an overview of ethical dimensions of RIM,
together with original empirical evidence on how RIM systems represent ethical
aspects of research projects and how their development, implementation and func-
tioning should comply with usual ethical standards of scientific research. Special
attention is paid to the role of academic librarians in RIM, in particular regarding
the quality of bibliographic records, the standards of data and the management of
institutional repositories, data repositories and other open archives.

Keywords: Research information management; Research – Information services;

Research ethics; Research methods

A New Application of Professional Ethics

Ethics is a practical science. The topic is treated theoretically, but primarily serves to
apply knowledge gained and less to gain knowledge. The ethical point of view is not a
new topic for librarians. As the International Federation of Library Associations and
Institutions (IFLA) Code of Ethics for Librarians and Other Information Professionals
[hereinafter IFLA Code of Ethics] says it in its preamble: “Librarianship is, in its very
essence, an ethical activity embodying a value-rich approach to professional work
with information” (IFLA 2012). Based on the concept of human rights, particularly
as expressed in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United
Nations n.d.), the IFLA Code of Ethics proclaims six core principles to provide:

…a set of suggestions on the conduct of professionals… Librarians and information workers …

reject the denial and restriction of access to information and ideas most particularly through
censorship; …promote inclusion and the eradication of discrimination [through the provision
of] equitable services for everyone; … respect personal privacy and the protection of personal

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-012
 10 Ethical Dimensions of Research Information Management: 151

data; … support and participate in transparency; …provide …support for the principles of
open access, open source, and open licenses; …are strictly committed to neutrality and an
unbiased stance regarding collection, access and service; [and] oppose discrimination in any
aspect of employment (IFLA n.d.).

The IFLA Code of Ethics applies to the work environment of librarians and to their
professional conduct. In the field of academic librarianship, the code applies to
their relationships with students, faculty, scientists and other staff, and to the con-
figuration and usage of library systems, digital platforms, and institutional repos-
itories, especially regarding privacy and the protection of personal data. Other
ethical principles are at play when it comes to developing new library services, to
defining acquisition policies or to managing library holdings and collections.
Information professionals have promoted the need for ethics and integrity. Nev-
ertheless, academic librarians have been less involved in research ethics as advisors,
reviewers, members of ethics committees or trainers, except perhaps for one partic-
ular issue, plagiarism. Research ethics, most often, is taken care of by experienced
senior scientists and legal experts, because of the high risks and stakes. But there
is a domain which may become a new ethical challenge for academic librarians
and other information professionals working in the sector of higher education and
research The emerging area is research information management (RIM).
RIM refers to the aggregation, curation, and utilisation of information about
research and the metadata on research projects and activities, including informa-
tion about scientists, institutions, publications, patents, and outputs (Bryant et al.
2017). The main objective of RIM is to produce useful insights and knowledge for
the monitoring and assessment of the research activity of scientific institutions,
infrastructures and human resources.
Academic librarians are already part of the game. Handling metadata on sci-
entific authors and publications along with their institutional affiliations is part of
regular day-to-day activity in the environment of catalogues, databases, and insti-
tutional repositories. Metadata contributes to the monitoring and assessment of
research activity through the production of performance indicators based on sciento-
metrics and, more recently, altmetrics. However, RIM raises new ethical issues, espe-
cially in the environment of open science (Schöpfel, Azeroual, and Jungbauer-Gans
2020). What does this mean for academic librarians? How can librarians contribute
to dealing with the new challenges?
152 Joachim Schöpfel and Otmane Azeroual

Research Ethics in the Context of Open Science

“Doing good science in a good manner” is perhaps the simplest way to describe
the fundamental ethical values of research (DuBois and Antes 2018). This broad
and universal approach to science requires the definition and the acceptance of
common standards of excellence and some general rules like, among others, the
management of conflicts of interest, the protection of human participants and
animal subjects, the honest reporting of findings and the proper citation of sources.
More general terms are used to describe good scientific conduct, such as personal
integrity, rigour, honesty, objectivity, respect, carefulness, trust and accountability.
On the other dark side of research ethics, there are various examples of scientific
misconduct, often described in terms of proscribed undesirable behaviour such as
falsifying research data, not properly disclosing conflicts of interest, biased report-
ing of results, inappropriately assigning authorship credit, plagiarism, and lack of
respect for human subject requirements (Martinson, Anderson, and De Vries 2005).
Scientific misconduct is frequently labelled a violation of good scientific prac-
tice associated with the behaviour of particular individuals and deemed a personal
responsibility of researchers. The focus is on the individual scientist. However, open
science unfolds new perspectives, shifting the focus from the individual scientist to
the environment, to the research process, the work conditions, the infrastructures,
the legal and administrative rules, in short, to the ecosystem of science. The basic
idea is that changing the rules and the tools will change individual behaviour and
improve scientific performance.
Open science has been defined in various ways. Some definitions are broad and
inclusive; others are narrow and specific; and some are more useful than others.
Some definitions are simple, for example, the open knowledge definition “means
the freedom to use, reuse, and redistribute without restrictions beyond a require-
ment for attribution and share-alike right” (Molloy 2011) or “efforts to make the
scientific process more open and inclusive for all relevant actors” (Dai, Shin, and
Smith 2018, 5). The European Commission defined open science as “the transfor-
mation, opening up and democratisation of science, research and innovation”, with
three objectives: making science more efficient, transparent and interdisciplinary,
changing the interaction between science and society, and enabling broader socie-
tal impact and innovation (Ramjoué 2015, 169).
As an umbrella term, open science denotes, above all, open access to publications
and data sharing, and also includes open-source software, open peer review, citizen
science and open educational resources. Each aspect of open science has its own rules,
procedures, environments, technologies, and values. Nevertheless, the open science
movement as a whole affirms and encourages some common, fundamental ethical
principles, such as transparency and integrity, openness, inclusiveness, removing
 10 Ethical Dimensions of Research Information Management: 153

barriers, and the freedom to use research results (Rentier 2019). Beyond its political,
technological and economic purposes, the open science movement explicitly high-
lights and reinforces research ethics. The improvement of transparency, integrity,
openness and sharing has become a goal of research policy in its own right. As a goal
of policy, the procedures for ensuring ethical research call for follow-up and moni-
toring. Does the public investment in open science attain the objectives set? How effi-
cient are new research policies? How effective are changes in rules and procedures
and new infrastructures in ensuring open science and improved research outcomes?
Monitoring of open science has until recently focussed mainly on open access
to journal articles, and less on sharing of research data. There are international ini-
tiatives and projects to promote transparency and integrity in science and scientific
publishing, and to disseminate best practices and increase efficiency and effective-
ness in science. The mission of the Center for Scientific Integrity, the parent organi-
sation of Retraction Watch “is to promote transparency and integrity in science and
scientific publishing, and to disseminate best practices and increase efficiency in
science” (n.d.). The Center for Open Science sponsors various projects and transpar-
ency initiatives (Center for Open Science n.d.). There is no systematic assessment
on a larger scale of research integrity, transparency and other ethical principles.
One reason is probably that there are no common and shared indicators in the field
of ethical principles and that, at least for the moment, RIM usually measures key
performance in terms of publications, data, patents, citations and awards, while
ethical principles and scientific misconduct remain out of scope. Without assess-
ment of related metrics, there is no way to provide reliable data for the monitoring
of open science policy in the field of research ethics.
Deeply committed to the principles of freedom of information and open access,
academic librarians and other information professionals working in higher educa-
tion and research institutions and organisations are among the most active stake-
holders of the open science movement. Many articles, books, communications,
posters, conferences, and training events illustrate significant professional engage-
ment by librarians and information workers in support of open access to scien-
tific results. Librarians and information workers are becoming heavily involved
in research data management, data sharing and the administration of data reposi-
tories. How do librarians and information workers contribute to the improvement
of ethical standards and in particular, to the monitoring of ethical principles? How
can they identify misinformation and false research and help prevent its distri-
bution and sharing? How can librarians and information workers help prevent
misuse of research information and the activities of researchers from becoming
malinformation which causes harm to others?
A small exploratory survey of RIM experts was conducted by the authors of
this chapter and is reported on later in the chapter. A majority of experts think that
154 Joachim Schöpfel and Otmane Azeroual

open science will increase the need for ethical assessment. The question remains.
What is the role of information professionals in contributing to ethical assessment
of research? Because of their ethical values, information professionals already play
their part as collection managers, members of research teams and authors, as pro-
fessional trainers and colleagues. RIM and the administration and exploitation of
research information systems can provide them with a new field of action.

What is Research Information Management?

Universities and research institutions are facing the challenge of building up and
establishing professional RIM systems with databases and federated information
systems. In this chapter, RIM is understood to be CRIS (Current Research Informa-
tion System). CRIS is the term receiving widespread use in European countries,
while RIM is used in the US. “CRIS is a database or other information system to
store, manage and exchange contextual metadata for the research activity funded
by a research funder or conducted at a research-performing organisation (or
aggregation thereof)” (Wikipedia 2022a). The focus of RIM is the support of
scientists in managing the research information that has been collected. At the
same time, the establishment of a university-wide RIM system will maintain and
increase the attractiveness and competitiveness of the university. In addition,
research information systems are gaining in significance. Scientific institutions
are experiencing increasing demands from sponsors on research reporting and
scientists themselves are anxious to make their research more easily accessible to
the scientific community, available publicly, interoperable and recyclable.
Research information includes all metadata that arise in connection with
research activities, such as information about publications, third-party funds,
project data and people involved. Since this information is often stored in several
systems, RIM is required to bundle the information in a structured manner, sim-
plify the creation of reports and enable value-added services as well as support
the exchange of data and the networking of research information from differ-
ent sources. Another value-added service can be a publication list, for example,
which can be transferred to various applications and guarantee the researcher a
certain mobility of the data. “The CRIS provides a single portal bringing corporate
and academic research activity together, reducing duplicate data entry, increasing
data quality, identifying authority sources of information and recording complex
relationships between researchers, projects, outputs and impacts” (Clements and
Proven 2015, Abstract). Relevant research information in a RIM database includes
data on:
 10 Ethical Dimensions of Research Information Management: 155

–– People, with name, job title, affiliation and skills

–– Organisations and research facilities, with name, type, and location
–– Projects, with name, duration, funding, and programme details, and
–– Outputs comprising publications, research data, and patents.

Research information is not to be confused with research data or output. With the
help of RIM, the entire research process in scientific institutions can be supported
and the research context can be documented. RIM should, for example, be able to
link particular projects with funding and research results and enable evaluation
and assessment within an institution as well as comparison with other institutions.
In addition, RIM can be used to manage research projects, results, resources and
funding. RIM offers the possibility of structured recording of information about
an institution’s research performance. Modern developments in standardisation,
interoperability and evaluation options are characteristic of RIM. Many standards
or data models for RIM specify which data is to be recorded in which format (Azer-
oual and Herbig 2020). The result is simplified and more effective research report-
ing because data is captured only once and not multiple times.
Academic libraries are convenient places for RIM, and academic librarians
are becoming more involved in RIM projects, but in a different way from their
involvement with institutional repositories and digital libraries. Librarians are less
involved in the development and administration of research information systems,
but more engaged with issues of standardisation, data maintenance, and the con-
nections to catalogues and repositories, playing a role that can be described as a
metadata manager. Librarians are key to the success of any RIM project, making a
special contribution to guaranteeing the reliability of information on publication,
data, scientists and organisations (Schöpfel and Azeroual 2021). When a library cat-
alogue or an institutional repository is defined as a data provider and connected to
a RIM system, poor quality of the original library or repository data will produce
misinformation for RIM and reduce its value, trustworthiness and acceptance.
Libraries can emphasise the added value of their services in the collection of
publications in RIM. Libraries must publicise their services and provide training so
that their services are understood, and the corresponding resources and databases
must be available. Rebecca Bryant from OCLC recognised the status of libraries as
partners in institutional RIM because they have a high level of expertise in meta-
data, standards, open access, research data management and identifiers, and are
able to support the goals of RIM. Yet, academic libraries will seldom assume primary
responsibility for RIM. They are part of the team. RIM is more than metadata man-
agement and systems are usually managed by information technology or research
management departments within academic institutions (Bryant et al. 2017).
156 Joachim Schöpfel and Otmane Azeroual

However, the specialised knowledge and value of libraries should not be for-
gotten. Bundling the strengths of various actors can contribute to the success of
RIM in an institution. The OCLC report observed that:

RIM intersects with many aspects of traditional library services in discovery, acquisition, dis-
semination, and analysis of scholarly activities, and does so through the nexus with institutional
data systems, faculty workflows, and institutional partners… RIM adoption offers libraries new
opportunities to support institutional and researcher goals (Bryant et al. 2017, 5).

RIM brings additional added value through increased user-friendliness, minimi-

sation of manual entries, correction functions, standardised exports in reference
management programs, integration of services on campus, automatic checking of
secondary open access publications and the publication of regular papers or pre-
prints in institutional repositories directly from RIM. In the area of publication
support, automatic checking of authorisation for secondary publication via Sherpa
Romeo provides added value. Sherpa Romeo is an “online resource that aggregates
and analyses publisher open access policies from around the world and provides
summaries of publisher copyright and open access archiving policies on a journal-
by-journal basis” (Jisc n.d.).

Research Ethics in Research Information

Management
Research ethics has already been discussed in the context of open science earlier in
this chapter. Ethical questions are important in all phases of the research process,
from planning through implementation to publication, and must be considered
throughout any project. Ethical obligations do not exist only at the beginning of a
project, but affect the entire life-cycle, for example, publication, patent, employee
and third-party project data, among others. There are particular ethical issues
in qualitative research, where a personal relationship is entered into between
researcher and investigator (Miethe 2010).
The way researchers work has changed and increasing volumes of data and
information are being generated, usually in digital formats, for storage and man-
agement. The data and the information generated constitute the basis of knowledge
growth and future research processes and are linked to other data. Professional
RIM is becoming increasingly important. Due to the increased social importance of
research processes and outcomes, questions of research ethics have become more
relevant in RIM. Ethical guidelines must be observed, especially when collecting
 10 Ethical Dimensions of Research Information Management: 157

research information and data to avoid misinformation, and as already noted,

misuse of the data and malinformation must be prevented.
When disseminating and publishing research information, care must be taken
to ensure that data protection and ethical issues are considered. Care must be taken
to ensure that damage does not arise from improper use of data. Sensitive per-
sonal and medical data must be accessible to third parties only under particularly
strict security requirements. Researchers must adequately secure research data
and keep it for an appropriate period of time. If there are understandable reasons
not to save research data, the researchers should explain them. Research ethical
principles, standards and regulations are intended to ensure that damage can be
avoided while at the same time guaranteeing freedom of research. As Weyns (2020)
noted, there is a growing consensus that new ethical principles are required with
the advent of information systems that make autonomous decisions.

Fig. 10.1: Ethical principles for scientific research.

158 Joachim Schöpfel and Otmane Azeroual

In Spring 2021, an exploratory survey was conducted with sixteen experts in the
field of RIM to gain insights into ethical issues. Most of the experts were system pro-
viders; others were project managers or system administrators. Most were working
in the academic sector. The purpose was to learn more about how the experts
thought about and dealt with research ethics in the field of RIM. One question was
about the relevance of ethical principles. The experts were asked to identify which
of the principles of research ethics, such as human subject protection or respect for
intellectual property, they considered the most important and relevant. A closed list
containing fourteen principles was provided; the results are shown in Figure 10.1.
The results indicated that objectivity was considered the most relevant prin-
ciple of research ethics by all sixteen in the survey, followed by integrity, human
subject protection, openness and honesty. Fairness, trust, animal care or simply
carefulness were deemed less relevant. Another question related to individual mis-
conduct. The experts considered four unethical behaviours as particularly harmful
for research: falsifying or cooking research data, plagiarism, omitting observations,
and failing to present data.
The principles and behaviours highlighted should be given priority for moni-
toring and follow-up in RIM, but to date this has not been the case. At the time of
the survey, few RIM systems handled information about ethical issues, and most of
the experts considered that the systems were not well prepared for the area. One
reason is that the usual data models focus on performance indicators and metrics
of research output. Information about ethical issues generally is not part of conven-
tional key performance indicators. While there may be a common understanding
of relevant ethical principles and scientific misconduct, up to now there has been
no agreed list of relevant indicators corresponding to those principles and misbe-
haviours. More discussion between RIM experts and ethics committees is needed to
progress the matter, paying particular attention to the value and the reliability of
the data and information.
Research ethics, especially individual misconduct, is a critical and sensitive
issue that requires, perhaps even more than research output, trustworthy and sus-
tainable RIM. In the open science environment, professionals and scientists high-
light the importance of the FAIR principles in data quality. FAIR stands for Findable,
Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (Mons et al. 2020; Wilkinson et al. 2016).
FAIR principles focus on properties of data that enable increased data exchange
and remove ethical questions, power differences and historical contexts. The Global
Indigenous Data Alliance (GIDA) has set up the CARE principles for handling indige-
nous research data as an important supplement to the FAIR principles (GIDA n.d.).
CARE stands for Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility and Ethics
(Carroll et al. 2020). As already noted, the future use of research data can have neg-
ative consequences, which the researcher must prevent by taking appropriate mea-
 10 Ethical Dimensions of Research Information Management: 159

sures. The CARE principles expand the ethical responsibility of harm prevention to
include the obligation to align the use of data to explicitly positive effects. Similar,
appropriate principles should be developed for research data and RIM.
The administration, backup, storage and sustainable provision of research
information must be conducted according to recognised standards and meet high
requirements. The Common European Research Information Format (CERIF) was
developed with the support of the European Commission as a standard for research
information to support information interchange within CRIS (Eurocris n.d.) and is
recommended for use in the European Union (EU) (Jeffery et al. 2014). It is a model
for the organisation and exchange of research information on conceptual, logical
and physical levels. The data model includes organisations, projects, funding and
other components of the research process and connections to it. The linked data
model is used for interoperability between different research information systems.
CERIF is used as a model for homogeneous access to heterogeneous data systems
through defining data exchange formats. The ultimate goal of CERIF is to provide
interoperability between the electronic infrastructure and the research data and
to promote integration and exchange through standardisation. The challenge for
CERIF is the extension of the data model to include relevant data in an ethical
appropriate and responsible way.
Information professionals in charge of publication and research data manage-
ment produce or at least manage some of the data and play a significant role in
guaranteeing the quality of information about retractions, ethical reviews or plagia-
rism. The previously mentioned IFLA Code of Ethics and the commitment of infor-
mation professionals to ethical principles and values, places them in a privileged
position to raise awareness of the need for appropriate handling of data and indi-
cators to ensure ethical use. In addition to data economy, ethics, and the effective
retrieval and processing of information using standards, the curation of research
information is of great importance. “Data curation is the organization and integra-
tion of data collected from various sources. It involves annotation, publication and
presentation of the data such that the value of the data is maintained over time,
and the data remains available for reuse and preservation” (Wikipedia 2022b).
The curating of data is an adjusted process in which new knowledge is generated
from different internal and external sources based on coordinated, normalised
databases such as research data management to ensure data quality. Data curators
not only collect and manage data, but, where possible, establish tried and tested
procedures for managing the data and often present the data in a visual format
such as a diagram, dashboard or report (Azeroual 2021). To optimise the processes,
uniform quality criteria must be used for both the source data and the metadata,
commencing as early as possible in the data processing life-cycle, to save costs and
enable precise data analysis.
160 Joachim Schöpfel and Otmane Azeroual

Towards Good Infraethics

Infraethics is a term which has emerged to refer to ethical infrastructure (Floridi
2013), “the formal and informal means by which society regulates the use of power
by both public and private institutions to ensure it serves the common good” (The
Ethics Centre n.d.). “Every infraethics may be dual-use only in principle: in fact, if
it is a good infraethics, it means that it is oriented towards facilitating the occur-
rence of what is morally good. At its best, an infraethics is the grease that lubricates
the moral mechanism in the right way and successfully” (Floridi 2017, 392). RIM
systems can be considered as a special kind of ethical infrastructure or enabler of
infraethics (Schöpfel, Azeroual, and Jungbauer-Gans 2020).
A sustainable data governance strategy or a data quality framework ensures
compliance with quality, security and processing standards for research data in
institutions and libraries. It contains guidelines and procedures for handling data,
provides orientation for employees, reduces the risks for institutions and librar-
ies and supports the transformation to a data-oriented culture. With established
data governance, high data quality can be achieved, and the potential of research
data can be exploited. Data quality also plays a major role in the acceptance of
RIM among system users (Azeroual et al. 2020). The goals of introducing a system
include process optimisation and automation as well as faster access to informa-
tion and improved information quality. If expectations are not met due to poor
data quality, the dissatisfaction generated can be projected onto the system. The
consequence can be that RIM is not accepted by users or not trusted. Users may
work to build a parallel database, which in turn leads to further deterioration in
the data quality.
The link between data quality and system acceptance is all the more obvious
and important when it comes to sensitive data. As producers and providers of
data for the system, information professionals must be careful when dealing with
ethical issues related to sensitive data, because of its potential harm to persons and
organisations. Figure 10.1 provides the feedback from experts in the exploratory
survey on the most important ethical principle in RIM. The experts surveyed were
also asked about the next priority for the people developing, implementing or man-
aging the systems. The results are contained in Figure 10.2.
 10 Ethical Dimensions of Research Information Management: 161

Fig. 10.2: Next priorities for research information management systems.

The top priorities on which a total of ten people strongly agreed or agreed were
adaptation of data models and the development of new services and functional-
ities. The survey respondents next identified pertinent data source selection as one
of the main future priorities with eight people strongly agreeing or agreeing. Per-
tinent data source selection requires common agreement on what should be mea-
sured, the metrics, and how, the assessment strategies to be used. Some potential
metrics are based on publications mentioning ethical review and retraction; others
are based on the work of ethics committees examining the number and content
of reviews; still others focus on job profiles reviewing expertise and skills. Some
metrics can be assessed through scientometric assessment, via databases, plat-
forms or repositories, while others require organisational monitoring. Up to now,
there has been no common agreement on metrics, which remains a challenge. Any
future discussion must be aware of the importance of the quality and the reliability
of data and data sources. Misinformation, unreliable data, incomplete or errone-
ous information on ethical issues or misconduct must be avoided, because of the
risks to persons and organisations. Data sources must be carefully selected and
kept under permanent and continuous quality control.
The challenges of metrics and assessment include other dimensions, usage
and exploitation. RIM systems are decision tools. Their purpose is not only to
monitor research performance of individuals and organisations but also help
make informed decisions about institutional strategies, project funding, recruit-
ment, career advancement and salary. As already stated, poor metadata quality
in library catalogues, databases and institutional repositories can constitute mis-
information and be harmful for people and organisations. But there are risks and
potential scientific misconduct when good data about people and organisational
becomes malinformation and is used to harm people. What is the impact of figures
162 Joachim Schöpfel and Otmane Azeroual

on retractions? Who has access to data on falsifying research results or plagiarism?

How much time will, and should data be stored in the system? How does the system
protect the data rights of people involved, especially the rights to access and to
erasure?
These issues are legal issues, especially in the member states of the EU with
its specific rules and laws on data privacy embedded in the General Data Protec-
tion Regulations (GDPR) (EU n.d.). Academic librarians produce and handle data
that will be exploited by RIM and they have a moral ethical responsibility for the
quality of the data. The IFLA Code of Ethics states in Point 5, Neutrality, Personal
Integrity and Professional Skills: “Librarians and other information workers define
and publish their policies for selection, organisation, preservation, provision, and
dissemination of information” and “aim at the highest standards of service quality”
(IFLA 2012). This ethical commitment and the requirement for transparency in
Point 3 of the Code, Privacy, Secrecy and Transparency, should guide academic
librarians when they are part of a project or administration team. They may not be
in charge of the RIM system, but as stakeholders, they have a role to play in assuring
the ethical compliance of RIM. RIM systems can constitute good infraethics or bad
infraethics, depending on the quality and the handling and use of the underlying
data. The contribution of academic librarians is important to avoid misinformation
and to limit the risk of malinformation.

The Potential Role of Information Professionals

In a world of increasing information disorder and fake news, information profes-
sionals and in particular academic librarians have a role to play, not only because
of their professional skills, job profiles and missions but also because of their values
and their global and universal commitment to basic ethical principles, including
the commitment to privacy, service quality and transparency.
All involved in data handling must take responsibility in relation to their
specific roles. Data providers, for instance, should “evaluate the consequences of
disseminating specific types of data, in terms of potential infringement of privacy
laws, the replicability and reliability of the datasets at hand, and the wider impli-
cations of data sharing for local communities” (Leonelli 2016, 7). It is obvious that
the general requirements of data science ethics apply to the specific case of data-in-
tensive research information systems, and to their development, management and
usage. RIM may not be the first priority of academic librarians. They have other
priorities, and even if members of project teams that prepare, implement and run
such systems, librarians do not often lead the projects. But even so, their specific
 10 Ethical Dimensions of Research Information Management: 163

knowledge of metadata, their professional practice of ensuring appropriate curation,

privacy and quality of data, and their commitment to ethical principles establish
them as essential players in RIM on three levels. Information professionals must:
–– Guarantee and guard the quality of metadata of people, organisations and
research products provided by catalogues, databases and institutional repos-
itories
–– Raise awareness of privacy issues and ensure the protection of personal data
provided by the library-based systems, and
–– Be aware and take care of the potential misuse of data associated with people,
organisations and research products, not only in relation to misinformation
and erroneous data but also malinformation and misuse of valid data.

RIM may not be the first priority of academic librarians. Yet, RIM systems are essen-
tial for academic institutions. Academic librarians must be aware of the challenges
and the risks and play their roles in contributing to limiting misinformation and
malinformation. In so doing, they will ensure that RIM systems become good infra-
ethics.

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Raliat Alabi, Adenike Damilola Omoike and Daniel Olusegun
Ikegune
11 I nformation Services in Academic
Libraries in an Era of Information
Disorder
Abstract: The changing information technology environment has led to a prolif-
eration of multiple information resources in numerous formats which has been
described as an information explosion leading to information disorder. Academic
libraries are positioned to provide specialised information services to ensure
accurate and appropriate information provision crucial to their users who have
a gamut of information needs and few skills and knowledge to find their way
through the information maze. Timely and accurate information is needed for aca-
demic success. Providing the right information to the right user at the right time in
the right format is crucial (Khan and Khan 2016). Wilson’s model of information
behaviour and Ranganathan’s five laws of library science have guided the content
of this chapter. In this information age, to serve library users effectively, timely
information services optimising the use of information and communications tech-
nology (ICT) include reference services, referral services, current awareness ser-
vices, selective dissemination of information, literature searching, document deliv-
ery, translation services, and online public access catalogues. Academic libraries
must reinvent themselves to provide timely and appropriate information resources
in a period of disruption.

Keywords: Academic libraries – Information services; Library users; Library ser-

vices – Africa; Fake news; Misinformation

Introduction
Information disorder has caused harm to many information users. Meeting users’
information needs is the ultimate goal of academic libraries through effective
service delivery to support teaching, learning and research. It is the responsibility
of librarians to guide users in the use of the available library information resources
in a timely and accurate manner to meet information needs and prevent users
from accessing and using inappropriate information. Libraries and information
professionals have the capacity to apply the use of ICT appropriately to meet user
needs and reduce the impact of information disorder on users. Academic libraries
provide specialised information services through the management of information
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-013
 11 Information Services in Academic Libraries in an Era of Information Disorder 167

resources. This chapter focuses on information users, the types of information

resources used, and the provision of information resources and services in aca-
demic libraries and the efforts they are making in the reduction of information
disorder. The approach taken is guided by two theoretical models related to infor-
mation use, Wilson’s model of information behaviour and Ranganathan’s five laws
of library science. Some libraries and librarians are slow to react to the changes
required and do not always observe Ranganathan’s advice “do not waste the time
of the user” (Wikipedia 2023).

Models of Information Use

A model may be described as a framework for thinking about a problem. It can
evolve into a statement of the relationships among theoretical propositions. Many
models have been developed analysing information user behaviour, and informa-
tion seeking and searching. Two models based on the work of Thomas D. Wilson
and the work of S.R. Ranganathan have contributed to understandings within this
chapter.

Wilson’s Model of Information Behaviour

Wilson’s model has developed over the years from early iterations undertaken in
researching information behaviour. His second model was described in 1981. Later
versions have been amended noting the contributions of others to understanding
information behaviour. Wilson stated that information-seeking behaviour arises as
a consequence of a need perceived by an information user, who, in order to satisfy
that need, makes demands upon formal or informal information sources or ser-
vices which result in success or failure to find relevant information. If successful,
the individual then makes use of the information found and may either fully or
partially satisfy the perceived need, or indeed fail to satisfy the need and have to
reiterate the search process. The model also establishes that part of the informa-
tion-seeking behaviour may involve other people through information exchange
and that information perceived as useful may be passed to other people as well as
being used, or instead of being used, by the person her/himself. The relevance of
the model to this chapter is that meeting information needs satisfactorily can come
only from a deep understanding of user behaviour and needs and the development
of innovative formal and informal services to satisfy those needs (Wilson 1999).
168 Raliat Alabi, Adenike Damilola Omoike and Daniel Olusegun Ikegune

Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science

Ranganathan proposed five laws of library science in 1931 which outlined the prin-
ciples of operating a library system. They have been used and amended by many
over the years. His simple approach was encapsulated in:
–– Books are for use
–– Every person his or her book
–– Every book its reader
–– Save the time of the reader, and
–– A library is a growing organism.

Ranganathan’s perceptions of library use, and readers were based on the primacy
of tracking user behaviour and focused on information needs. He presented import-
ant insights and understandings of the behaviour of library users. The first law
focuses on use and while it used the term books, updated versions have replaced
the term with knowledge, social media, or information resources. The second law
emphasises the centrality of the user, and the need to match the user with a partic-
ular information resource. The third law takes the reverse perspective and focuses
on the information resource and the need to match it with a user. The fourth law
stresses that information services must fulfil user needs. For example, user assis-
tance or reference service is one of the means of satisfying user needs. The fifth law
marks the evolving role of the library with the library transforming itself to meet
changes in users and user needs.
Ranganathan in his seminal book Reference Service (Ranganathan 1961) identi-
fied different types of readers that come to the library. He probed the psychology of
readers, analysed them, considered their minds, thinking, mental composition and
temperament. Ranganathan categorised users by close observation from the time
they enter the library until they leave the premises. His views were derived from
both psychological and pragmatic approaches. Based on the psychological traits
and observations, Ranganathan identified the following types of reader coming
to the library. Each type characterised a pattern of user behaviour. Similar user
behaviour can be experienced in the present information environment. Six types
of readers with different behaviour patterns were identified:
–– Obsession
–– Superiority complex (self-reader)
–– Inferiority complex (meek reader)
–– Traumatic complex
–– Mere ignorance (complaining reader), and
–– Thief/fraud.
 11 Information Services in Academic Libraries in an Era of Information Disorder 169

Ranganathan determined the behavioural types and narrated several cases for
each type of reader and provided details on how to understand the needs of each and
how to serve their needs. For example, he presented a case of the difficult obsessed
reader contextually as an insurance agent struggling to use the library catalogue. The
case narrates how the reference librarian came to his help and connected him with
the information required. All types of readers can be provided with the attention they
require. Ranganathan observed that “the floor of a library is always believed to be a
place of great equality” (Reddy, Krishnamurthy and Asundi, 2018, 85).
The relevance of the Ranganathan model is that the entire activity and philos-
ophy of the library in the provision of information resources must fulfil Rangana-
than’s laws.

The Information Explosion and Libraries

“The information explosion is the rapid increase in the amount of published infor-
mation or data and the effects of this abundance. As the amount of available data
grows, the problem of managing the information becomes more difficult, which
can lead to information overload” (Wikipedia 2022). The proliferation of infor-
mation has emerged from all sources with ever-increasing developmental activi-
ties, knowledge creation and research being undertaken by various stakeholders
ranging from governments to commercial entities. Smart phones, laptops, elec-
tronic mail, and extending Internet through telecommunication growth, and social
media have posed serious issues for information providers and information users.
The rapid growth and changing nature of information and communication tech-
nologies (ICT) has exposed information disorder in Africa and the world at large.
Walker, Mercea and Bastos describe

a rapidly changing and hostile data environment. The escalating issue of data access…is
thrown into sharp relief by the strategic use of bots, trolls, fake news, strategies of false ampli-
fication. As social media platforms increase obstacles to independent scholarship, researchers
are faced with the stark choice of either limiting their use of trace data or developing new
methods of data collection (2019, 1531).

Information disorder has emerged as a result of the information explosion and is

caused by fake news, also referred as disinformation, misinformation, and malin-
formation. The commonality among the information disorder genres is that they
use a combination of assorted modus operandi to spread deceptive information. The
end result is deformity in news content, posing a serious danger to dispassionate
decision-making by users of information and library services. While a vast panoply
170 Raliat Alabi, Adenike Damilola Omoike and Daniel Olusegun Ikegune

of information is available, finding answers to questions and solutions to problems

is challenging. Evaluating information resources, differentiating fact from fiction,
and establishing what is disinformation and fake and what is valid and real set
challenges for all (Wikipedia 2022). Misinformation, disinformation and erroneous
or manipulated information cause harm to persons, communities, institutions and
countries. Many Africans are victims of information disorder. Unguided and inex-
perienced users have become bewildered and use erroneous information to take
inappropriate decisions in the business, political, religious and academic sectors.
Academic libraries are perfectly positioned to provide quality access to infor-
mation that is original and well organised. Kumar outlines the roles of libraries in
the process of serving their communities to include selecting and collecting infor-
mation, organising information, and serving users (2017, 1).
The academic library is an institution of knowledge where information
resources and materials are acquired, stored, processed, classified, organised,
shelved and managed for information users to retrieve and use to meet their infor-
mation needs. Users of academic libraries are secure in the knowledge when they
come to libraries with their queries that they will receive sound advice and accu-
rate answers from reference librarians and other library staff. Librarians serve
as the custodians of the information resources in the libraries; as qualified and
professional librarians they are in the position of providing adequate and accu-
rate information services to users. Academic libraries play a major role in the pro-
vision of information to users. “A nation without functional libraries and infor-
mation centres may lack access to information that would enable her sustainable
development. In this era of globalization, in which the world is connected, informa-
tion gains its power through permanent storage and wide distribution” (Adebayo,
Ahmed, and Adeniran 2018, 2). It is no doubt that libraries are some of the organi-
sations that can help a nation to achieve and sustain development.

The Use of Information and Communications

Technology (ICT) in Libraries
ICT can be used to assist in dealing with the era of information disorder in the
21st century and render it manageable. The enhanced use of ICT in libraries has
impacted greatly on the quality of information provided. Libraries are able to orga-
nise information resources in a suitable way for easy retrieval through the alloca-
tion of metadata, cataloguing and classification, using tools based on subjects and
disciplines with appropriate classification schemes to enable proper and adequate
provision of library services to library users from all disciplines.
 11 Information Services in Academic Libraries in an Era of Information Disorder 171

The adoption of appropriate ICT in libraries is a way of improving information

services provided by libraries. In an era where people need to access timely infor-
mation with ease, the application of ICT to library operations can help. Appropriate
applications of ICT can be a catalyst for change; an enabling tool for locating, storing,
retrieving and disseminating information; and strategic assistance for sustainable
development (Adebayo, Ahmed and Adeniran 2018). Libraries use various aspects
of ICT including integrated library systems (ILS), also known as integrated library
management systems (ILMS), online tutorials and guides, effective use of websites,
reference chat services; current awareness services (CAS); selective dissemination of
information (SDI) services; digital exhibitions and displays; computerised interactive
searching; referral services, electronic document delivery service (EDDS), translation
services, online public access catalogues and their successors overarching discovery
systems, databases and article indexing services, and lending services.
ICT is indispensable in providing value-added library services. However, many
institutions and organisations including libraries face diverse challenges in the
process of integrating ICT into their activities. Effective information provision and
access are paramount to development and growth of any nation. It is vital that
effort be made to ensure active implementation of ICT in all sectors of the nation.
The world has become a global village, and, with ICT, many library users can access
a vast sea of information without necessarily investing much time or energy. Dis-
tribution of information is facilitated through the use of ICT. Information services
can be targeted to users’ needs. The capacity of ICT allows the library to develop
entirely new ways of thinking about the services they provide.

Use of Information Resources by Library Users

Information users in libraries can be classified under various categories according
to gender, age, area of employment ranging from clergy through business to politics,
type of work undertaken, or type of use. Within an academic setting, users can be
categorised according to involvement including students, lecturers, administrators
and researchers, and level of programme including undergraduate and postgradu-
ate. Users have diverse information needs and are always in need of information
resources to meet specific needs. They seek information for decision-making, or
problem-solving, for entertainment and for knowledge acquisition. Users sometimes
seek information in structured ways or haphazardly, even in an academic environ-
ment. Users may be ignorant of the best way to obtain information as a result of a lack
of library orientation, user education, or awareness of the different types of informa-
tion services provided by libraries.
172 Raliat Alabi, Adenike Damilola Omoike and Daniel Olusegun Ikegune

Scholars have proposed various definitions of information need. “Information

need: A gap in a person’s knowledge that, when experienced at the conscious level
as a question, gives rise to a search for an answer. If the need is urgent, the search
may be pursued with diligence until the desire is fulfilled” (Suraj 2005, 399).
Information resources consist of information content, people, machinery, facil-
ities or equipment that enable library users to satisfy their information needs. They
are variously defined.

Information is the result of processing, manipulating and organizing data in a way that adds
to the knowledge of the receiver. Information, which is a catalyst for change, has become
as important as life itself. … Generally, resources are aids to the researcher. They are those
materials, strategies, manipulations, apparatuses or consultations that help the researcher
to enhance research and development. Information resources therefore include all forms of
information carriers that can be used to promote and encourage effective research activities
and developmental projects (Chimah and Nwokocha 2015, 44).

Information resources can also be defined as “information and related resources,

such as personnel, equipment, funds, and information technology” (Lewin and
Sprehe 1996, 52), referring to a legal definition. Haruna and Oyelekan recognise
library resources as “those materials which enable libraries to carry out functions
effectively. They are made up of books and other information bearing media” (2010,
6). Information resources have always played an important role in libraries and
information centres. Without adequate and quality information resources, librar-
ies may not be able to achieve their desire of meeting the information needs of their
patrons. The information resources in academic libraries are in print and non-print
resources. The printed formats are monographs, serials, technical reports, maps,
directories, and atlases. Non-print materials include audio tapes and cassettes,
photographic records, video cassettes, films, microfilms, computers. CD-ROMs and
other digital resources. With some located within the library and some located
increasingly remotely.
Information is often used very differently from the way the creator intended.
Information will be viewed within the context of need, accessibility, and function.
Ibrahim (2017) quotes a definition by Sada of information (2012) as “data of value
in planning, decision-making, and evaluation of any program… data that have been
subjected to some processing functions capable of answering a user’s query be it
recorded, summarised or simply collected that would help decision-making.” Nwa-
chukwu, Lucky, and Salami in a study of library use in a public library noted:

Use is the single criterion, which could be used to determine the reason for retaining a doc-
ument within the collection of a library; and use is essential in guiding the collection devel-
opment effort of a library. The use of a library can be obtained from the demand of its items.
 11 Information Services in Academic Libraries in an Era of Information Disorder 173

The library tries to meet the needs of its users who may not be satisfied with the output they
are getting from the system. The package or item provided to the user may not satisfy these
needs….Public information centers should be designed to serve actual need as well as antici-
pation to meet these actual needs (2014, 2).

Information Service Provision in Academic

Libraries
As already observed, users vary from library to library and information needs
are wide-ranging and changing. Information resource use matches user types and
needs. The services rendered in a library likewise differ from one library to another,
depending on the type of library, the type of users and the parent body’s objectives.
Library information services can be viewed from two main perspectives: the pro-
vision of information needed by users, and an awareness of users about available
information resources and an ability to find the information appropriate to needs
by themselves. In an educational environment, information services overlap teach-
ing and learning services because librarians often educate users while offering
information services to users. Information services encompass services through
which librarians directly supply users with information but also interfaces created
by librarians through which users can independently find information they need.
Users come to libraries with queries to meet their information needs. Informa-
tion services are provided by reference and other professional librarians. Librarians
ensure that relevant and accurate information materials for users are provided in a
timely fashion. One of the major roles of academic libraries is the provision of infor-
mation services to library clients to serve both educational and personal development.
Lending credence to this assertion, Afolabi and Abidoye noted in the Nigerian context:

The primary role of libraries is to provide information service to support the educational,
recreation, cultural, economic and technological endeavours of members in their respective
communities. The National Policy on Education (2004) identified the library as one of the most
important aspect[s] of educational support services. They are used as media for disseminating
information and enhancing literature search and as tool for the development of intellectual
compatibilities and promotion of cultural and social integration (2011, 113).

An information service is:

A service provided by, or for, a special library which draws attention to information possessed
in the library or information department in anticipation of demand; this is done by preparing
and circulating news sheets, literature surveys, reading lists, abstracts, particulars of articles
174 Raliat Alabi, Adenike Damilola Omoike and Daniel Olusegun Ikegune

in current periodicals etc. which it is anticipated will be of interest to potential users of the
services (Haruna and Oyelekan 2010, 13).

Ibrahim (2017) in a thesis on legislative libraries defined information services

as “activities rendered … to ensure access and maximum effective utilization of
information resources” (2017, 9) and argued that information services “should be
designed to facilitate the use of information resources, to remove barriers, to invite
use and to invite reading towards the achieving of goals of every individual” (2017,
32). Information services are continuous processes undertaken by library staff to
enable library users to access and use information efficiently and effectively.
Users must be equipped with efficient techniques for accessing information
resources to meet their information needs. To eradicate the era of information dis-
order in the 21st century, there is a need for libraries to employ reliable and poten-
tial tools made available through ICT to support timely information that will lead
to good decision-making and contribute to required actions and support for indi-
viduals and society at large, as well as economic, social and political sustainability.
ICT has paved the way for libraries to provide creative enhancements of service
delivery to users.
Some of the information services provided in academic libraries have been
outlined earlier in this chapter. In addition to the library’s collections which range
from print through audiovisual materials to ebooks and eresources provided
locally or remotely, the services provided by libraries include:
–– Reprography and printing, widely used in libraries globally, with copying of
material being overtaken by printing from database content or on demand
–– Information retrieval system for material held locally or remotely in linked or
separate databases, with some CD-ROM databases still available, in various dis-
ciplines such as law, sciences, medicine, technology, agriculture, and human-
ities, although increasingly content is made available online from local or
remote storage
–– Indexing and abstracting services of local institutional content to provide sum-
maries of documents and the assignment of metadata, keywords and descrip-
tors for storing and accessing documents
–– Institutional repositories in academic or research libraries constituting the
online archive for collection, preservation and dissemination of digital copies
of the intellectual output of academic or research of institutions ranging from
journal articles to digital versions of theses and dissertations
–– Document scanning services, for scanning text and images from printed
content, establishing personal and organisational digital and virtual libraries
–– Selective dissemination of information (SDI) and current awareness services,
providing anticipatory services whereby useful information from a range of
 11 Information Services in Academic Libraries in an Era of Information Disorder 175

information resources, keeping users up-to-date in their fields of specialisation

and in related subjects
–– Reference and information services, increasingly based on digital versions of
resources previously available in print, like encyclopaedias and statistical com-
pilations and offered face-to-face, via email or online chat
–– Document delivery services with material needed for research and informa-
tion but not available in the library being obtained from other libraries, or
provided to them, usually in digital format
–– Library website publicising services for specific clientele and in specific subject
areas
–– Web publishing services
–– Subject guides providing guidance to specific topics or resources, using Lib-
Guides software or other data curation services
–– Social media including Facebook pages
–– Digital exhibitions or displays on topics of interest to users, and
–– Online training programmes in the use of specific information resources, in
specific subject areas, or for specific levels of use ranging from undergraduate
to senior research, including the provision of videos.

Reducing Information Disorder

Libraries are singular in their mission to provide all people with the unbiased and
relevant information and essential services that drive opportunities and progress:
“libraries can be catalysts for opportunity and progress” (ALA 2015). The roles
libraries play in preserving library information resources and the types of services
they offer will guide users through information disorder. Fake news is the false
news available online, much of it in social media, that traditional gatekeepers such
as librarians and journalists can no longer keep in check. Others define fake news
broadly and include anything that has not undergone some review process. Sulli-
van (2019) posits that fake news or misinformation comes to stand in for anything
that contrasts with libraries. Libraries are often outsourcing much of the control
that goes into collection building and as part of regional groups may be losing
control of their service provision. Can libraries become the nemesis of fake news?
The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
in its Code of Ethics states: “The core mission of librarians and other information
workers is to ensure access to information for all for personal development, edu-
cation, cultural enrichment, leisure, economic activity and informed participation
in and enhancement of democracy”. The Code states that “Librarians and other
176 Raliat Alabi, Adenike Damilola Omoike and Daniel Olusegun Ikegune

information workers are strictly committed to neutrality and an unbiased stance

regarding collection, access and service” (IFLA 2012). Dempsey encourages librari-
ans to fight misinformation

Librarians are all about information education—how to find it, how to verify it, how to use it,
and how to cite it. So why are you not already at the forefront of this movement? Why aren’t
more of you creating portals of information, sharing fact-checking advice on social media,
promoting your text- or chat-reference services for quick answers, and creating programs
with names such as How to Find the Truth? Studies have proven that people see librarians
as trustworthy, and they respect libraries in general. Why not use some of this clout to step
up and start teaching how to separate fact from fiction?... It’s vital to prove your continued
value, and this is a timely, powerful way to do it. It’s one thing to repeat the old trope, “People
need libraries now more than ever,” and it’s another thing to get out there and prove it (2017).

Johnson (2017) claims that, even if librarians have been at the forefront in dealing
with fake news, they have failed. On the contrary, studies such as Elías (2019) and
Fuller (2018) submit that libraries have also experienced a phenomenon of increas-
ing disintermediation, with the massive availability of information from a variety
of sources undermining their authority and questioning their usefulness in an
apparently free digital world. Studies have found that the problem with misinfor-
mation is that people are deceived due to their inability to determine the credibility
of information (Burkhardt 2017; Cooke 2017; Farkas 2018).
Information is capable of inciting emotion, shaping one’s perception of reality
and influencing decision-making in matters of life and death. Amobi (2020) states
that it is necessary that information shared must be factual and accurate, even in
the most trying of times, such as the present. Disinformation can be more danger-
ous than cyber-attacks and spread faster than governments, social media or media
outlets can react to its dispersion. Most studies have found that information literacy
instruction has been the main answer to fake news or misinformation. Studies have
further shown that librarians have played a proactive role in combatting fake news
or misinformation through a variety of ways including displays, guidelines, tutori-
als, workshops and credit-bearing courses (Eva and Shea 2018; LaPierre and Kitzie
2019; Neely-Sardon and Tignor 2018; Wade and Hornick 2018). Sullivan (2019)
notes that librarians use information obtained from conferences, publications and
resources to gain new ideas and to double down on their efforts to fight all forms
of information disorder.
When discussing fake news or misinformation more generally, librarians are
painfully aware that there is a problem to be addressed but have not always been
clear about the nature of that problem (Sullivan 2019, 92). Some see fake news as the
latest iteration of the larger problem of online false news that traditional gatekeep-
ers such as librarians or journalists are no longer able to keep in check (Banks 2016;
 11 Information Services in Academic Libraries in an Era of Information Disorder 177

Becker 2016; Commisso 2017; Mackey and Jacobson 2016). There are suggestions
that the specific skills promoted for fighting fake news concern the critical evalua-
tion of information and its sources (Sullivan 2019). Several studies have shown that
social media is one of the greatest purveyors and enablers of information disorder,
with WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram being the dominant platforms
that aid the distribution of disinformation (Amobi et al 2019). Some are positive
about the role of librarians in dealing with fake news but recognise the problems.

Confusion reigns and credibility has fallen to an all-time low. Some people only want the
information that they believe is true and that will support conclusions that they have already
made. Those people rarely change their beliefs and do not really want help—just support.
Librarians can help them find that kind of information, but we cannot change their beliefs. …
We can help the majority by providing them with authenticated information sources, teaching
them how to find and evaluate information, and welcoming them into our environment, no
matter who they are. In other words, we can help them by being the librarians that we always
have been and always will be (Sosulski and Tyckoson 2018, 182).

Studies have established that librarians have incorporated assessment of fake news
and news literacy into existing library orientation courses (Jeffries et al 2017),
offered optional workshops for students (Neely-Sardon and Tignor 2018; Rush
2018; Wade and Hornick 2018), developed course modules (Auberry 2018) and
more. These are some of the measures adopted by librarians to checkmate fake
news and misinformation.

Conclusion
The information explosion presents significant problems to information users. Aca-
demic libraries are positioned to provide specialised information services embed-
ded in various activities to ensure the information needs of their users are under-
stood, and that services provided meet needs. Providing the right information in
the right format to the right user at the right time must be the driving philosophy
of librarianship.
Librarians must identify their users and ascertain their information behaviour
and needs. With the understanding gained, libraries can provide services and infor-
mation resources to meet the needs. Academic libraries must use ICT effectively to
develop guides to the discovery of quality information and to provide innovative
information services delivering timely and appropriate information. Librarians
must train themselves and gain the skills required to educate users through library
orientation and user education programmes and communicate with their users
through social media, the library’s website and publicity within the library.
178 Raliat Alabi, Adenike Damilola Omoike and Daniel Olusegun Ikegune

Libraries must demonstrate excellence and organise advocacy programmes

to educate students, lecturers and library users on the importance of evaluating
information and impart skills in differentiating between quality information and
mis- and disinformation. The library is the right place where authentic and reliable
information materials are available. The library is a growing organism and can
equip itself to ensure that every information resource finds its user and that every
information user finds the resources needed. Strategic plans must be developed for
academic library services in Africa so that they can cater for present and future
users’ needs and expectations. Users’ needs are changing and satisfying them is the
primary reason libraries exist. No sacrifice is too great to achieve this.

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Bhojaraju Gunjal
12 T he Role of Academic Libraries in a
Pandemic Era
Abstract: The unforeseen emergence of COVID-19 throughout the world has des-
troyed the livelihood of the whole world and affected the education system along
with libraries and information services. Academic libraries cater for teaching,
learning, and research activities in their institutions and play a prominent role in
storing, organising, and providing access to information resources for their sta-
keholders. Libraries play an important role and can adopt new developments in
information and communications technology (ICT) along with other tools and tech-
niques to enhance their contributions to teaching, learning, research and institu-
tional visibility. This chapter delineates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on
higher education institutions (HEIs) and their libraries and identifies some of the
many issues and challenges. The pandemic has revealed numerous opportunities
for library and information professionals and exposed innovations that can be
implemented in rendering library services to library users during the devastating
situation. The chapter briefly explains how libraries can make use of appropriate
tools and technologies, adapt to new trends, seize opportunities, and take advan-
tage of emerging communication channels. The important role of library staff, by
which libraries can provide innovative library services to all its stakeholders in
both offline and virtual modes, is explored.

Keywords: Academic libraries; Academic libraries – India; COVID-19 (Disease);

Information services; Information retrieval

Introduction
Coronavirus refers to a family of viruses. COVID-19 is the infectious disease caused
by a newly discovered type of coronavirus. The unexpected pandemic has affected
the entire world, damaged lives and livelihoods and impacted educational and
cultural institutions, libraries and their services. Libraries collect, store, organise,
manage, and provide access to information resources for their stakeholders. The
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) has taken
a leadership role in providing guidelines to libraries as they deal with the results of
the pandemic (IFLA 2020).
Academic libraries play a significant role within higher education institutions
(HEIs) and use a variety of information and communications technology (ICT) in

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-014
182 Bhojaraju Gunjal

serving their communities. Along with integrated library systems, libraries use
knowledge organisation systems (KOS) architecture and a range of software appli-
cations to enhance information retrieval (IR), accessibility, research visibility, and
to ensure innovative and effective service delivery. This chapter explores the issues
and challenges associated with COVID-19 and its impact on libraries and identifies
the opportunities which have emerged as libraries respond to the devastating sit-
uation and investigate the potential for innovative service development. Through-
out the world, governments have provided guidelines for the operation of libraries
and educational institutions which must be observed by libraries, library staff and
users. Emerging trends in library provision are identified, opportunities explored,
and communication channels suggested. The role of library staff in providing inno-
vative library services to all stakeholders in face-to-face and virtual modes is dis-
cussed along with optimising the use of ICT.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Education and Library

Services
The International Association of Universities (IAU) has released two editions of
its Global Survey Report on the Impact of COVID-19 on higher education. An initial
survey was undertaken to understand the disruption caused by COVID-19 on higher
education and to investigate the first measures undertaken by higher education
institutions around the world in response to the crisis. The IAU launched the second
edition to monitor the situation one year into the pandemic and gathered institu-
tional responses in a survey in February 2021 on all aspects of higher education
mission and functioning, namely, governance, teaching and learning, research and
community/societal engagement. The survey gathered replies from 496 HEIs in 112
countries and worldwide, highlighted several positive outcomes, where the crisis
brought about new opportunities and possibilities and generated concern about
the future for some institutions. The report presenting an overview and focusing on
the main results was officially launched at a webinar held on 1 March 2022.

As far as education is concerned, and due to school and university closures, many young
people have been deprived of the opportunity to benefit from education. University leaders,
students and staff have been faced with ongoing challenges to address, yet also with new
opportunities to explore. The contexts in which universities operate remain rather unpre-
dictable, and the sector needs to continue to be very flexible and innovative. The current
situation calls for an in-depth reflection on how to ‘build back better’. The pandemic has accel-
erated change, including in higher education, and there is a need for thorough understanding
 12 The Role of Academic Libraries in a Pandemic Era 183

and exchange about where we are today and how to prepare the future. Education has to be
reimagined in order to better fulfil the expectations of society (IAU Report 2022).

On-campus life was disrupted by the pandemic with the need for physical distancing
leading to closure of campuses. There was a sudden shift from classroom teaching
to emergency remote learning and teaching. Outreach to students was substantially
affected. Support for students undertaking remote access was required and diffi-
cult to provide, and some students had no access because of technological deficien-
cies. Increased use of digital tools presented problems for teachers, learners and
support staff through the requirement of additional skills. Many staff were working
from home. The impacts varied according to academic discipline. Changes were
made in curricula and assessment. Library staff were required to make immediate
responses to the adverse effects of COVID-19 on the education system. Teaching,
learning, research, and community engagement all changed significantly. Figure
12.1 depicts the various perspectives on responding to the pandemic: Academic,
Research, Library, and Innovation and Technology.

Fig. 12.1: Impact of pandemic on different perspectives of higher education.

All activities in teaching, learning, research and community engagement con-

ducted by the library, ranging from mode of access to facilities and services have
184 Bhojaraju Gunjal

been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and are summarised under each of the
four perspectives in Table 12.1.

Table 12.1: Impact of COVID-19 on activities of library users and staff.

Area / Innovation and Academic Research Library

Perspectives Technology Perspective Perspective Perspective
Perspective

Mode of Online and Digital Offline to Virtual Hybrid mode Offline to Virtual mode
access learning mode
• Enabling techno- • Classroom • To conduct • Transformed from print
logy, process, tools teaching and research to digital
and techniques learning activi- activities resource access
ties have been
replaced by dis-
tance teaching
and learning

Challenges Building infrastructure Faculty/ Students Research Scho- Library Staff needs to
for need to lar needs to
• Technology plat- • adapt to tools • adapt to • Adapt to tools and techni-
forms enablement and techniques tools and ques in providing services
techniques
• Adoption of • Up-skilling for • Up-skilling • Up-skilling library staff
Innovative imparting and for research for rendering services
Processes receiving of tea- services, and
ching activities accessing
facilities • Community engagement
• Technology for • Engage in • Engage in via webinars and virtual
online and digital teaching and research acti- workshops
education learning vities
activities

Content / Enabling digital con- Academic Search data- Enable platform ready to
Resources tent and its access information, bases, manuals, access resources for acade-
Access Access guides and mic, student and research
collections, instructions support
Borrowing,
Services
 12 The Role of Academic Libraries in a Pandemic Era 185

Area / Innovation and Academic Research Library

Perspectives Technology Perspective Perspective Perspective
Perspective

Platforms Seamless access to • Teaching Access Access over offline and

resources over diffe- and learning resources, virtual mode through LMS
rent platforms enablement Help over software, library website,
on MOOCs, webinars, remote access, webinars,
Coursera, telephone, mobile Apps
SWAYAM website
• Exams over
virtual mode

Adaption Tools and techniques, Contact-less Contact-less Enable platform for con-
Process and methods access access tact-less access

Facilities Providing access to Enabling virtual Providing Adapted to organise

and Services resources that caters mode for class- access to labs events virtually such as user
to teaching and lear- room sessions, and equipment orientation
ning, and research Attending Exami- with social programs, author
nation, distancing workshops,
Assignment, mode curriculum /
Marks research support, techno-
logy support and webinars
from various publishers and
suppliers

The Role of Academic Libraries in the Pandemic Era

Academic libraries play a prominent role in HEIs in supporting teaching, learning,
research and community service. Traditionally libraries have collected print materi-
als, and more recently eresources, acquired through purchase or licence which are
held locally or accessed remotely; organised and described information resource col-
lections to ensure effective discovery and access; stored the collections in physical
buildings, locally on servers, or in the cloud; and provided information services to
ensure effective information access and use. Academic libraries serve all their stake-
holders through a range of programmes meeting the needs of undergraduate and
graduate students, faculty, researchers and administrative and support staff.
The role of academic libraries has been changing for some years prior to the
pandemic. A report in 2011 summarised the changes then occurring in academic
libraries:
–– Users are going elsewhere for information – is the library becoming invisible?
–– The library is a space for more than just books
186 Bhojaraju Gunjal

–– Evolving metrics must align with value added to users

–– Libraries will never beat Google
–– Users are switching faster than librarians to new modes of working with infor-
mation
–– The library is becoming a social learning space
–– Libraries have increasing and conflicting demands, and
–– Should libraries seek to do everything, straddling two eras? (University Lead-
ership Council 2011)

The harbingers of change spoke truly. The Center for the Future of Libraries works
to identify trends relevant to libraries and librarianship, and has identified Artifi-
cial Intelligence, Blockchain, Digital natives, Flipped learning, and Micro-mobility
as some of the trends, along with the Coronavirus (Center for the Future of Libra-
ries n.d.). Libraries have used ICT to implement their roles effectively and imple-
mented ILSs and specialised software for teaching and learning. KOS architecture
has enhanced IR so that users can locate easily, and satisfactorily access informa-
tion resources required for teaching, learning and research. Library classification
systems, thesauri, subject heading and authority schemes, metadata standards and
ontologies are being deployed in digital libraries to ensure quality database con-
struction and management. Systems need to be carefully chosen and implemented
appropriately (Gunjal and Shi 2008).
The impact of the many changes caused by new ICT in libraries, the new
behaviours being adopted by users, and the transformed role of the library and
the emergence of new services all need to be dealt with appropriately. Library and
information professionals must think out-of-the-box to provide new value-added
services using state-of-the-art technologies and adopt innovative implementation
strategies to ensure services provided meet the needs of its user community (Gunjal
2020). It is imperative that library professionals embed themselves into different
kinds of roles to provide innovative services to their user communities. Systematic
assessment tools must be used to gauge satisfaction with library services and to
collect feedback regularly from users. Effective performance evaluation will help
in improving the services and frame strategic planning of future library initiatives
(Gunjal 2020).
It has been even more challenging to engage user communities during the
COVID-19 pandemic situation and difficult in some ways to develop innova-
tive library services. In the post-pandemic period, it will continue to be difficult.
Library staff have worked hard to equip themselves with new knowledge and plans
to support all their users. They have provided services and facilities in the areas
of academic support, research support, innovation and technology support and
accreditation and ranking.
 12 The Role of Academic Libraries in a Pandemic Era 187

Academic Support

Services provided to support the academic mission and engage with the various
stakeholders within the institution include user orientation programmes for new
students at undergraduate and graduate levels, which can be offered face-to-face
under normal circumstances or online. Lending and circulation services allow
users to borrow books and other library materials, either really or virtually, to
support their teaching and learning needs. Information resources not held by the
library can be obtained from other libraries through document search and delivery
services. The supply is often achieved through digital document delivery. Libraries
provide all kinds of teaching and learning aids and curriculum support through
the provision of open electronic resources (OER), links to learning management
systems and training in their use, and construction of electronic or course reserves.
The library also provides building facilities and equipment including learning
commons, computers and printers.

Research Support

The academic library provides many services to help faculty and research scholars.
Library staff assist with the preparation of grants and the identification of funding
opportunities. They provide specialised software assistance, reference manage-
ment systems for manipulation of citations, guides to specific topics like copyright
or disciplinary subjects linked to the curriculum frequently using LibGuide soft-
ware which provides structured approaches to the identification of appropriate
materials for use in specific subject areas. Academic libraries also provide digiti-
sation services, data curation services, and advice and assistance in data manage-
ment, data visualisation and analysis. Librarians can help users find information
particularly open access versions of resources trapped behind paywalls. Specia-
lised building facilities provide targeted spaces within the library for researchers.
Researchers are assisted in finding the best publication opportunities for their
research, the use of research rankings, and researcher identification. The library
provides advice on the avoidance of plagiarism both in the support of research
and in the support of academic activity within the institution. Training in effective
search methods is also provided.
188 Bhojaraju Gunjal

Innovation and Technology Support

The library uses a wide range of ICT in providing all of its services and library
staff provide specialised assistance to stakeholders with the emerging tools, spaces,
and expertise to support learning, teaching and research activities. Library faci-
lities provide equipment, training and assistance with scanning and 3D printing
facilities. Library staff provide some virtual reality services and simulation soft-
ware. High-end printing facilities are made available by some libraries to enable
on-demand printing of books and similar learning and research outputs.

Accreditation and Ranking

Libraries play prominent roles in showcasing the visibility of HEIs through many
activities ranging from digital exhibitions and displays, websites which expose
institution-wide achievements to institutional repositories which enhance
research visibility through storing research output and making it available and
searchable worldwide. Library staff assist with faculty profile management and
assist in raising the profiles of individual faculty members as well as the ins-
titution as a whole. The various ranking systems in place for institutions are
addressed.

Specialised Tools Supporting Solutions During the Pandemic

The pandemic scenario gave birth to new processes, tools, techniques, and methods
to respond to new situations and support the offering of new services. Some have
already been mentioned but are summarised here. They include:
–– Webinar tools including Zoom and Microsoft Teams for conducting virtual
events
–– Shared workspaces using cloud storage like Google Drive and One Drive for
document preparation and sharing among peers or the workforce, and
–– Contactless transactions in libraries to maintain social distancing.
 12 The Role of Academic Libraries in a Pandemic Era 189

Issues and Challenges for Academic Libraries in

the Pandemic Era
It is inevitable for libraries that COVID-19 has raised many issues and challenges
for library staff in providing services to its stakeholders. The novel and devastating
situation has provided both opportunities and threats to libraries and library and
information professionals. New tools and techniques have had to be invented or
old ones adapted to enable libraries to deliver services to their clienteles. Guide-
lines have been provided by governments throughout the world on the health mea-
sures to be adopted by library staff and users which must be observed. IFLA has
provided guidelines (IFLA 2020) and individual IFLA sections have drawn attention
to the various issues and provided webinars and training. Some governments have
provided guidelines on the educational measures to be implemented in response
to COVID-19. The Indian government, for example, has produced learning enhance-
ment guidelines (India. Ministry of Education 2020).
The closure of educational institutions and libraries during the pandemic led
to increased demands for electronic resources for remote access. Use skyrocketed.
New tools and techniques were required. Libraries changed their communication
methods and sought new channels and support mechanisms to handle queries by
stakeholders in virtual mode and to provide guidance in use of remote resources.
Libraries implemented contact-less services providing reference advice and assis-
tance and online renewals and reservations in virtual mode. Self-assisted services
were strengthened. Unified payment interfaces (UPI) were introduced for fines and
the collections of fees.
Libraries made use of tools to provide the subscribed eresources and other pos-
sible information by remote access from the library website. Library staff helped
stakeholders by updating the content on the website on a regular basis, and attend-
ing to queries by email, chat, phone, and other modes of virtual meeting. Services
like the Google Classroom and Zoom were used to organise events, virtual user
orientation programmes, author workshops, and research support. Libraries col-
laborated with various publishers to provide webinars. Issues arose in relation to
skills and knowledge areas in delivering the various services outlined in the previ-
ous section, but new tools and techniques were acquired to assist faculty members
in showcasing their work and enhancing research visibility while at the same time
promoting research integrity, raising faculty profiles and the overall institutional
profile. There was demand from users for new services and with the reopening
of libraries, services were provided both face-to-face and virtually, leading to
increased workloads. Steps and plans for the reopening of libraries including the
190 Bhojaraju Gunjal

deployment of staff and the repositioning of services had to be prepared for the
next new normal stage.

Ongoing Measures to Manage the Impact of

COVID-19
Rapid and drastic change led to massive transformation of the education system
and its activities including the library arena. The result was havoc and chaos.
Many forums and organisations around the world organised events and conducted
studies to analyse the impact of COVID-19, determine the issues and challenges; and
develop solutions for the situation. The work of the IAU and IFLA has already been
mentioned. Some other studies are summarised below.
–– World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Survey 2020 indicated that the pace
of technology adoption was expected to continue unabated with skills gaps
remaining high. The top skills and skill groups in demand were critical think-
ing and analysis as well as problem-solving, and skills in self-management
such as active learning, resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility. Online
learning and training would continue to grow. Learning curricula were
expected to blend different approaches, drawing on internal and external
expertise, and use new education technology tools, focusing on both formal
and informal methods of skills acquisition. Long-delayed improvements to
education and training systems would need be decisively tackled (WEF 2020).
–– The Times Higher Education (THE) organized a webinar on the upskilling and
reskilling of India’s present and future workforce through digital education.
The concepts of skilling, reskilling, and upskilling are the buzz words, and their
importance was felt during the pandemic. The concepts are applicable to the
education sector as all stakeholders struggle to learn new skills to adapt to dif-
ferent ways in handling new activities related to teaching, learning, research,
communication and training. Some emerging key trends noted at the webinar
were:
–– Flexible continuous digital education for upskilling and reskilling of the
present and future workforce
–– Sharing of knowledge and best practices by experts from academia and
industry, and
–– Embedding skills education in teaching, learning, and assessment creates
more employable graduates (THE 2021).
–– Cox and Felix (2020) delineated six visions of success for academic libraries in
a post COVID-19 world. They presented the library as: a physical and virtual
 12 The Role of Academic Libraries in a Pandemic Era 191

student success hub; hybrid programming and services; special collections and
archives going digital first; collaborative creativity; library space as a network;
and new ways of working.

–– The University of Edinburgh defines

Digital education is the innovative use of digital tools and technologies during teaching and
learning and is often referred to as Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) or e-Learning.
Exploring the use of digital technologies gives educators the opportunity to design engaging
learning opportunities in the courses they teach, and these can take the form of blended or
fully online courses and programmes (University of Edinburgh 2021).

The University provides on its website helpful details on blended learning,

online learning and future learning trends.
–– Drishti India outlined in 2021 the impact of the pandemic on Indian edu-
cation in completely shifting the education system into a digital mode of
learning and questioned whether it was substituting real learning or not.
The report also commented on various government initiatives for elearning,
including the collaboratively operating National Programme on Technology
Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) which provides web and video courses in all
major branches of engineering and physical sciences at the undergraduate
and postgraduate levels and management courses at the postgraduate level.
Technology was viewed as a saviour delivering a wide range of flexible
cost-effective programmes in an environment suiting the users, but on the
other side of the coin prevented learning from others and required signif-
icant personal technology investment with issues of inequitable access and
participation. (Drishti 2021).
–– India’s National Education Policy 2020 outlined the vision of India’s education
system, emphasising the importance of online and digital education, and the
need to ensure equitable use of technology with key initiatives in building
digital infrastructure, content and capacity.

Technology in education is a journey and not a destination and capacity will be needed to
orchestrate the various ecosystem players to implement policy objectives. A dedicated unit for
the purpose of orchestrating the building of digital infrastructure, digital content and capacity
building will be created in the Ministry to look after the e-education needs of both school
and higher education. Since technology is rapidly evolving and needs specialists to deliver
high quality e-learning, a vibrant ecosystem has to be encouraged to create solutions that not
only solve India’s challenges of scale, diversity, equity, but also evolve in keeping with the
rapid changes in technology, whose half-life reduces with each passing year. This centre will,
therefore, consist of experts drawn from the field of administration, education, educational
192 Bhojaraju Gunjal

technology, digital pedagogy and assessment, e-governance, etc. (India. Ministry of Human
Resource Development 2020, 60).

–– The work of IFLA has already been mentioned and national library associa-
tions such as ALA (2020) have provided advice to help libraries in rendering
services to their clienteles during the pandemic.

Conclusion
Libraries play a prominent role in collecting, storing, organising, and providing
access to information resources. Academic libraries support their institutions and
their stakeholders in teaching, learning, research and community service activi-
ties. Libraries continued to provide services during the COVID-19 pandemic even
though institutions were closed. Educational programmes changed substantially to
meet the constraints of the new environment. Libraries responded by finding fresh
applications for existing tools and technologies, devising innovative services with
new tools, following emerging trends, taking advantage of communication chan-
nels, equipping library staff with up-to-date skills and knowledge, and providing
state-of-the-art library services to all stakeholders in both offline and virtual mode.
Overall, the pandemic situation has given birth to devastating circumstances
and posed challenges to the education system including libraries in delivering ser-
vices to its stakeholders. There is a need to plan strategically and take careful steps
forward to ensure a sound future which copes with pandemics and other natural
disasters along with the reopening of libraries and traditional and cutting-edge
educational programmes in the new normal.
Government and educational decision makers are providing guidelines and
policies to HEIs to build digital infrastructure and enable elearning. Digital learn-
ing is here to stay, even though there are issues and challenges. All must adapt to
new modes of learning; libraries and their staff must find new roles and new ways
to meet user needs.

Acknowledgements
The author thankfully acknowledges all the resources referred to in preparation
for this chapter.
 12 The Role of Academic Libraries in a Pandemic Era 193

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Kwame Kodua-Ntim and Madeleine C. Fombad
13 C
 hallenges with Open Access
Institutional Repositories in Ghana
Abstract: The libraries of institutions of higher education have developed institu-
tional repositories to manage their research output and showcase the work of their
institutions. A variety of software has been used. Most libraries have structured the
repositories so that they are available through open access (OA) to the world. Some
institutions have mandated that faculty and research staff place their publications
in the repositories. Not all has been plain sailing and many issues and challenges
have emerged. This chapter examines the nature of open access institutional reposi-
tories (OAIRs), outlines their development in Ghana and discusses issues which have
arisen. It also reports on a study undertaken of institutional repositories in Ghana
and suggests ways to go forward to ensure effective implementation of institutional
repositories.

Keywords: Institutional repositories; Open access; Academic libraries – Ghana

Introduction
An institutional repository is an archive for collecting, preserving, and disseminat-
ing digital copies of the intellectual output of an institution, particularly a research
institution. An open repository or open access (OA) repository is a digital platform
that holds research output and provides free, immediate and permanent access to
research results for anyone to use, download and distribute. An Open Access Insti-
tutional Repository (OAIR) enables an institution to record and manage its research
output. An OAIR exposes institutional research to others and facilitates the use and
promotion of institutional scholarly communication. This chapter explores the nature
and development of OAIRs with a particular emphasis on the situation in Ghana.
The research output of academic and research institutions may take the form
of writing an article in a scholarly journal, delivering a presentation at a confer-
ence, recording or publishing verbal presentations, posting an entry on a social
media channel or producing a book or a chapter in a book. All research output in
some kind of documentary or public format can be deposited in an institutional
repository. The process of disseminating information to academic communities is
referred to as scholarly communication (Dlamini and Snyman 2017). The Associa-
tion of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) in the US describes scholarly commu-
nication as:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-015
196 Kwame Kodua-Ntim and Madeleine C. Fombad

the system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for
quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use. The system
includes both formal means of communication, such as publication in peer-reviewed jour-
nals, and informal channels, such as electronic mailing lists (ACRL 2003).

ACRL has prepared a scholarly communication toolkit (ACRL 2022).

There are varying estimates of the percentage of world research undertaken in
Africa with figures from 1-5% reported. There is a similar disparity in figures con-
cerning the percentage of world population for Africa with reports of 12-17%. While
it depends on the bases of the calculations, it is fair to say that African research is
completely underperforming in relation to its size. What is the problem? Much of
the research work undertaken in Africa does not make it into academic journals.
In addition, the low budgets of most African academic institutions prohibit the pur-
chase of extensive journal collections for the use of researchers and the dissemi-
nation of research results. African research content, if and when published, is out
of reach of most university libraries. Individual researchers and students find it
difficult to access research output. Another consideration is that with inadequate
research funding it is important to avoid duplication. Many researchers in Africa
conduct their work in isolation without having access to the body of knowledge
in a given area, and without a platform for knowledge sharing, resulting in poor
research outcomes and duplication (Okumu 2015).

What Constitutes Open Access?

Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which
research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. A
discussion of various definitions of OA provides: “‘Open Access’ may be defined as
where digital content is fully, freely, immediately and permanently available and
can be viewed and reused with minimal restrictions” (Pinfield et al. 2014). OA can
provide free and unrestricted access to academic publications through the Internet,
or free availability at the point of use of electronic academic articles. OA can be
achieved through two strategies, OA journals and OA repositories, with both aim
at advocating for the provision of free access to information to assist the spread of
knowledge and equitable access for researchers and libraries globally, and more
particularly in developing countries (Fox and Hanlon 2015).
The OA movement emerged with the development of the World Wide Web
(WWW), known as the Web, as a system for accessing documents in the 1990s
and researchers found a new platform for research dissemination on the Internet
(Ezema and Onyancha 2016). Research library associations worldwide have pro-
 13 Challenges with Open Access Institutional Repositories in Ghana 197

moted the use of open access. The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources
Coalition (SPARC) has been key to developing OA initiatives. The Budapest Open
Access Initiative has been an important step in promoting the need for open access.
Another initiative encouraging OA has related to the emphasis on copyright state-
ments made in relation to content creation with the establishment of Creative
Commons licences. “Creative Commons licenses give everyone from individual cre-
ators to large institutions a standardized way to grant the public permission to use
their creative work under copyright law” (Creative Commons n.d.).
There are various types of OA. Two main routes are the gold road and the green
road. “Gold open access (OA) is where an article or book chapter is published imme-
diately as OA in an online journal or book. In contrast, green open access is where
the author publishes an article in a journal and then deposits, or ‘self-archives’,
a version of this article in a freely accessible subject or institutional repository”
(Schmitz 2022). The green road allows authors to make their research output avail-
able through personal websites or OA repositories.
In OA publishing, the end-user is not charged to access journal articles in con-
trast to the normal publishing model where payments are made for purchases. The
creator of content is charged for content. Various funding strategies are used to
meet the costs involved, such as direct author fees, institutional memberships spon-
soring all or part of author fees, funding agency payments of author fees and grants
to OA publishers, and institutional grants, are used to cover the cost of publishing
and distributing of OA content for free access by the end user (Dulle, Minish-Ma-
janja, and Cloete 2010).
OA is increasingly breaking down access barriers which for years have
slowed down universal availability of information and is providing researchers
with the opportunity to access information which is freely available (Nwagwu
and Ojemeni 2015). Funding authorities are increasingly requiring recipients of
research funding to make their results available publicly to ensure wider dis-
semination of what is frequently publicly funded projects. A study by Solomon
and Björk (2012) observed that research grantors were requesting OA publishing
from grantees. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US require OA pub-
lishing for all its funded research to ensure wider access to information through
the reduction of costs of expensive journal subscriptions for health researchers
(Ezema and Onyancha 2016).
198 Kwame Kodua-Ntim and Madeleine C. Fombad

Open Access Institutional Repositories

Repositories have been defined as:

A repository may be defined as a set of systems and services which facilitates the ingest,
storage, management, retrieval, display, and reuse of digital objects. Repositories may be set
up by institutions, subject communities, research funders, or other groups. They may provide
access to a variety of digital objects, including peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters,
theses, datasets, learning objects, or rich media files (Pinfield 2009, 165).

Repositories may be general, subject-based or institutionally located. OAIR are

primarily attached to academic institutions. Several key subject repositories exist
including arXiv, which contains scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathe-
matics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, elec-
trical engineering and systems science, and economics, and SSRN, which contains
over 1,1 million articles in a broad range of social sciences disciplines. Repositories
may include post-prints, that is articles already published, pre-prints prior to pub-
lication, theses and dissertations, manuals, teaching materials or other documents
that authors or their institutions wish to make publicly available without financial
or other access barriers.
According to Adeyemi et al., quoting others, an OAIR is an “online locus for
collecting, preserving and disseminating in digital form the intellectual output an
institution” (2017). Ibinaiye et al. consider that, regardless of intent or source, the
OAIR may be any collection of digital material hosted, owned, managed or dissem-
inated by a college or university (2015). The content could include research arti-
cles in a university before receiving peer review, pre-prints, and digital versions of
theses and dissertations. An OAIR can include other digital assets produced as part
of normal academic life, such as administrative records, course notes, or objects
of learning (Adeyemi et al. 2017). Consequently, each institution can define its
own version of a repository; the content may be purely academic but may include
administrative, teaching and research material, both published and unpublished,
and be cumulative and perpetual, accessible and interoperable and contribute to
the system of academic communication (Adeyemi et al. 2017).
OAIRs create international exposure for the academic research of an institu-
tion, offer open access to institutional research output through self-archiving, and
store and preserve other electronic institutional resources, including unpublished
or grey literature produced outside traditional paths. OAIRs offer critical compo-
nents that expand access to research and increase competition while reducing the
monopoly power of journals, thus providing economic relief to the institutions and
libraries supporting them. OAIRs act as concrete indicators of the excellence of a
university and increase the prestige, reputation and public value of the institution.
 13 Challenges with Open Access Institutional Repositories in Ghana 199

Institutional repositories provide the current scholarly publishing model with

an immediate and useful addition, while promoting creativity in a new disaggre-
gated publishing system that will develop and improve over time (Kakai, Musoke,
and Okello-Obura 2018). In the current scholarly journal framework, OAIRs provide
a strategic solution to system and scholarly communication problems (Adeyemi et
al. 2017). In research-intensive institutions, OAIRs are now part of the technical
infrastructure and a preferred option for open access to research output. Cullen
and Chawner (2010) state that the reasons for the establishment of an OAIR vary
from one institution to another and from one discipline to another. Academic
libraries benefit from involvement in OAIR initiatives and they can emphasise the
importance of scholarly communication. Other potential benefits concentrate on
institutional and individual reputation status, public interest, improving teaching
and scholarship performance in colleges and universities, enhancing open access,
engaging the college community, enhancing student partnerships, remaining
responsive to evolving community needs and open archiving. OAIRs have many
advantages and can provide many resources for use by institutions and academics.
OA articles are cited significantly more than non-OA articles, even when other
factors are taken into account (Kodua-Ntim and Fombad 2021). A growing number
of institutions and funding agencies for research are beginning to set OA crite-
ria. Other literature supports that open access online articles enjoy significantly
higher citation rates than traditionally published articles with adequate indexing
and search mechanisms in place (Chisita and Chiparausha 2019; Kodua-Ntim and
Fombad 2020).

Collaborating with Others

The activity by research library associations in working together to achieve change
has already been mentioned. The International Federation of Library Associations
and Institutions (IFLA) made a statement on OA in 2003 which encouraged collabo-
ration and has worked with many organisations since.

IFLA (the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) is committed to

ensuring the widest possible access to information for all peoples …IFLA acknowledges that
the discovery, contention, elaboration and application of research in all fields will enhance
progress, sustainability and human well being. Peer reviewed scholarly literature is a vital
element in the processes of research and scholarship. It is supported by a range of research
documentation, which includes pre-prints, technical reports and records of research data.
IFLA declares that the world-wide network of library and information services provides
access to past, present and future scholarly literature and research documentation; ensures
200 Kwame Kodua-Ntim and Madeleine C. Fombad

its preservation; assists users in discovery and use; and offers educational programs to enable
users to develop lifelong literacies.

IFLA affirms that comprehensive open access to scholarly literature and research documen-
tation is vital to the understanding of our world and to the identification of solutions to global
challenges and particularly the reduction of information inequality. Open access guarantees
the integrity of the system of scholarly communication by ensuring that all research and
scholarship will be available in perpetuity for unrestricted examination and, where relevant,
elaboration or refutation (IFLA 2003).

Two significant collaborative activities have been the development of the Directory
of Open Access Repositories, OpenDOAR and the Registry of Open Access Reposito-
ries (ROAR). OpenDOAR is a quality-assured, global directory of open access repos-
itories. It hosts repositories that provide free, open access to academic outputs
and resources. Each repository record within OpenDOAR has been carefully
reviewed and processed to offer a trusted service for the community (OpenDOAR
2021). Sherpa Romeo is an online resource that aggregates and analyses publisher
open access policies from around the world and provides summaries of publisher
copyright and open access archiving policies on a journal-by-journal basis. Sherpa
Romeo provides a summary of publishers’ open access archiving conditions for
individual journals which guides authors when seeking appropriate publishing
opportunities and creators of institutional repositories when checking conditions
of open access. ROAR provides timely information about the growth and status of
repositories throughout the world.

The Developments of Open Access Institutional

Repositories in Africa
When comparing the number of OAIRs in other countries, as shown in the most
recent international repository databases such as OpenDOAR, ROAR and webo-
metrics, it is evident that African countries are lagging behind in developing and
using OAIRs. Only a few academic institutions in Africa have taken up the chal-
lenge of making their in-house research output accessible through an OAIR to the
global world (Chisita and Chiparausha 2021). Limited work has been carried out
to investigate the reasons for perceived underdevelopment and underuse of OAIR
in the continent of Africa. Most of the studies in Africa have been conducted in
South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. Nevertheless, the number of OAIRs in African
universities has increased significantly in recent years (Kodua-Ntim and Fombad
2021). Before 2006, Africa moved from a single archive to 13 by the end of 2007, 35
 13 Challenges with Open Access Institutional Repositories in Ghana 201

by 2010, 136 by 2015, 158 by 2018 and 174 by 2021. There are indications that the
numbers will continue the grow (OpenDOAR 2021).
The significant growth indicates that Africa accepts the idea of institutional
repositories and that there is an increasing awareness of their usefulness in the
African context. Nevertheless, most African countries have not established OAIRs
in their universities. Of the 55 sovereign countries in Africa, only 22 have OAIR
(OpenDOAR 2021. As has already been pointed out, the bulk of OAIRs in Africa are
in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. In October 2022, OpenDOAR noted almost 6000
institutional repositories in existence, with developed countries dominating the
numbers. Most African countries are in the early stages of the OA movement; it is
obvious that the growth rate of repositories in African countries is relatively low
compared to other developed countries The contribution of all African countries is
less than that of the United States alone, which has 922 repositories as of October
2022.
In 2000, the Association of African Universities (AAU) initiated the Database of
African Theses and Dissertations-Research (DATAD-R) project to improve access to
and use of African scholarly works, and to ensure that members of the Association
set up an OAIR. DATAD Online was launched and is now a DSpace repository. In
2003, eight universities in Africa established African Virtual Open Initiatives and
Resources (AVOIR), a new network for capacity building in network engineering to
create free and open source technology to promote electronic learning and busi-
ness transactions in Africa as a first step, according to Keats (2008). AVOIR built
the Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning (KEWL), which was used
to deliver the postgraduate programme in Telecommunications Policy and Regu-
lation, funded by the Tanzania-based Network of Telecommunications Policy and
Regulation in Africa (NetTelAfrica). It is clear that African universities have been
acquainted with open source software for some time particularly when the librar-
ies embraced OAIR (Samzugi 2017).
Pinfield et al. identified the challenges facing OAIR in Africa as funding short-
ages, language barriers, inadequate ICT infrastructure, and lack of qualified per-
sonnel (2014). The technological challenges have led to low web usage and lack of
access to global scientific information on the web (Kodua-Ntim and Fombad 2020)
resulting in a skewed distribution of knowledge in favour of the West. Other hin-
drances to OAIR have related to institutional inertia because of doubt of the accept-
ability by some institutions of open access publication for promotion, retention of
tenure and access to research grants. While there has been an emerging awareness
of the value of OA and the value of the creation of a new publication channel, devel-
opments have been slow (Singeh, Abrizah, and Karim 2013).
That the development of OAIRs has so far been primarily concentrated in insti-
tutions in the developed world has been consistently noted (Chisita and Chiparau-
202 Kwame Kodua-Ntim and Madeleine C. Fombad

sha 2019). Some issues could be solved if libraries shifted their focus from their
own needs to those of the faculty. The benefits provided by institutional reposito-
ries need to be fully exploited by educational and research institutions (Adeyemi
et al. 2017). Inadequate advocacy has been seen as the major challenge. Advocacy
is needed and the library should be the centre for dissemination of information
and advocacy (Ezema and Onyancha 2016). All stakeholders in OAIR including
academic staff, librarians and students must be involved for such advocacy to be
effective. Advocacy attracts contributors as well as stakeholders. Unfortunately, a
high percentage of stakeholders in Africa has little or no knowledge which would
provide the basis for advocacy (Dlamini and Snyman 2017).
For maximum benefit, OAIR needs a relatively fast and reliable Internet con-
nection. Sadly, in Ghana, this is not the case. Given the increase in Internet use in
Ghana, the bandwidth in most universities and research institutions is insufficient.
The requirement for improved ICT connectivity and infrastructure to support the
usage of OAIR in university libraries has been noted by many (Adeyemi et al. 2017).
Costs of improvements are considerable. The African Tertiary Institutions Connec-
tivity Survey (ATICS) showed that the average African university paid fifty times
more for bandwidth than their educational counterparts in the rest of the world
and that there were failures to monitor, let alone manage the existing bandwidth
(Gakio 2006).
The low availability of Internet bandwidth is an obstacle for OAIR. In develop-
ing countries, the high cost of Internet bandwidth makes it very difficult for aca-
demic institutions in the field to provide enough bandwidth to host OAIR. Ideally,
OAIR needs dedicated Internet access and the cost of such dedicated services
exceeds the ability of most institutions to pay (Agyen-Gyasi et al. 2010). Bandwidth
is the life-blood of the information economy in the world, but it is most scarce
where it is most needed. Africa’s developing nations need low-cost connectivity to
accelerate their socio-economic development. While little infrastructure is needed
to set up an OAIR, much more is needed to obtain the full benefit. Accessibility cri-
teria include the entire institution’s network coverage, provision of access points,
network equipment and other devices that are too large to be implemented by
some organizations (Agyen-Gyasi et al. 2010).
 13 Challenges with Open Access Institutional Repositories in Ghana 203

Institutional Repositories in Ghana: The Survey

The Methods Adopted

There are fifteen national public universities in Ghana. and ten technical universi-
ties. A study was undertaken of institutional repositories in universities in Ghana.
Using a mixed-methods design, quantitative and qualitative data were concurrently
collected in a single phase. Five university libraries in Ghana, were purposively
selected because they met certain operational criteria in respect of infrastructure
and resources, the number of qualified and permanent staff, how well equipped
they were and the operational status of their OAIRs. The universities chosen were
the University of Ghana (UG), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technol-
ogy (KNUST), University of Cape Coast (UCC), University for Development Studies
(UDS) and Ashesi University (AU). The target population of the study was the 3451
academic staff along with the library staff who served as OAIR managers at the
five selected universities: 3439 academic staff were identified for the quantitative
phase, and twelve library staff for the qualitative phase.
The population was deemed to be uniform, because the researchers believed
the participants were stakeholders who sought to enhance the learning environ-
ment through instruction, applied research, scholarly activity and community
service, all of which support the mission of a university. Academic staff have various
ranks. The participants were stratified prior to being randomly selected, so that
each rank would be fairly represented. The study used a statistical power analysis
software package known as the Sample Size Calculator of Creative Research System
to calculate the sample size for each rank. Of the 3439 academic staff, 1085 were
randomly selected to participate in the quantitative study. 998 respondents com-
pleted the questionnaire which had been distributed face to face, with a response
rate of 91.98 per cent. For the qualitative phase, twelve library staff who were OAIR
managers were selected.
Data collection techniques were dictated by the chosen research design. After
carefully examining the background literature and determining the research ques-
tions, the type of information the researcher wished to obtain, the paradigm and
the purpose of the study as well as related studies, the researcher chose a question-
naire for the quantitative phase and semi-structured interviews using an interview
guide for the qualitative phase as instruments. The quantitative and qualitative
data were collected together, using both questionnaires and interviews. The data
was presented in frequencies, and percentages, using mean and standard devia-
tions on a five-point Likert scale. The research question was to find out the chal-
lenges of OAIR usage among respondents in Ghana.
204 Kwame Kodua-Ntim and Madeleine C. Fombad

The Results

Ten issues were identified as providing challenges in use of OAIRs and are listed in
Table 13.1.

Table 13.1: Descriptive analysis of challenges of OAIR among respondents.

Challenges with the use of OAIR Means Standard Deviation

Inadequate advocacy 4.42 .821

Inadequate ICT connectivity and infrastructure 4.40 .736
Insufficient technological skills 4.24 .955
Copyright issues 4.12 .979
Lack of knowledge or awareness of OAIR 4.09 .996
Inadequate funding 4.03 .837
Institutional culture and politics 4.00 .819
Absence of incentives 3.97 .906
Inadequate power supply 3.85 .956
Lack of institutional repository policy 3.79 .880
Mean of Means 4.09 .889

The challenges with the use of OAIR in university libraries ranged from lack of
policy and inadequate power supply to inadequate advocacy and poor ICT connec-
tivity and infrastructure.
Some of the respondents expressed the following concerns:

Lack of adequate ICT platforms, slow Internet speed and electricity and no information on
OAIR existence.
The libraries have their operational schedule, different from that of users.
There is a lack of understanding and lack of interest by users.
There are unstable Internet connectivity and power fluctuations.
There should be more education and training on OAIR.

Academic staff included in the survey indicated they did not have much informa-
tion about OAIR which made it difficult for them to consider it.
The OAIR managers, when asked about the major challenges associated with
the use of OAIR in university libraries, noted that inadequate advocacy, inade-
quate ICT connectivity and infrastructure, insufficient technological skills, copy-
right issues, lack of knowledge or awareness of OAIR and inadequate funding were
common issues. They also commented on challenges such as institutional culture
and politics, absence of incentives, inadequate power supply and lack of institu-
tional repository policy.
 13 Challenges with Open Access Institutional Repositories in Ghana 205

Some of the OAIR managers believed the major challenges related to person-
nel, financial restrictions, lack of technological know-how and insufficient support
from IT staff. One staff member, for example remarked that:

Challenges have to do with personnel, here we have someone in charge of the technical aspect
and I am for managerial aspect. There is a workload and getting the right people for the job is
the problem. Not everybody can perceive what is there. Also network issues.

Managing the service to work efficiently is also an issue. Another issue related to
the presentation of theses. Hard copies rather than soft made the archiving more
difficult. Others interviewed commented on:

Financial, technological know-how and IT staff. OAIR was hosted on our server and we had
a problem with our server. Continuously we had tender strikes. We then decided to move to
cloud space. It was difficult because most of our files got lost. Now we are using DSpace direct,
which we pay for the cloud space. Any changes in terms of the interface the people do for us.
This is less stressful compared to the past one. You were not able to upload the document as
fast as you want.

Another interviewee commented:

The challenges, sometimes there are power fluctuations and the system will be down and
sometimes users do not know how to use it. Maybe how to search for an item in the repository
is the problem.

Another complained about power, manpower, equipment and technology, unwill-

ingness from the faculty and management commitment. Other comments included:

One is technological change, IT staff to maintain the server and power outages. We also need
more staff in our unit, more hands to be at standby. Our work is tedious. We have a mismatch
of staff and work and it’s a major challenge not allowing us to get to equilibrium. The issue of
power and the Internet from the administration side is also a problem.

Some of the interviewees, especially the technical staff, complained about col-
leagues at other universities advancing ahead of them both in software and IT
expertise. Other comments included:

We are using open software. For those who are to maintain the platform, we need to be
abreast of new technological advancements to help maintain it. We wish the academic staff
could push their work on the platform without us doing the mediation for them that will shoot
up the repository.
In the beginning, it was infrastructure, functioning there was an issue of support in terms
of strong policies that require people to do what they are supposed to do. Though we have a
206 Kwame Kodua-Ntim and Madeleine C. Fombad

university OA policy, we do not have a policy on OAIR. It was also staffing in the sense of the
structure that we run which is a digital library so the transition from the traditional library
module into a digital library. Staffing was one of our challenges, especially the training of new
staff. Also, the lack of institutional support.

Going Forward with Institutional Repositories in

Ghana
The most important requirement for electronic networking that affects OAIR is the
provision of an effective telecommunications service, along with a reliable power
supply. Telecommunications infrastructure remains underdeveloped and expen-
sive in most African countries. Although the situation in Ghana has changed, more
needs to be done to get the situation to the level of developed countries. The high
cost of bandwidth in Africa is because satellite broadband is used against a much
cheaper fibre optic network. Universities in Ghana are hindered by monopolies
and inefficiencies in telecommunications that limit communication and interaction
with colleagues at home and abroad, and retard research activity. Sadly, universi-
ties with limited financial resources in developing countries end up paying more
for the same bandwidth than do their counterparts in the developed world. Elec-
tricity supply is a major problem in Ghana as in other African countries. Ensuring
efficient functioning of OAIR systems in Ghana is a difficult and expensive venture
as backup generators must be enlisted through additional funds.
The study reported that staff involved had insufficient technological skills.
Stakeholders involved were reluctant to change from traditional ways of providing
library services. Having inappropriate and insufficient technology was also among
the challenges hindering the usage of OAIR in university libraries. Copyright issues
and intellectual property rights were raised as problems with concerns about the
exclusive rights in copyright, patents, trademarks, industrial designs, trade secrets
and trade names. The author’s right to reproduce work includes the right to convert
the work from the paper format to digital or electronic format. This right is espe-
cially important since the development of OAIR might entail scanning of previously
published work in paper format and converting it into digital format for upload-
ing in OAIR. Unless the conversion is done with the permission of the copyright
holder or under a statutory exception as fair dealing, it might constitute a copyright
infringement and affect the use of OAIR (Adeyemi et al. 2017). Sometimes research-
ers are apprehensive about infringing publishers’ rights and lack adequate aware-
ness about their intellectual property rights (Jain 2012). Publishers often see OAIR
as a potential obstacle and a threat to business. The management of intellectual
 13 Challenges with Open Access Institutional Repositories in Ghana 207

property issues must evolve (Jain 2012) and the activities of international agencies
are securing changes in publishers’ agreements which will lead to improvements.
Maintaining OAIRs costs money; they are not free. Costs include staff; technol-
ogy including hardware and software, although many institutions use open source
software; services provided; and storage and maintenance costs. Staffing includes
those with direct responsibility for the daily operations of the services and those
who have new responsibilities added to their positions to support the service. The
latter includes staff who may take on marketing roles, staff who contribute meta-
data and staff who provide training. Operational costs include marketing materi-
als, software upgrades, hardware and other ongoing maintenance costs. Funding
is a major problem but also an issue of planning and priorities. The state of ICT
infrastructure in academic and research institutions in developing countries like
Ghana is low and requires a complete overhaul to sustain the development of OAIR
(Kodua-Ntim and Fombad 2021).
Effective advocacy and promotion are crucial for the successful implementa-
tion of OAIR. The full benefits can be achieved only if the stakeholders involved
are fully aware of the potential benefits. Institutional culture and politics need to
change and major transformation can be achieved only through strong leader-
ship by library managers and advocates. Management commitment and support
are vital for successful OAIR implementation to ensure effective preservation and
maintenance, information technology infrastructure, digital rights management
and institutional mandate (Lagzian, Abrizah, and Wee 2015). Incentives might help
obtain content from faculty and researchers. In the absence of any specific or finan-
cial incentive, academics might be persuaded that availability of research outputs
on an OAIR would give greater exposure to their work. Perhaps incentives linked to
academic rewards could be introduced to encourage staff to deposit their research
output in the OAIR.
It is essential that OAIR policies be developed within institutions and imple-
mented, along with mandating deposit of content to guide the usage of OAIR in uni-
versity libraries. OAIR policy documents must cover such matters as what to accept
or reject, copyright issues, self or mediated archiving, submission and withdrawal
policies, and any other issue necessary to govern the operation of OAIR (Adeyemi
et al. 2017).
Libraries must be allocated resources for the implementation of OAIRs, includ-
ing marketing, promotion and publicity to highlight the importance of OAIRs,
and they must be easy to use. Training for staff and users is required. Additional
funding must be allocated to address issues of infrastructure, Internet connectiv-
ity and power supply. And new institutional OAIR policies can address issues on
depositing content, intellectual property rights, and modes of ingest for research
documents. Strong leaders can ensure effective implementation.
208 Kwame Kodua-Ntim and Madeleine C. Fombad

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Michelle Kowalsky
14 A
 dvocating for Value-Added Content and
Tools in Library Databases and Beyond
Abstract: Libraries are known for their provision of quality and scholarly infor-
mation to researchers, students, and often the general public. In moving toward
electronic resources, libraries rely on specialized databases which collect and
index content from books, journals, newspapers, and other sources to support pro-
fessional access to and end-user searching of these materials. Both librarians and
users need to advocate for the value of databases as well as encourage the creation,
maintenance, and improvement of the holdings of both free and commercial data-
base products. In offering reviewed, vetted, and professionally selected information
resources, librarians and their institutions help dissolve patterns of disinformation,
misinformation, and bias which may circulate through other means of communica-
tion. Researchers’ scholarly processes serve as a fact-checking mechanism for their
publications; libraries serve as a testing mechanism for both academic and popular
topics by providing a wide range of quality sources from which personal views can
be formed and decisions made. This chapter discusses the need for a wide range
of electronic library databases, the current state of database information creation,
the benefits, and challenges of home-grown or commercial database products, and
the reliance of users on the value-added aspects of these tools. Now more than ever,
aggregation and organization of the best resources available will mitigate informa-
tion disorder throughout society and improve the effectiveness of the educational
endeavor for researchers, educators, and students alike.

Keywords: Databases – Abstracting and indexing; Libraries – Information resource

management; Disinformation; Database management in libraries

Introduction
Libraries are one of the world’s most important institutions dedicated to countering
disinformation. In a library, users can find information on many different perspec-
tives of a topic in collections selected by information professionals. Citizens rely on
the expertise of librarians to both gather and collect the best information possible,
and as a result, libraries and their partner institutions are viewed as society’s trust-
worthy centers for knowledge. It is expected that sources found in a library, or in
adjacent places of higher learning such as universities, or institutions of cultural
preservation such as museums, would be more scholarly and reliable, and there-
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-016
212 Michelle Kowalsky

fore less likely to contain misinformation than information found in other public
spaces like the open web.
As libraries move their collections to electronic formats, maintenance of elec-
tronic databases of information accessing the contents of the collections become
even more important. In archiving society’s written output, its audio and video
productions, and its many types of images into formats which can be accessed by
future generations, information scientists are actively preserving current as well
as past knowledge. People expect that the most valuable items will be conserved,
and that less valuable items will disappear over time, as they have over the course
of history. Yet attempts to censor the process or influence the selection or selection
efforts of professionals also abound throughout history and our present day. There
are many influences on what information resources are saved and why.
The philosophical underpinning of libraries suggests that all information is
recorded for posterity; patrons can rest assured that multiple aspects of an issue
are being saved, indexed, and made available to users across the many libraries of
the world. Researchers have many options to learn, review, critique, and synthesize
their understandings of any topic or phenomenon. In many countries, research-
ers will turn to their university and local libraries to find information by search-
ing their electronic collections, which are usually made up of paid subscriptions
to databases of content from a variety of journal publishers and electronic book
vendors. In this context, a library database is an online searchable collection of
information purchased by a library from a content vendor so that the library can
provide access to scholarly peer-reviewed articles, newspaper and journal articles,
and other information resources to its users. Library databases provide a range of
storage and retrieval mechanisms for accessing the world’s knowledge, and data-
base features help users to discover relationships between ideas and their authors.
Libraries and their databases indexing collected content provide a safe space for
learners to review all the available information on an issue so that they can draw
their own conclusions.
Without appropriate quality resource discovery tools, users may rely on the
information most conveniently available to them, or they may focus solely on
the most immediate or prolific information directed at them by outside sources.
Cooke (2017), Sullivan (2019) and others have discussed multiple concerns regard-
ing people’s information seeking and use patterns and the potential solutions for
further education to counter satisficing behaviors. Pointing users toward librar-
ies and curated databases serves to counter disorder in information and society at
large. Some individuals, groups, or even the media seek to provide information to
influence the masses on particular issues. By organizing what is known and ver-
ified, libraries become a refuge for reason and common sense. They offer better
access to more resources than can be provided by providers with ulterior motives.
 14 Advocating for Value-Added Content and Tools in Library Databases and Beyond 213

In seeking further details on topics or issues, people can consult the volumes of
reviewed information available in library databases. An informed citizenry will be
able to make good decisions for individuals as well as society at large.

Characteristics of Databases
One of the customary publications for librarians to produce as part of their roles
is a curated bibliography, or list of sources which helps researchers identify the
seminal works on a particular topic. Such publications reinforce the importance
of sharing scholarly and professional information with others, and emphasise the
expertise of information professionals to complement, inform, extend, and influ-
ence a discipline’s knowledge base (Borrego, Ardanuy, and Urbano 2018). The topic
guides become infinitely more useful if the works being recommended are easily
obtainable by the reader. Specifically, online databases serve both to index subject
content and to act as repositories for the most recent versions of a work, as well
as the most recent works about a subject, and ideally reach back in time to older
works on a topic as well.
Databases are most valuable to users when they include permanent links to
the full content of a text, although abstracts, subject headings, and a controlled
format of database records certainly help to improve the research experience for
users and the maintenance experience for data managers. Rafi, Zheng, and Khur-
shid (2019), and Izuagbe et al. (2021) explain that use of scholarly databases has a
significant impact on academic research and on faculty researchers themselves,
who are motivated to use them to inform and improve their own scholarship. For
many reasons, databases are a more trusted source of information than the open
web, mostly since they collect published and edited works and provide content
which has already passed at least one layer of peer review. Databases help to fight
disinformation by providing users with an authoritative collection of information
to search.
Not all databases have accurate or perfect information, but the extra layer of
certainty that databases provide over the free web, in which anyone can publish
anything online, is valued by researchers in all fields. In developed countries, com-
mercial library databases are widely available and offer excellent dashboards which
point to resources held in many types of libraries or on the open web. Moyane et al.
(2020) identify inadequate library infrastructure and state or university budgets,
along with competition among institutions for limited resources and qualified staff,
as some of the reasons many nations are unable to offer proper databases to their
researchers. Higher education scholars have come to rely on database tools to aid
214 Michelle Kowalsky

in their discovery of new materials and new topics for research. In countries which
cannot afford expensive third-party products, extensive use of indexing and col-
lecting tools which are free, such as Google Scholar, help researchers discover new
materials and to make comparisons of content across sources.
Librarians recognize that many modern research projects no longer entail
reading many long works as an initial step, as it may have been for learned com-
munities in times past. Instead, scholars browse large quantities of materials online
and can ponder content and potential argument directions. They find that online
databases provide a comfortable reading and research experience. Librarians
provide reference services, research assistance, and instruction to users and are
able to extend users’ awareness of the reach and impact of database products on
knowledge creation. Rafi, Zheng, and Khurshid (2020) confirm the need for explicit
technological knowledge along with human-centered knowledge in organizing and
promoting these resources. The conversion of materials from print and analog to
digital format enhances information sharing and acknowledges the wide range of
types of users and use. The information profession can reach out to enhance global
contributions and contribute to an increased quality of life for all. Commercial
database products should not be the only option; open educational resources and
free indexing tools also make the world’s knowledge more widely accessible than
in the past. Educators using various resources, software and tools can encourage
their use and provide feedback for improvements and communicate the profes-
sion’s values of objectivity and accuracy.

Value of Databases
Comprehensive, research-based, and professionally collected online resources
showcase the best materials, both scholarly and professional, to those who perform
empirical and secondary research. The resources are ideally updated regularly and
seamlessly, follow universal standards for design, and allow users easy access and
interaction without intervention or assistance. Islam, Atiquil, and Sheikh (2020)
suggest that research databases are indispensable for modern research, and that
graduate students reported high levels of satisfaction when they found database
resources provided during the course of their studies useful and easy to use. Online
searchable resources on the web which provide free indexing and web pointers
or referring links can make accessible many seminal full-text books, articles, and
reports which may not be otherwise discoverable. Databases have the capacity to
store in their records information about websites, videos, and other materials, and
provide a searching mechanism which can help people retrieve items for later use.
 14 Advocating for Value-Added Content and Tools in Library Databases and Beyond 215

Professionals in many interdisciplinary fields describe best practices and

current knowledge in database construction and use, especially for scholarship and
education at the college level. Institutions, organizations, or for-profit companies
which search the internet to ingest free content use many of these best practices,
but often with uneven results (D’Aquin et al. 2022). Tsay, Tseng, and Wu (2019) note
that search engines provide more resources than proprietary databases licensed
through vendors, perhaps since they aggregate the contents of institutional repos-
itories and a variety of other information sources. Most information professionals
would agree that it is necessary to consult both free and commercial databases
to ensure wider coverage. Many organizations create and maintain databases of
various kinds of content. HathiTrust, for example, hosts a database to which people
research historical copyright holders and contribute content for material no longer
in the public domain. The Directory of Open Access Journals creates a database
of open access journals and articles. Many universities create institutional repos-
itories and post preprint and other versions of academic articles written by their
faculty members. Repositories of American government documents, which can
include extensive research by the Congressional Research Service which supports
national legislators, are free to use and the content can be reproduced or quoted
without securing permission. Theses and dissertations as well as student papers
from all levels of education have been posted freely on the web. These sources and
many others are often available with metadata to facilitate harvesting by any orga-
nization that wishes to provide online access to freely available content or share
information with its users.
Information resources are scattered in multiple places online and in various
libraries’ holdings. While many libraries follow internationally accepted standards,
indexes and pointers to holdings are not necessarily consistent across institutions.
Finding aids are not easily translated. Much free content whether aggregated in
databases or not is not discoverable for the average web searcher. Carson and Alex-
ander (2020) emphasize the importance of access for walk-in and public users but
uncovered the unevenness of access to databases even in libraries with previous
or concurrent public access its print materials, networked computers, and physical
facilities. Many quality resources are not easily findable online even when users
have specialized or subsidized access to them through libraries at major univer-
sities or in government collections of even the most open-minded societies. The
changing uses of terms and keywords, and less frequent use of controlled vocabu-
laries, create a type of chaos. Information systems and their preferred algorithms
may be unwittingly causing difficulties for users attempting to find existing infor-
mation. Curated, online, free resources are only as good as the quality of the orga-
nizational steps taken to make them widely discoverable and accessible now and
in the future.
216 Michelle Kowalsky

Online resources are necessary for the work of students, librarians, educators,
and the general public alike. Information seekers require guides to the extensive
bodies of literature in their fields. Without them, discovery and access may decline.
Superficial searches reveal only the most recent or the most popular items through
automatic retrieval based on the deployment of simple algorithms and organiza-
tional methods. Concerns have been raised by Durant and Horava (2015). Yet users
can still wish for a product or service which will provide hyperlinked access, in one
place, to articles from multiple publishers and content vendors. Savvy vendors will
provide search interfaces with enough complexity for advanced users while simul-
taneously allowing an obvious starting place for new users. Publishers and vendors
will have agreements in place so that full-text articles and books are served to users
according to particular content availability and licenses provided by each institu-
tion, school, university, or library.

Research Practice
Any user who has tried to procure all of the published information on even a very
specific topic knows that it is nearly impossible to directly find nor browse among
the hundreds of thousands of article repositories worldwide, much less the many
personal or institutional websites where multiple versions of the grey literature,
non-traditional documentation and research reports reside. Library databases are
necessary for information on interdisciplinary subjects, as well as for in-depth
research on a narrowly defined topic. Young researchers or those new to inquiry
understand the need for finding aids which assist in the process of culling and
exposing materials that are known to exist, especially as library holdings are mod-
ernized using information technology (Patrickson Stewart and Newman 2017). The
cooperation and collaboration of libraries around the world help to make available
the works from their localities and nations to each other and expand the horizon
of available knowledge. Librarians at traditional research universities today par-
ticipate in the digital version of collecting information resources, describing them,
and sharing the records through various local, regional, and national services, with
ultimate discovery via services like WorldCat. The same philosophy of traditional
library service focused on collecting all available human knowledge continues.
The promise of a common, open, and free collection of non-proprietary aca-
demic publications is difficult to achieve in practice (Miszczyński 2022). Uniform
resource locators (URLs), metadata, and indexing schemes which point from data-
base records to both licensed and free resources must be properly procured and
continually maintained. As journal publications and their backfiles are bought and
 14 Advocating for Value-Added Content and Tools in Library Databases and Beyond 217

sold by for-profit companies, keeping track of resources becomes cumbersome even

with automated tools. Many scholarly resources may not be indexed by Google or
other search engines if web coding or indexing software has blocked access or if
company interests are in conflict. Many scholarly publications are in the hidden
web or deep web behind subscription paywalls or password logins for many coun-
tries (Blatchford 2020). Backfiles of content previously available from publishers in
printed formats may not appear online unless a business deal has been confirmed
with an online distributor. Similarly, quality content on nongovernmental organi-
zational websites, items linked to national and state government home pages, freely
available information generated by large nonprofits, or intelligence offered gratis
by multinational corporations might never be found without specialized databases
to alert people to the existence of the information and point to a method for access.
Development of finding aids, however, requires staff who possess the time, techni-
cal expertise, and shared goals to create such resources (Akarslan 2022).

Database Users
This brings us back to the users of databases, who may be professors, authors, stu-
dents, government officials, professionals in a variety of fields, and members of
the general public. Users both need and expect quality content, and finding it is
what libraries and librarians help them to do. Library users frequently are unable
to locate materials for themselves without assistance from others. Users need to
update their searching skill sets continually as a prerequisite to use (Gusenbauer
and Haddaway 2021), whether through a formal course or through other means
including advanced peer sharing with others on how to proceed. Even experienced
researchers are lured into clicking on something questionable if it is marketed well
or promoted effectively via search engine results. Items which use the keywords
describing elusive information that everyone wants to know are tempting to users,
as can be seen online in various religious, medical, or political contexts.
Information seekers need to learn how to search for themselves, using the
quality content that the library’s sources provide for them, while also evaluating
the content once located. While many will receive training in higher education as
they learn to become information producers themselves, the mastery of informa-
tion literacy skills is uneven. Within schools moving toward online curricular mate-
rials, and with the elimination of school librarians’ positions, students’ opportuni-
ties for guided practice in using databases are reduced (Lance and Kachel 2021).
Service desks in libraries are often unmanned due to budget cuts and policy direc-
tions. Whole generations of potential questions remain unasked because there is
218 Michelle Kowalsky

no one of whom to inquire. Databases provide a self-service function, but in a more

complex way than one-box search engines. Ideally, databases show the relation-
ships between information resources and provide an organizational system and
standardized format which adds value.
As information resources are born digital, and electronic access is preferred,
users must spend more energy discerning the difference between quality evi-
dence-based information resources and user-generated content expressing specu-
lation and opinion. In a society where screen time is heavy and continuous use is
demanded by work, social connections, and even play, users seek to make decisions
on information as quickly as possible so that they can move on to the many other
activities which require their time (Carr 2010). The danger is in seeing all online
activities as equal. Some users spend the same amount of energy and interest in
seeking quality information as in other online tasks. In directing users toward data-
bases of curated and vetted information, vendors, libraries, and educators each
play a role in enabling successful outcomes to inquiries by providing a structure
through which valuable information can flow.

Challenges of Database Provision and Use

In a narrow information services field, database vendors and information conglom-
erates seek, license, and ingest increasing amounts of content into their products
to remain competitive. The companies involved merge, acquire, obtain, sell, and
buy information from a wide spectrum of information sources, providing disparate
items through a suite of searching and browsing features which allow users a famil-
iar interface from which to access content. Individual researchers, their libraries,
and their academic institutions have come to rely on database vendors to provide
content. Library research databases, despite their expensive subscription models,
provide a compelling product which approximates the scope and operational abil-
ities of their free rivals, but provide full text journal access through appropriate
licensing as an added value (Martín-Martín et al. 2018). Issues related to copyright
and licensing remain (Wu 2021). In addition, the open access movement provides a
challenge to both journal publishers and database aggregators alike, in its quest to
make quality research available for free, in perpetuity, and with fewer restrictions
on authors.
The constant motion of provider and creator initiatives presents continual
challenges to librarians and information professionals, who need to keep pace
with change to assist users and train the next generation. As products change their
content every few months, or revise their interfaces and search algorithms sig-
 14 Advocating for Value-Added Content and Tools in Library Databases and Beyond 219

nificantly, users become temporarily disoriented and struggle to conduct effective

searches. An increase in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning,
accompanied by the reduction of human review for new content, has helped data-
base vendors and information conglomerates to expand their holdings quickly and
efficiently. Yet this same practice becomes troubling for users, who sift through
information of varying and uneven quality, type, and categorization to find useful
items. Asemi, Ko, and Nowkarizi (2021) review options applying AI to library
systems and acknowledge that additional work needs to be done. In an era where
recent and newer is considered of most value, excellent resources which are only
a few months old can be easily overlooked, resulting in unwitting yet systematic
information dysphoria.
Information professionals have always encountered challenges in providing
equitable access to quality information. The digital age has changed the venue in
which the struggles appear. The difficulties created by newer methods of discovery
including algorithm creation, user tagging, and automated ingestion are different
from the errors, omissions, or tendencies of humans who did the work of selection,
classification, and access in the past. While user frustration may occur (Barifah and
Landoni 2020), continuous quality improvement must still be pursued.
Enhanced usability and universal accessibility bring value to a database
product. The costs and benefits of cleaning up controlled vocabulary and imple-
menting linked open data have been discussed thoroughly in the literature (Jesus
and Castro 2019; Ullah et al. 2018; Southwick, Lampert, and Southwick 2015). The
complexity of indexing transitions may make database maintenance, conversion,
and updating seem like more work than they are worth momentarily, but long term
advantages for libraries have already been identified. Willis and O’Reilly (2020)
found that library database vendors require increasing adjustments to their inter-
faces in order to add value for users with disabilities who rely on screen readers.
Even if the content in a database is the best in its class, database producers must
overcome user interface challenges for their products to be used effectively.
Promotional products and user education materials are not enough to make
up for a weak database product. Yu (2017) argues that vendor leaflets or promo-
tional items which libraries provide to patrons are forgettable and wasteful. While
libraries with limited budgets may appreciate free posters, pens, or other gifts from
vendors to enhance user awareness of electronic resources, they do not improve
usage of the vendor’s database. Excellent branding strategies or engaging market-
ing materials cannot make up for a lack of quality content or functionality of the
database itself. If the library’s discovery tools are not the primary search step for
users (Greenberg and Bar-Ilan 2017), then vendors must take note and channel their
energies into making their databases becoming indispensable tools for researchers
at all levels.
220 Michelle Kowalsky

Improving Databases
Librarians, teachers, and lecturers often rely on vendor-provided materials like
videos, web pages, and interactive tutorials to enhance user education about aca-
demic databases. Researchers appreciate vendors’ and librarians’ detailed material
showing novice users the most efficient ways to use database search interfaces.
Increasingly, users need personalized versions of educational materials, and
reminders that one-stop shopping for academic information may not be possible.
Many factors including instructor and student skills, available resources, task spec-
ificity and motivation affect education processes and create challenges in both
teaching and procuring all of the resources that users may need (Goodsett 2020). As
Wanyama, McQuaid, and Kittler (2022) have shown, the places that users search for
information determine what they will find, and choices involving limited database
products can have unintended and adverse effects on research endeavors.
Librarians can create automated tools to find, confirm, and promote available
information from all sources and make them available to novice searchers as well
as to experienced researchers. New publishing models may complicate these tasks,
as products from multiple vendors may not easily be combined in database discov-
ery layers or purchased federated search products (Lingam 2020). Librarians must
consider the costs of supplementing freely available, open access articles of quality
with purchased backfiles of important journals and licensed database access avail-
able to users through institutional logins. Kimball (2020) recommends that library
staff check journal title holdings in competing database products before purchase,
especially if only one can be chosen because of budget constraints. Group purchas-
ing and management of academic database content through regional or national
groupings of libraries may help libraries provide more content to users. Shared
services may speed up resolution of questions involving disappearing resources,
such as those transferred between owners or publishers as a result of business
mergers and acquisitions.
Challenges continue as libraries keep up to date with database vendors’
ongoing contracts and deals with publisher providers. Gasparotto (2018) suggests
methods for librarians to communicate changes in searching, finding, and discov-
ering new materials across the open web, which can yield better results than some
of the more well-known algorithms in search engines. Gregg et al. (2019) suggest
that all stakeholders involved should work toward shared solutions which improve
access to quality scholarship around the world. Smaller publishers and vendors
may not have technological personnel to integrate newer technologies into their
workflows, or to provide appropriate metadata for their products to aggregating
vendors. Librarians with technical skills do what they can to inform, persuade,
and assist companies in ensuring their content will interface with modern appli-
 14 Advocating for Value-Added Content and Tools in Library Databases and Beyond 221

cation programmes and library system search interfaces (Naveed, Siddique, and
Mahmood 2022). The information scholarly authors produce must be widely cir-
culated to potential users regardless of their ability to pay. Libraries and their pro-
fessional organizations may need to contact, encourage, or criticize vendors to con-
vince them of the value of investment in proper indexing, database construction,
universal design, or back-end algorithm development. These efforts will increase
the diversity of information available to users and help educational institutions
expand their offerings for researchers (Clarke and Schoonmaker 2020).

Conclusion
Scholars and patrons engaging in information seeking must be encouraged to
expand the range of information resources discovered and accessed to include
international resources and potentially sources produced in languages other than
their own. By demonstrating the ability to thoroughly research, critique, collect,
and annotate the information available on a topic, academics demonstrate their
commitment to scholarly habits, appropriate use of research methods, and attain-
ment of skills. Students must be encouraged to reach out beyond reliance on sources
easily available through their own universities and libraries. Librarians must be
supported in their quest to enhance knowledge growth and development. Vicente
and Martins (2021) advocate for the democratization of educational and financial
systems so that individuals can learn to forge their own paths to improve their own
lives through information. Users must demand access to new and diverse materials
as a basic human right. A variety of information sources helps citizens make good
decisions based on evaluation of all available viewpoints.
Increasing awareness of the importance of quality databases, and of methods
of procuring access to valuable materials for all, will help citizens to make better
decisions and educators to communicate more effectively with students as they
train the next generation of thinkers. Libraries of all types will be able to find and
promote quality information resources via links through search interfaces and
websites. Through effective information resource discovery, library users can work
with librarians to purchase or procure items for immediate use or the improvement
of local collections. While all information will not be free, the profession of librar-
ianship can help to uncover and identify sources which demonstrate best quality,
accuracy, and authoritativeness toward the purposes of shared global education.
Librarians and other information professionals use their critical thinking skills
to serve the public by offering high quality sources; and they work to design and
create repositories which make compelling cases for use of accurate and objective
222 Michelle Kowalsky

information. Library databases are value-added products and services for higher
learning, as well as useful tools to combat inaccurate information which threatens
the growth of a sustainable society. Teachers, students, and citizens must demand
value-added improvements to the content and tools of the many databases which
already exist, or which need to be created, in their subject domain or in their geo-
graphic region. Through connecting people with the information, they need. confu-
sion is reduced, and true social change can take place through the independent and
informed actions of citizens around the world.

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Mamotshabo Johanna Boloka
15 P
 ublic Library Infrastructure During
COVID-19 in Limpopo Province
Abstract: Information services provision in rural areas of Limpopo Province in
South Africa is considered poor even under normal circumstances. The COVID-19
pandemic required libraries to have proper infrastructure to continue providing
information services. This chapter examines infrastructure and library and infor-
mation service provision in Limpopo during the pandemic. It reports on a qualita-
tive study assessing the services available in rural areas of Limpopo Province. The
study used the Delphi technique. Questions were sent to experts in public librari-
anship and the responses transcribed. There are few public libraries in the rural
areas of Limpopo Province and the infrastructure in them is poor. The participants
in the survey indicated that information service provision was put on hold from
March 2020 during the pandemic. It is argued that public libraries require reli-
able information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure for users
to access library and information services (LIS) remotely. The chapter concludes
with recommendations for improved ICT infrastructure including use of an effec-
tive library management system (LMS), the acquisition of online databases, and the
creation of specialised website pages.

Keywords: Public libraries – South Africa; Public libraries – Information technol-

ogy; Public libraries – Developing countries; COVID-19 (Disease)

Public Libraries and their Services

The IFLA/UNESCO Public Library Manifesto states that:

The public library is the local centre of information, making all kinds of knowledge and infor-
mation readily available to its users. It is an essential component of knowledge societies,
continuously adapting to new means of communication to fulfil their mandate of providing
universal access to and enabling meaningful use of information for all people. It provides
publicly accessible space for the production of knowledge, sharing and exchange of infor-
mation and culture, and promotion of civic engagement… The services of the public library
are provided on the basis of equality of access for all, regardless of age, ethnicity, gender,
religion, nationality, language, social status, and any other characteristic. Specific services and
materials must be provided for those users who cannot, for whatever reason, use the regular
services and materials, for example linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, poor digital
or computer skills, poor literacy abilities or people in hospital or prison (IFLA-UNESCO Public
Library Manifesto 2022).

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-017
226 Mamotshabo Johanna Boloka

The 2022 Manifesto updated the 1994 version and included additions to reflect the
changes in technology and society to ensure that the Manifesto continued to reflect
the realities and mission of public libraries today. The 1994 version was used as
background to this chapter. The latest version emphasises the importance of tech-
nology and information infrastructure. Public libraries or community libraries are
vital components of their villages, towns, cities or regions. They “promote reading
and literature to all ages and the whole of society, enabling learning and literacy
from the cradle to grave” (Mnkeni-Saurombe and Zimu 2013, 42). Public libraries
have a role to play to augment reading materials available in schools. Akparobore
(2011) affirms that “public libraries can richly compliment the educational activi-
ties by assisting adults in no longer of school age, developing their attitudes, extend-
ing the knowledge and by acquiring, needed technical or vocational skills”.
The importance of public libraries is emphasised by the South African Depart-
ment of Arts and Culture statement that:

The constitutional right of access to information implies equal access to the knowledge infra-
structure, technologies and networks of the 21st century. the constitutional right of access to
information implies equal access to the knowledge infrastructure, technologies and networks
of the 21st century (South Africa. DAC 2018, 58).

The Department of Arts and Culture highlighted that “the power derived from
access to information and knowledge in South Africa and other information soci-
eties and knowledge economies is one that has been overlooked and underrated
in discourses on freedom and justice” (South Africa. DAC 2018, 3). Public libraries
have been for centuries an integral part of society and offered free places for equal
access to resources for leisure and educational purposes (Balapanidou 2015, 1) but
they have many challenges.

Library Infrastructure
Appropriate infrastructure plays a major role in ensuring that libraries achieve
their goals of providing information and effective access to their users. According
to Iwhiwhu and Okorodudu (2012), library infrastructure includes the buildings
and all facilities, chairs, bookshelves, tables, toilets, information and communi-
cations technology (ICT), library spaces, restaurants, coffee rooms, lighting, ven-
tilation, parking spaces, library management systems, fans, and air conditioning.
Awana (2007) asserted that library infrastructure is facilities and equipment that
help in achieving effectiveness of the services rendered by the library. Infrastruc-
 15 Public Library Infrastructure During COVID-19 in Limpopo Province 227

ture is important in library services to enable librarians to deliver quality services

to library users. It may also enhance librarians’ careers and productivity.
Library infrastructure comprises essential facilities and tools that enhance the
library’s ability in delivering quality services to its patrons (Omeluzor, Oyovwe-Tin-
uoye, and Emeka-Ukwu 2017). Libraries of all types need infrastructure ranging
from power generation equipment, through computers, Internet facilities, photo-
copiers, scanners, purpose-built library buildings, furniture and fittings, to vehi-
cles. All enable libraries to keep pace with developments in the information pro-
fession and advancements in technology in the delivery of information services.
According to Ogbuagu, Ubi and Effiom (2014) library infrastructure includes
power generation machinery, electrical installations, ICT, furniture, fittings, and
library buildings. The importance of effective functioning of library infrastructure
in the management and discharging of essential library services to the patrons has
been acknowledged by many (Audunson et al. 2019; Omeluzor, Nwosu, and Ugochi
2018) along with other writers already cited. Inadequate infrastructure and facili-
ties are among the factors that prevented the sixteen public libraries in Delta State,
Nigeria from accomplishing their role of providing quality information services
to the rural people of Delta State (Omeluzor, Oyovwe-Tinuoye, and Emeka-Ukwu
2017). In the South African context, the final draft of the National Policy for Library
and Information Services in South Africa, citing Larkin, provided a useful defini-
tion of infrastructure:

Infrastructures are material forms that allow for the possibility of exchange over space. They
are the physical networks through which goods, ideas, waste, power, people, and finance are
trafficked … [they] are matter that enable the movement of other matter … they are things and
also the relation between things (Larkin 2013, 327)

The National Policy statement continued with:

The elements of infrastructure are:

Physical environment: Library buildings, including public service areas, classrooms,
study spaces, computer laboratories, library halls, staff workrooms, bathrooms, kitchens,
gardens, paths, parking areas and surrounds
Digital environment: ICT infrastructure, including connectivity, servers and storage
devices (South Africa. DAC 2018, 63).

Adequate library infrastructure is a pre-requisite for the smooth operation of

libraries in rural areas. It would be expected that public libraries would continue
to offer library services despite the COVID-19 pandemic and that the infrastruc-
ture operating in public libraries would support the ongoing provision of library
services. Proper infrastructure is essential for users to effectively access and use a
228 Mamotshabo Johanna Boloka

network. Internet connectivity remains the major challenge in rural communities

in South Africa due to poor network coverage and unreliable and ineffective tele-
communications infrastructure (Fourie and Meyer 2016) and there are significant
obstacles for access by young people (Mugwisi 2015, 38).
Public libraries in disadvantaged rural communities in South Africa offer
fewer support services and, on average, have weaker technological infrastructure
and lag behind compared to their counterparts in urban environments (Stilwell
2016). “Access to and use of the Internet appears to be higher in developed coun-
tries as compared to developing countries which are usually late adopters when it
comes to ICTs” (Chiwara, Chinyamurindi, and Mjoli 2017, 2). There is further affir-
mation from others that ICT and digital infrastructure are not fully developed in
rural villages (Strand and Britz 2018).
Internet access is among the many challenges facing African libraries. Burgess
(2017) confirms that unreliable Internet access is problematic in rural communities.
In South Africa, the infrastructural backlogs have been evident in communities occu-
pied by Black people during apartheid. In Nigeria, poor technological infrastructure
has been one of the challenges faced in providing information services (Ifijeh and
Yusuf 2020). With poor road infrastructure in most disadvantaged rural communi-
ties, the provision of mobile libraries which would enable rural villagers to access
information and knowledge poses profound challenges (Mojapelo and Ngoepe 2020,
103). Chigwada (2020) indicates that with COVID-19, libraries in Zimbabwe were
faced with challenges of Internet connectivity as well as an inability of users to use
online services.
There has been for many years a lack of essential infrastructure for informa-
tion services provision throughout Africa and Iwhiwhu and Okorodudu (2012)
highlighted lack of ICT services in the Edo State Central Library in Nigeria. Mojapelo
(2020) noted that some public libraries had networked computers for Internet
access and use but that there was still a need for improving ICT infrastructure to
ensure proper digital access in public libraries to mitigate the diverse socio-eco-
nomic challenges faced in rural areas. However, establishing effective library ser-
vices in a rural setting is a complex and difficult task in view of the daunting chal-
lenges such as lack of funding, electricity, water, roads and digital infrastructure
(Mojapelo and Ngoepe 2020, 96). There are libraries operating without phones and
fax machines, which are significant communication tools.
With COVID-19 regulations, libraries were closed throughout the world and
many devised new strategies and developed new services to meet users’ require-
ments (Solis and Kear 2020). People still needed access to information on a daily
basis. “Owing to the advancement of information and communications technolo-
gies (ICTs), the Internet technology provides a powerful medium for users to effec-
tively retrieve and disseminate information in this digital era by pushing buttons”
 15 Public Library Infrastructure During COVID-19 in Limpopo Province 229

(Mojapelo 2020). “The Internet together with its applications has proved to be a
remarkably convenient, cheap and affordable avenue for bringing people together
where they share data, information and knowledge, thereby enlarging the range of
human capabilities” (Selemani and Chawinga 2017).
In poor and developing countries, community libraries are essential to bridge
the digital divide. However, South Africa is still challenged by the huge disparities in
the digital divide between rural and urban people. Public libraries have a major role
to play in bridging the digital divide (Ghosh 2005, 181). ICT has the capacity to open
up new ways of interactive communication between the citizen, public libraries and
civil society at large and public libraries must improve their ICT infrastructure.

Infrastructure Funding for Public Libraries in

South Africa
In the South African context, there are grants to the Department of Arts and Culture
for public library infrastructure for projects that assist in addressing infrastructure
backlogs (South Africa. DAC 2013, ix). The national government is already improv-
ing infrastructure through the Community Library Services Conditional Grant
and is expected to continue doing so going forward (South Africa. DAC 2013, ix).
The Library Council identified the following strategic priority areas for the public
library infrastructure grants programme:
–– Library buildings and spaces
–– Mobile libraries
–– Information and communications technology projects, and
–– Cooperative library development activities

To ensure proper infrastructure in community libraries, the South African govern-

ment allocated the Conditional Grant for community libraries to the Department
of Arts and Culture. The funds are distributed to add to funds from provincial and
municipal sources for public libraries. Details are reported on the National Archi-
ves & Records Service of South Africa (NARSS) website.
The Goal of the Conditional Grant is to enable South African society to gain
access to knowledge and information that will improve their socio-economic status.
The purpose of the Conditional Grant is to transform urban and rural community
library infrastructure, facilities and services primarily targeting previously disad-
vantaged communities through a recapitalised programme at provincial level in
support of local government and national initiatives (South Africa. NARSS. 2016).
The same website outlines the following outcomes of the Conditional Grant:
230 Mamotshabo Johanna Boloka

Improved coordination and collaboration between national, provincial and local government
on library services;
Transformed and equitable library and information services delivered to all rural and urban
communities;
Improved library infrastructure and services that reflect the specific needs of the communi-
ties they serve;
Improved staff capacity at urban and rural libraries to respond appropriately to community
knowledge and information needs; and
Improved culture of reading (South Africa. NARSS 2016).

Other details on the Public and Communities Conditional Grant are available on the
South African Libraries website (South African Libraries n.d.). Specialised projects
have provided funding from time to time. The Mzansi Libraries-Online Project pro-
vided Internet infrastructure and capacity training in 677 public libraries across
the nine provinces in a project from 2015 to 2018 (National Library of South Africa
2016; South Africa. DAC 2018, 41).

The Context
The study described in this chapter assessed public library infrastructure for infor-
mation services provision during COVID-19 in Limpopo Province. The contextual
details are outlined.

Limpopo Province

Limpopo Province is one of the nine provinces in South Africa and is the
northernmost. It is named after the Limpopo River which forms the province’s
western and northern borders and was formed in a merger of three former home-
lands, namely, Lebowa, Venda and Gazankulu. The capital and largest city in the
province is Polokwane, formerly known as Pietersburg (Maluleka 2017, 7)). The
province was formed from the northern region of Transvaal Province in 1994, and
initially named Northern Transvaal. The following year, it was renamed Northern
Province, which remained the name until 2003, when it was formally changed to
Limpopo after deliberation by the provincial government and amendment of
the South African Constitution. An alternate name considered for the province
was Mapungubwe. Figure 15.1 shows Limpopo Province on the map of South Africa.
Limpopo Province has five district municipalities: Capricorn, Mopani, Sekhukhune,
Vhembe and Waterberg.
 15 Public Library Infrastructure During COVID-19 in Limpopo Province 231

Fig. 15.1: Map of South Africa (South Africa. 2012. Census 2011, 10).

Public Libraries in Limpopo Province

The provision of library and information services (LIS) in Limpopo Province is

patchy and inadequate, as in most rural communities of South Africa. Ledwaba
(2018) indicated that there were 1,612 public libraries throughout the nine prov-
inces in South Africa. However, despite Limpopo having a higher population and
larger geographic area, the province had the lowest number of public libraries, a
fact also noted by Mojapelo (2017) who indicated that the inheritance of uneven
allocation of community libraries during apartheid remained visible and that pro-
vision of LIS was patchy in Limpopo province as a whole. Limpopo was designated
for the Blacks during apartheid. Unfortunately, to keep the Black population illit-
erate, community libraries did not feature anywhere in the homelands. With only
80 public libraries to serve a population of more than five million, it is apparent
that most disadvantaged rural communities in Limpopo lack access to information
because of inadequate provision of public libraries (Mojapelo 2017, 3, citing others).
There are significant inadequacies in public libraries in Limpopo. With a short-
age of community libraries in South Africa in general and in Limpopo in particular,
citizens need to wake up and do it for themselves (Mojapelo 2020). The infrastruc-
ture situation reflects the issues already mentioned. The inadequacy of infrastruc-
232 Mamotshabo Johanna Boloka

ture support throughout Limpopo Province and elsewhere has caused major prob-
lems, particularly during the pandemic and led to this study.

Examining Infrastructure Provision during the

Pandemic

Objectives of the Study

The study assessed public library infrastructure for information services provision
during the pandemic in Limpopo Province. The specific objectives were:
–– Assess information service provision during lockdown in Limpopo Province
–– Assess the available public library infrastructure for information services pro-
vision in Limpopo Province
–– Determine challenges involved in providing information during COVID-19 pan-
demic in Limpopo Province, and
–– Offer guidelines on how to continue providing information despite COVID-19
in Limpopo Province.

Research Methodology and Scope of the Study

The study adopted a qualitative approach and employed the Delphi technique. Data
was collected through interviews from three LIS experts in Limpopo Province. The
experts were chosen on the basis of their remarkable contribution in public lib-
raries in the Limpopo Province. Three rounds of questions were sent to the three
experts through emails. The researcher collected data until consensus was reached.
Emails were considered convenient due to COVID-19 regulations as well as ensu-
ring safety between the researcher and the participants. Each Delphi participant
was emailed separately and was unaware of other participants in the study. To
ensure confidentiality, the participants were labelled A, B and C.
The data in the responses was thematically analysed.

The Participants

Participant A had practised as a public librarian for more than seven years in the
Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in Limpopo Province. He was once appoin-
 15 Public Library Infrastructure During COVID-19 in Limpopo Province 233

ted as the Chair-Elect of the Library and Information Association of South Africa
(LIASA) Limpopo Branch and has since been active, serving as Secretary of the
Branch. His passion is to see libraries finding their rightful place in the develop-
ment and transformation of the country’s economy through partnership with
stakeholders. He believes that librarians should by all means keep up with the
pace which comes with the Fourth Industrial Revolution to remain relevant in the
provision of information. Participant B was a professor in library and information
services in one of the universities within Limpopo Province and had contributed
significantly to the LIS field through publications. Participant C was a librarian in
one of the public libraries within Limpopo Province with over twenty years in the
LIS field. Information service provision was one of her key responsibilities.

Findings and Discussion

Assessing Information Service Provision during Lockdown

Participants were asked to comment on the provision of public library and infor-
mation services provision during lockdown. As libraries were closed, the lockdown
affected the provision of information services. Their responses were as follows:

Participant A: “Lockdown has had a negative impact on the provision of public library and
information services”
Participant B: “Even though I did not have a chance of visiting any public library, I think the
public libraries should have developed their websites to inform the users about how to access
materials from the library”
Participant C: “The provision of public library and information services during lockdown is an
issue since most of libraries are still not operational due to non-compliance according to the
COVID-19 regulations. Most of the libraries daily operations are limited to pick-ups and drop
off of library materials to avoid physical contact”

Access to information was limited in rural areas due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Public library information services required online platforms for access to infor-
mation services. Monyela (2020) suggests that libraries could consider increasing
funding for technology and Internet access, reprioritise existing funds for Internet
connectivity, and partner with network suppliers, offering them publicity in return
to Internet provision.
234 Mamotshabo Johanna Boloka

Public Library Infrastructure for Information Services Provision

The participants were in agreement that public library infrastructure in rural areas
was challenging. In responses, they indicted that:

Participant A: “Public library infrastructure for information service provision is necessary for
providing users with access to information to satisfy their information needs”
Participant B: “From my observation most public libraries are not designed in such a way that
they will be able to serve the information needs of the communities in the current environ-
ment. The buildings are small and the provision of the internet to the public is still minimal,
and they don’t have electronic materials which users can access remotely”
Participant C: “The public library infrastructure for information service provision needs to be
reviewed due to the fact that it was built 32 years ago therefore there is a real need to either
extend or relocate to cater for the large number of students that are visiting the library daily”

The participants’ responses gave an idea of how challenging it was to provide

service during COVID-19 because of poor infrastructure in libraries. Community
libraries had a significant role to play in offering technology-enhanced services
and improving ICT literacies of users but Internet facilities made it impossible for
the users to access global information from online databases. “Libraries serve as
a place for free public Internet access and support” (Stilwell 2016, 123). Physical
infrastructure is important in libraries.
Initially, the Department of Arts and Culture did not have an infrastructure
person to ensure that the Conditional Grant was fully utilised. Projects, particularly
infrastructure including library buildings, were not completed on time (Mojapelo
2017). This had a negative impact on access to public library and information ser-
vices and improvements must be made to project management and fund expendi-
ture.

Challenges Involved in Providing Information During COVID-19

Participants were asked to outline the challenges in providing information services.

Their responses were as follows:

Participant A: “Lack of protective personal equipment to protect both library staff and library
users. Outdated traditional communication between library staff and library users. Libraries
investing more on physical collection than digital collection. Existing poor innovations/library
programs to transfer literacy skills to library users”
Participant B: “Small buildings, minimal internet access and lack of electronic materials.
Therefore, in the current environment, for one to access library materials, one should physi-
cally go to the library”
 15 Public Library Infrastructure During COVID-19 in Limpopo Province 235

Participant C: “The shortage of personal protective equipment such as desk screens to demar-
cate between the personnel and the library users”

ICT offers public libraries exciting opportunities to provide new ways of accessing
current information (McMenemy 2009, 96). In South Africa, only 10% of the popu-
lation has access to the Internet. The Department of Arts and Culture drafted the
South African Public Library and Information Services Bill, 2012, in an attempt to
take the provision of public library services seriously. The Bill aimed to ensure con-
sistency in the delivery of public library and information services in the country
and put in place measures to ensure redress of the inequalities in the provision
of public library and information services provide for principles, norms and stan-
dards for the provision of public library and information services. A report was
prepared costing the services (South Africa. DAC 2013). The report was an eye
opener to government officials. Lack of access to public libraries in rural commu-
nities remains a major challenge to this day. Adedokun and Zulu (2022, 128) agree
that “it is logical to question why many communities in South Africa still need
libraries, in such times when Google and other search engines are readily available
for people to access information”. Physical libraries are still needed to save people
from buying expensive data in South Africa, especially is rural settings where the
unemployment rate is high.

Factors Enabling Public Libraries to Provide Information Service During

Lockdown

Participants were asked about the factors affecting service provision. The following
were the responses:

Participant A: “Minimised risk factors to safeguard library staff. Enhanced library training
programs which equipped library users with set of library skills to access information inde-
pendently. Libraries which invested in the digital collection. Use of Online facilities to bridge
communication between library staff and library users”
Participant B: “The problem is that public libraries were not even mentioned when lockdown
levels were being adjusted. But the reliable website and access to electronic materials can be
some of the factors that may enhance service delivery in public libraries”
Participant C: “If the borrowing of library materials could be increased to 20 per member and
the number of days can be increased to 1 month and be renewed for another 2 weeks to allow
members not to visit the library regularly”.
236 Mamotshabo Johanna Boloka

Guidelines on How to Continue Providing Information Despite Lockdown

Participants were asked to provide suggestions on how to continue providing infor-

mation services despite the pandemic. Their responses were as follows:

Participant A: “Librarians need to ensure that they incorporate technology in providing infor-
mation services and also develop library programs which aims to transform patrons’ skills to
cope independently in the digital environment”
Participant B: “If the library could have a reliable website from which users can be able to
search what is in the library. However, the problem is that one has to visit the library to come
and fetch the materials. I once had a vision of using drone technology through which books
could be delivered to the library users during lockdown. The user gets to the library website,
searches through the catalogue and then sends a request for materials needed and the mate-
rials are delivered by drone to the user’s doorstep”
Participant C: “I suggest that libraries must look into the issue of ebooks, unlimited WiFi con-
nection since we are not certain of how long it will be before COVID-19 pandemic is over and
everything can be back to normality. The ebooks will ensure that library users have access to
information regardless of lockdown or visiting the library premises”

The responses suggested the need to move from operating traditionally to online to
accommodate cases where library users are unable to visit libraries. Additionally,
access to online resources is convenient for all so that users need not travel to the
library. This will be effective for those who have access to Internet at home but
might cause challenges to those without effective online access. Mojapelo (2020)
identified the need for modernisation and upgrading of public libraries particu-
larly in terms of ICT applications. Staff proficiency is also required. The informa-
tional, cultural and leisure needs of underprivileged rural masses must be met. The
number of registered library users in rural areas would increase with improved
ICT and infrastructure.

Conclusion
This chapter has outlined the infrastructure needs in public libraries in Limpopo
Province, particularly as they provided information services to meet library and
information needs during COVID-19. Public library services in Limpopo Province
are underdeveloped and access to information in public libraries is limited. There
are significant gaps in infrastructure. Further investments need to be made in
technology for provision of and access to information through the library Condi-
tional Grant from the Department of Arts and Culture. Provincial library services
in Limpopo must make greater investments in technology. The Msanzi Libraries
 15 Public Library Infrastructure During COVID-19 in Limpopo Province 237

Online project serves as a model to bridge the existing digital divide between rural
and urban users and its great work should be continued and extended. Public
libraries must use effective library management systems, develop their websites
and provide functional library pages to share information with users. Public librar-
ies must enhance their collections through building institutional repositories, sub-
scribing to online databases and purchasing ebooks. Remote access to information
is an ongoing need and public libraries must have the infrastructure to provide
services to meet the changing requirements of their users.

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Andrew Mugenyi and Acquinatta Nomusa Zimu-Biyela
16 K
 nowledge Sharing Among Nurses in
Developing Countries During COVID-19
Abstract: The coronavirus pandemic ushered in new problems and torrents of
knowledge to all healthcare workers. In a short time frame, many challenges not
previously encountered emerged. When pandemics strike, healthcare workers,
especially nurses, are crucial players in the response. They are at the front line
working towards prevention as well as cure. Considerable knowledge and expe-
rience are required to combat the impact of pandemics, to control and prevent
infection, to treat the sick, and to adopt strategies to minimise death, collaborat-
ing with the community, with businesses and with families. Excellent knowledge
management (KM), knowledge sharing (KS) and experience sharing practices are
required. They are the weapons used by health professionals, including nurses,
to remain up-to-date and deliver quality health care services during pandemics.
Defeating COVID-19 particularly in developing countries has required significant
sharing of knowledge and experiences. Have nurses in Africa shared knowledge
sufficiently? This chapter outlines an analysis of knowledge sharing about COVID-
19 among nurses in Africa using Actor-Network Theory (ANT). ANT focuses on
transformative practices that describe the making of connections, assemblages, or
associations. Suggestions for improvements are made.

Keywords: COVID-19 (Disease); Public health personnel; Knowledge management –

Africa; Nursing – Study and teaching (Continuing education)

Introduction
Since 2020, the world has faced a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than
six and a half million people and more than 630 million infections as of October
2022 (Worldometer n.d.). The vast amount of knowledge generated about COVID-19
caused many healthcare professionals and government officials to be on tenter-
hooks about the best ways of managing and sharing knowledge effectively (Buheji
and Buhaid 2020). COVID-19 was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan, an
emerging business hub and the capital city of the Hubei Province in central China
(Ogolodom et al. 2020). The pandemic defied geographical boundaries, with the
number of infections steadily increasing each week (Ogolodom et al. 2020). COVID-
19 is a member of the coronaviruses found in animals and made its way into

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-018
 16 Knowledge Sharing Among Nurses in Developing Countries During COVID-19 241

human beings with symptoms that include a common cold in addition to severe
acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Dealing with COVID-19 rapidly became a formidable task and overcoming the
issues difficult to reckon with because of the aggressive infection rate that subjected
all of humanity to the severe vulnerability of its attack. The sharing of value-based
and evidence-based knowledge among nurses plays a vital role in the fight against
any pandemic and especially COVID-19 (Schwerdtle et al. 2020). Buheji and Buhaid
(2020) state that nurses have accumulated health care knowledge, including knowl-
edge about pandemics. Because nurses have extensive professional experience,
they have built up information and knowledge about infection control, prevention,
treatment and rehabilitation. Their tacit knowledge is not codified and there seems
to be a perpetual lack of preparedness when pandemics strike.
According to Hewlett and Hewlett (2005), Africa has not taken lessons from the
challenges of previous pandemics such as Ebola in Central Africa, particularly in
Uganda and Congo. Nurses have faced similar challenges during the 21st-century
outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic as they did with Ebola. Hewlett and Hewlett
(2005) indicate that there was a high death rate from Ebola of frontline healthcare
workers. Nurses worked under difficult conditions with a lack of essential infec-
tion control tools, inadequate resources, exposure to risks of infections, potential
death, stigmatisation, and discrimination. Nurses also had to deal with patients
who believed that malevolent spirits caused Ebola. Similar issues emerged during
COVID-19. Learning from previous experiences seemed limited. This chapter
explores the challenges nurses encountered when sharing knowledge during the
COVID-19 outbreak.

Knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Management

Knowledge sharing is an activity through which knowledge (namely, information, skills, or
expertise) is exchanged among people, friends, peers, families, communities … or within or
between organizations… It bridges the individual and organizational knowledge… [and] is
part of the knowledge management process (Wikipedia 2022b).

“Knowledge management (KM) is the collection of methods relating to creating,

sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information of an organization”
(Wikipedia 2022a). Research has shown that knowledge sharing by nurses leads
to better health provision (Buheji and Buhaid 2020). Knowledge assets form the
basis of the knowledge sharing process and knowledge assets are the resources
that an organisation can use to leverage its knowledge pool and create a sus-
tainable knowledge-sharing environment (Chou and He 2004). Knowledge assets
242 Andrew Mugenyi and Acquinatta Nomusa Zimu-Biyela

are experientially gained through hands-on experience and work routines per-
formed by the members of an organisation. The result is tacit knowledge which is
reflected in the actions and practices of any organisation. Knowledge assets lead
to conceptual assets which are more explicit and transmitted through images,
symbols and language, and finally, systematic knowledge assets emerge which
are systemised and arranged through information and communications technol-
ogy (ICT), product specifications, manuals and documents (Kamasak, Bulutlar,
and Yucelen 2009).
Bratianu states that knowledge moves from one person to another continuously
by sharing it. Knowledge transfer or knowledge flow can be done in several ways:
knowledge sharing involves the transfer of knowledge from one person or persons
to another or others through identifiable channels; and knowledge diffusion con-
cerns the adaptations and applications of knowledge documented in scientific pub-
lications and patents (Bratianu 2015). Gaál et al. identified three knowledge sharing
generations that incorporate the mechanisms and tools used by organisations. The
first generation uses codification and storage to share conceptual and systematised
knowledge and is easily supported by ICT. The second generation incorporates a
social component, personalisation, and depends on how people cooperate and com-
municate. Tacit knowledge in the second generation is used as the starting point for
new employees who obtain knowledge from the already established employees.
The third generation of knowledge sharing encompasses social networking sites
within and outside an organisation which become systematised knowledge assets
(Gaál et al. 2015).
KM systems comprise the following processes:
–– Awareness: knowledge seekers and sources should recognise the existence of
others
–– Access: rendering the time and place for seekers and sources to connect with
one another
–– Application: guaranteeing that the knowledge seeker and source have a common
ground in content and understand the necessity to share their insights, and
–– Perception: creating an atmosphere where knowledge sharing behaviours
between seekers and sources are respected and valued (Gaál at al. 2015).

Omotayo underscores that the following KM processes must be taken into cogni-
sance when managing organisational knowledge:
–– Recognition by management of organisational knowledge is central to the
organisational strategy
–– Organisation must grasp the potential of its knowledge assets and develop
strategies for optimising them
 16 Knowledge Sharing Among Nurses in Developing Countries During COVID-19 243

–– Organisational use of knowledge and learning must support existing core com-
petencies and the creation of new ones, and
–– Appointment, evaluation and rewarding of individuals must be conducted on
the basis of their contribution to developing and sharing organisational knowl-
edge (Omotayo 2015).

The fourth industrial revolution has seen a rapid development in ICT that has dra-
matically affected how human beings communicate. The use of social networking
sites has enabled the free flow of information, data, knowledge and opinion from
near and far and has spread important information in real time to improve the
lives of many people in any given community, and at the same time also spread
misinformation and disinformation to damage people’s lives. Knowledge sharing
has reached new heights of excellence as well as depths of mediocrity.
Some writers indicate that knowledge sharing processes can be facilitated
through learning. Innovative organisations are those that promote both adaptive
and generative learning (Smith 2001) and encourage organisational members to
learn to recreate and capacitate themselves. In this context, Peter Senge’s learning
disciplines become important:
–– Systems thinking: comprehending the whole and examining the interrelation-
ships of the parts
–– Personal mastery: individual learning focusing on vision
–– Mental models: ingrained internal images which shape behaviour and deci-
sions
–– Building shared vision: group commitment to a common vision of the future,
and
–– Team learning: acting, thinking and growing together.

Implementation of Knowledge Sharing

The important role played by effective knowledge management and knowledge
sharing within organisations has been known for some time. But implementation
has been slow. Nurses from developing countries have shown limited KS abilities
and practices. Some have attributed failures in performance to poor KS and KM
practices. There have been various medical errors such as severe injury to patients,
inaccurate diagnoses, incorrect treatments, increased multi-drug resistance and
unexpected deaths (Asemahagn 2014). Developing countries suffer enormously
when pandemics break out within their communities, and the problems they face
regarding KS among nurses in the healthcare sector tend to be similar (Omotayo
244 Andrew Mugenyi and Acquinatta Nomusa Zimu-Biyela

2015). Some of the reasons why nurses in developing countries struggle to share
knowledge are inadequate infrastructure including ICT, insufficient training, poor
peer education, imperfect information and knowledge management, and a lack of
a KS culture among nurses (Asemahagn 2014).
Other limiting factors noted in reports on the application of KM and KS include
lack of financial resources, inadequate staff training, lack of clearly defined guide-
lines, insufficient technology, organisations failing to incentivise (Aharony 2011),
limited knowledge management expertise and the absence of a knowledge sharing
culture (Parirokh, Daneshgar and Fattahi 2008). Other factors affecting KS include
employees who hoard and withhold knowledge (Chigada and Ngulube 2015), mis-
trust amongst staff (Jacobs and Roodt 2011), and unhealthy competition or rivalry
(Chigada and Ngulube 2015).

Knowledge Sharing and COVID-19

The World Health Organization (WHO) published an interactive timeline to update
the world on significant activities relating to COVID-19 and to showcase WHO
actions on information, science, leadership, advice, response, and resourcing in
relation to all aspects of the pandemic (WHO 2021). In Africa, COVID-19 arrived
at a time when member states of the African Union were making inroads to build
systems that promoted science, technology, and innovation (STI), in line with three
agendas, namely the Science, Technology, and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2024
(STISA-2024) (African Union 2020); the African Union Agenda 2063 (African Union
n.d. a); and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) programme (African Union
n.d. b). African countries took a strong stance on combatting COVID-19 and used
some of the strategies being developed in the three agendas already determined
for the African Union.
Knowledge systems, innovation, and emerging technologies were seen to be
essential for responding to the pandemic. Changes to behaviour were required
along with the development of resilient systems relying on formal and informal
medical, social, and economic knowledge. COVID-19 quickly reshaped how Africans
thought about their knowledge systems and how different African countries could
remodel scientific knowledge and innovation, and use emerging ICT to contribute
to better management of responses to pandemics and other disasters (AUDA 2020).
In South Africa, the emphasis was placed on data-driven decision making because
of the uncertain and fast-moving nature of the pandemic (South Africa. NDA 2020).
Beyond the crucial information on the COVID-19 outbreak and the infected popula-
tions, data provided real-time snapshots on what policies should be implemented
 16 Knowledge Sharing Among Nurses in Developing Countries During COVID-19 245

and outlined the behaviour of specific groups of healthcare professionals. Data on

the nurses’ knowledge of the pandemic, their attitudes and practices related to the
disease and preventive measures such as social distancing and misinformation
were considered critical in controlling the spread of the pandemic (South Africa.
NDA 2020).
There were many initiatives taken but it was unclear how they filtered down
to frontline healthcare workers, or whether they were packaged systematically to
facilitate KS among nurses. Nurses need to be able to identify and quantify relevant
resources for sharing knowledge about pandemics more effectively and efficiently
by tapping into their knowledge gained tacitly and explicitly (Kamasak, Bulutlar,
and Yucelen 2009). The Ebola outbreak has already been referred to and in Central
Africa, it demonstrated the nurses’ ability to harness both tacit and explicit knowl-
edge in their efforts to treat and contain the disease (Hewlett and Hewlett 2005).
To use local solutions to solve local problems, healthcare professionals in Africa
must consider integrating traditional and biomedical treatments in curbing and
limiting the spread of the disease (Hewlett and Hewlett 2005). It was essential that
the knowledge shared about COVID-19 should be about its transmission, symptoms,
prevention, containment and treatment.
A survey by Frontline talk – South African healthcare workers’ response to the
Covid-19 pandemic reported that nurses were regarded as the backbone of South
Africa’s healthcare system but that they lagged behind in critical training regard-
ing treatment guidelines and had little confidence in their knowledge about the
disease. Nurses indicated a lower knowledge base than other medical professionals
surveyed. The lack of adequate knowledge experienced by the nurses reduced their
ability to share knowledge among themselves and with the community, and created
a significant challenge in the fight against COVID-19 (Mkize 2020).
The fundamental importance of tacit knowledge in any organisation has
already been acknowledged. It helps the organisation have a competitive edge.
However, embedded knowledge and its ambiguity make it challenging to commu-
nicate clearly to others, which eventually decreases its transferability (Al-Alawi,
Al-Marzooqi, and Mohammed 2007). Individuals face challenges when sharing
tacit knowledge, including perception, language barrier, time, value, and distance
(Mahroeian and Forozia 2012). These challenges are commonly faced by any indi-
vidual when sharing knowledge and absorbing the knowledge that will best define
their priorities. Tacit knowledge that is codified becomes complicated during
sharing, especially with a third party (Mahroeian and Forozia 2012). Codification
limits an individual’s ability to fully grasp the contents embedded within a particu-
lar knowledge piece (Al-Alawi, Al-Marzooqi and Mohammed 2007).
Resources such as ICT tools, for example, the Internet, smartphones, laptops, and
desktop computers, play a crucial role in knowledge sharing (Al-Alawi, Al-Marzooqi,
246 Andrew Mugenyi and Acquinatta Nomusa Zimu-Biyela

and Mohammed 2007). The inability to provide such resources significantly affects
the ability of different individuals to engage in knowledge sharing actively and effec-
tively (Buheji and Buhaid 2020). Most developing nations have poor access to the
Internet; most healthcare facilities are underfunded; individuals with the appropri-
ate knowledge are difficult to find; and the tools necessary to conduct knowledge
sharing including smart mobile devices and Internet infrastructure are viewed as
luxuries rather than necessities (Buheji and Buhaid 2020). The development of ICT
has enabled knowledge to be shared remotely and in real time. In an era with COVID-
19, the use of social media must be encouraged so that knowledge can flow freely
from one person to another remotely (Mahroeian and Forozia 2012). However, it is
essential to highlight the dangers of social media, which has been used to spread
false information about COVID-19 and to instil fear in the community about vacci-
nations. Social media must be used cleverly to guarantee the sharing of trustworthy,
evidence-based data-driven knowledge.

Examining Knowledge Sharing by Nurses during

COVID-19

Objectives

A study was undertaken to analyse the extent of knowledge sharing by nurses in

dealing with COVID-19. The study addressed the following objectives:
–– Ascertain the requisite knowledge assets appropriate for knowledge sharing
during pandemics, notably the COVID-19 pandemic
–– Review the mechanisms and tools used by nurses when sharing knowledge
about COVID-19 among themselves
–– Determine the challenges faced by nurses in developing countries when
sharing knowledge about COVID-19, and
–– Make recommendations for future improvements in sharing knowledge about
COVID-19.

Research Methodology

The literature on knowledge sharing, COVID-19 and pandemics in general was

reviewed and analysed, using secondary sources of information including docu-
ments, journal articles, online sources, and conference papers. A total of 33 doc-
 16 Knowledge Sharing Among Nurses in Developing Countries During COVID-19 247

uments were analysed that were relevant to the study. The information and data
found were retained as quotations or entire passages, and case examples through
content analysis to gain an insight into how healthcare professionals, especially
nurses in developing nations, shared knowledge. How did knowledge sharing help
nurses in fighting COVID-19? What were the challenges nurses faced when sharing
knowledge?
According to Mnkeni-Saurombe and Zimu (2015), the analysis of documents
by using a qualitative research method allows a study to use documents to gain
insight and then develop empirical meaning. Reviewing documents helps a study
determine patterns, themes, or biases within the documents (Mnkeni-Saurombe
and Zimu 2015). Bowen (2009) asserts that document analysis is an orderly way
for reviewing documents that are both printed and electronic. Just like any other
qualitative research method, document analysis entails examining and interpret-
ing data to obtain meaning, gain understanding, and develop empirical knowledge
(Corbin and Strauss 2008).

Actor-Network Theory (ANT)

The study used the Actor-Network Theory (ANT), a social theory that examines the
interchange between human and non-human systems in an actor-network that
allows technical, organisational, and social aspects to be examined and studied
together. ANT explores the shifting connections between the network’s actors or
members. The shifting connections are examined using moments of translation
which involve an alignment of interests of the actors in a network with that of an
actor (Twum-Darko and Harker 2017).
The moments of translation, according to Sarker, Sarker and Sidorova include:
–– “Problematization” where the problem is identified and ways in which to solve
the problem are initiated. In this case, the challenges that nurses face when
sharing knowledge about COVID-19 in developing nations such as the lack of ICT
tools and the lack of adequate skills, and the ways in which the challenges can be
overcome to remedy deficiencies in sharing knowledge about pandemics
–– “Interessement” which involves a process of negotiation between the leading
focal actor, which is knowledge sharing in this case and the identified actors
who happen to be the nurses, to align their interests. The identified challenges
in knowledge sharing during COVID-19 must align with the nurse’s interests in
addressing shortfalls in their knowledge sharing capabilities, and
–– “Enrollment” where each actor commits to the programme and shared values,
experiences, and knowledge. The nurses, in this case, must share knowledge
248 Andrew Mugenyi and Acquinatta Nomusa Zimu-Biyela

about COVID-19 among themselves to help grow their job experiences and
broaden their existing knowledge (Sarker, Sarker, and Sidorova 2006, 54).

Following successful translation, mobilisation is undertaken to ensure that ade-

quate resources, expertise, and skills are mobilised to ensure that the nurses have
the necessary tools, such as appropriate ICT, to share knowledge about COVID-19
and to mitigate the challenges they face.
Twum-Darko and Harker (2017) argue that studies in information science have
tended to focus on one perspective at the expense of the others. KS as a phenom-
enon in KM should be explained using a framework that combines categories of
influence from both organisational and individual levels (Twum-Darko and Harker
2017). Buheji and Buhaid’s knowledge sharing model (2020) and Hewlett and
Hewlett’s proposed cultural model (2005) were deemed useful to gain insight into
healthworkers’ knowledge sharing activities in developing countries, particularly
in Africa. Buheji and Buhaid’s framework optimises higher learning experiences in
knowledge sharing which enable the accumulation of tacit knowledge. Knowledge
sharing among nurses focuses on managing the nurses’ tacit knowledge, which is
later turned into explicit knowledge and ultimately helps the nurses with inter-
professional relationships and multidisciplinary teamwork which finally brings
innovative knowledge.
Hewlett and Hewlett (2005) advocate for a cultural model where treatment
and combatting diseases can be conducted using modern science and traditional
means. Nurses from developing nations and especially Africa, have grown up in
communities where they have been exposed to traditional remedies when dealing
with diseases. They are encouraged to be more sensitive to cultural beliefs and to
incorporate cultural knowledge for use and sharing. The ANT model advocates
using human and non-human actors. The ANT model provided a useful approach
for the study and contributed to understanding the improvements to establish an
effective platform for knowledge sharing among nurses in developing countries,
and in Africa, in relation to COVID-19.

The Findings – The Nurse Experience

COVID-19 has presented challenges to nurses in their pursuit of the appropri-
ate knowledge to understand the disease and how to offer treatment. Most stan-
dardised systems used to fight past pandemics have been reviewed. Nurses have
adjusted and prepared themselves for new patient safety programmes in line with
the WHO guidelines on prevention and safety. Nurses have obtained up-to-date
 16 Knowledge Sharing Among Nurses in Developing Countries During COVID-19 249

knowledge on COVID-19. Once they acquired the knowledge, they shared it with
others and ensured that the knowledge shared was relevant to the fight against
COVID-19. To keep nurses motivated and focused on sharing acquired knowledge,
they must be encouraged to share experiences through highlighting the seriousness
of the pandemic.
Nurses must equip themselves with the latest knowledge and data about
COVID-19, especially from trusted sources like WHO and other legal entities man-
dated with the fight against COVID-19. Knowledge assets must be implemented
effectively to harness knowledge through different channels such as print
media, electronic media, government gazettes, and policy documents aimed at
making knowledge sharing part of the workplace. Nurses must be encouraged
to use social media to communicate necessary knowledge. Since one of the key
measures preventing the spread was social distancing, the use of social media
platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and TikTok could be used as
knowledge sharing platforms without running the risk of close contact and also
used to counteract misinformation and fake knowledge that had become rampant
since the outbreak of COVID-19.
Wang and Wu (2020) recommend using KS policies as a guiding framework
when making important decisions about what knowledge of COVID-19 is driven
by facts and data and the mechanisms through which the KS process should be
conducted. Communities of practice (COPs) are viewed as vital when sharing tacit
knowledge. Groups of people with like interests and concerns can interact regu-
larly, share their knowledge and learn effectively. COPs can be used innovatively
by integrating them with social media technologies, but people need to be educated
on separating trustworthy information from untrustworthy information to share
knowledge that will not cause confusion and harm.
Nurses were the group of healthcare workers most deprived of knowledge
about COVID-19 in Africa but the backbone of providing healthcare services. There
were deficiencies in all knowledge areas with particular concerns around vacci-
nations. The issues and concerns of frontline health care workers in dealing with
COVID-19 have been well-documented (Chersich et al 2020). Many have lamented
that they did not receive training on how to roll out the vaccine, including knowl-
edge about the long-term effects of the vaccine. Africa must overcome its scarcity of
resources such as the technologies needed during pandemics, and skills are needed
to use technology and knowledge effectively to fight the pandemic. The Department
of Health has taken steps to address the deficiency, but more can be done through
the provision of adequate skills, training in knowledge management, workshops,
and seminars, and mechanisms that ensure knowledge sharing forms part of the
nurses’ daily work routines. It is crucial that quality information flows effectively
250 Andrew Mugenyi and Acquinatta Nomusa Zimu-Biyela

from WHO to the African Union to frontline healthcare workers and on to rural
communities in Africa.
Healthcare facilities and organisations in developing nations must adopt
adequate KS policies within their workplaces to improve the ability of their
healthcare workers to share knowledge effectively and efficiently. Time can be
set aside as part of daily work routines. Wang and Wu (2020) argue that policies
can provide a guiding framework on what knowledge must be shared and which
must not be shared. Adequate provision of ICT and other resources, improved
skills and competencies, and training in KS are part of organisational as well as
personal responsibilities and should form the backbone of KS in healthcare facil-
ities to enable nurses to understand that knowledge must be shared and knowl-
edge deficiencies reduced in future pandemic situations. Chigada and Ngulube
(2015) assert that knowledge retention is also important. It involves all systems
and activities that capture and preserve knowledge and allow it to remain in the
organisational system once introduced. It is important to note that in the absence
of retention strategies, tacit knowledge tends to vanish.

Conclusion
Knowledge sharing is a critical aspect of knowledge management. If any organi-
sation is to succeed, it must implement structures that aid in the proper transfer
of knowledge from one person to another. COVID-19 came with many challenges,
especially concerning the amount of knowledge available. Initially, as the pan-
demic spread and became a huge problem globally, there was little knowledge on
COVID-19. As time went by, the amount of knowledge grew exponentially. Nurses
as frontline workers in the fight against COVID-19 had to come to grips with the
vast quantities of knowledge being generated about the disease on its prevention,
control, and treatment. Providing effective advice on topics as varied as social
distancing and vaccinations and dealing with issues of working and schooling
from home proved difficult. How to share the available knowledge on COVID-
19 effectively and adequately among the nurses proved challenging. It is crucial
to develop learning organisations, communities of practice, and knowledge
sharing cultures to trap and share knowledge throughout healthcare facilities
and through their staff. Nurses have struggled throughout the world, and partic-
ularly in developing countries to find effective ways to share accurate knowledge.
Clear policies, proper resourcing, and innovative use of ICT will all help. Nurses
must be equipped to deal with future pandemics and other medical emergency
situations in the future.
 16 Knowledge Sharing Among Nurses in Developing Countries During COVID-19 251

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Tanya du Plessis, Dimpho Z. Gamede, Kevin M. Letsoalo and Neo
Ramatsebe
17 O
 ne Journal’s Journey through the Fourth
Industrial Revolution
Abstract: The digital age presents multiple societal opportunities and challenges
associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). The 4IR is a well–researched
phenomenon in many disciplines. This chapter reports on an investigation into one
journal in the field of information and knowledge management (IKM) to determine
if it contained specific content on the pillars of the 4IR which would contribute to
enabling an effective information society. Articles from the IKM journal Informa-
tion Technology & People for the years 2015 to 2019 were sampled, captured, coded
and categorised. Purposive sampling was used to select the journal and random
sampling was used to choose the articles. Big data and systems integration emerged
from the analysis as the two most significant 4IR pillars addressed in the journal.
Additive manufacturing received no attention. The trend analysis indicated a
growing research interest in areas such as simulation, autonomous systems, cyber-
security and the Internet of Things. Researchers and information professionals
must increase research output in areas related to the 4IR pillars to combat the chal-
lenges associated with the digital age.

Keywords: Fourth Industrial Revolution; Information Management; Knowledge

Management; Bibliometrics

Introduction
Some say the term the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) was first used in Germany
in 2011 (Wikipedia 2022), which makes it a comparatively recent concept. The term
was popularised by the World Economic Forum and its founder Klaus Schwab
(2016) who defined the 4IR as a technological revolution blurring the lines between
physical, digital, and biological spheres and disrupting the traditional ways of
society, business, and government with innovations involving intelligent informa-
tion technology. The 4IR has changed how business is done and the way people
live across the world. It may be developing at a fast pace, but there is still much
to be learned by the public as well as business, commerce and industry on how
to use and incorporate into the workplace the disruptive technologies associated
with the 4IR. Organisations and their employees need to be prepared. This chapter
presents some of the findings of a larger project aimed at answering the research
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-019
 17 One Journal’s Journey through the Fourth Industrial Revolution 255

question: What is the prominence of the so-called nine pillars of the 4IR in IKM
related journals? What support is being provided to the user in preparing for the
Fourth Industrial Revolution?
This chapter presents the findings of an analysis of publication trends on 4IR
research in a scholarly journal linked to the discipline of information and knowl-
edge management (IKM). The 4IR is a well-researched phenomenon in many
subject areas, including IKM. This chapter reports on whether articles published in
the journal, Information Technology & People, contain specific research on the nine
pillars of the 4IR. The nine pillars include the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud com-
puting, autonomous and robotics systems, big data analytics, augmented reality,
cybersecurity, simulation, system integration, and additive manufacturing (Figure
17.1). This chapter includes an overview of the 4IR and IKM, details of the research
methods used in the study, the findings and discussion of the study, and implica-
tions for future action.

Fig. 17.1: Nine pillars of the 4IR (Palka and Ciukaj 2019. Reproduced under license CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
256 Tanya du Plessis, Dimpho Z. Gamede, Kevin M. Letsoalo and Neo Ramatsebe

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Information

and Knowledge Management
The 4IR is identified by a progressive and extensive application of a growing list
of emerging interdependent technologies, which include robotics, virtual reality
(VR), augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things
(IoT), additive manufacturing (3D printing), blockchain and distributed ledger
technology, advanced materials and nanomaterial, energy capture, storage, and
transmission, and new computing technologies, biotechnologies, geoengineering
technologies, terotechnology, and space technologies (Schwab 2016, 2017). Included
in the list of technologies are ubiquitous linked sensors, autonomous systems, big
data, cloud computing, cybersecurity, systems integration, and simulation. Some of
the technologies are considered as the pillars of the 4IR as already noted and the
importance of integrating the various technologies into new ways of living and
working has been propounded by many (Ballaro and Moriarty 2019; Brynjolfs-
son and McAfee 2014; Christensen 2013; Muscio and Ciffolilli 2020; Rüßmann et
al. 2015; Safrankova et al. 2020; Seseni and Mbohwa 2019). Most argue that it is
anticipated that the 4IR will bring significant disruptive change to the professions
as they currently operate. Many attribute employee redundancy and job losses
to the introduction of the 4IR in workplaces. It is important however to note that
developments in 4IR technologies are driven by people; it is people at the centre
of the use of data, the Internet and the flow of information. The effective inte-
gration of technologies in organisations requires human insight (Hussain 2019;
Thomas 2019).
Humankind has been adopting new technologies and adapting to them for cen-
turies. The principles of information and knowledge management can be applied to
ensure the appropriate implementation and application of the various technologies
available. IKM assists organisations in decision making and continuous learning
and is known as a tool for adding value to organisations and enterprises (Maçada
et al. 2013; Schniederjans, Curado, and Khalajhedayati 2020). If used appropriately,
knowledge can enhance the competitiveness and performance of an organisation.
For these reasons it is important to manage the information as well as knowledge
(Seseni and Mbohwa 2019). Dalkir stated:

A good definition of knowledge management would incorporate both the capturing and
sharing of knowledge perspectives, together with the valuing of intellectual assets. For
example: Knowledge management is the deliberate and systematic coordination of an organi-
zation’s people, technology and processes and organizational structure in order to add value
through reuse and innovation. This is achieved through the promotion of creating, sharing,
and applying knowledge as well as through the feeding of valuable lessons learned and best
 17 One Journal’s Journey through the Fourth Industrial Revolution 257

practices into corporate memory in order to foster continued organizational learning (Dalkir
2017, 4).

The 4IR and IKM both assist organisations by steering them into the future. IKM
assists organisations through identifying, organising, storing, sharing and disse-
minating knowledge within an organisation, integrating internal knowledge with
external knowledge, and applying it to improving organisational performance.
IKM is one of the disciplines that can assist society in preparing for and dealing
with the 4IR. Enterprise information management is seen as a strategic approach.
Information has emerged as a commodity and enterprises will seek ways to ensure
that it is enriched, and its value does not decrease (Burrows 2013; Gevaudan 2019;
Hwang 2019; Maçada et al. 2013; Schniederjans, Curado and Khalajhedayati 2020;
Stock and Seliger 2016). As the world moved into the age of the 4IR, it has moved
into an information age; it is essential that IKM operates effectively in the 4IR and
that the 4IR and IKM can together explore what the future looks like (Blyth 2015;
Kang et al. 2018; León 2017; Mathewson 2015; Savić 2018; Sutherland 2020; Telang
2019; Xu, Adavid, and Kim 2018).
Researchers, such as Cárdenas, Ramírez, and Molano (2018), Meski et al. (2019)
and Schnierderjans, Curado, and Khalajhedayati (2020) have linked the 4IR and
IKM. They state that integrating knowledge and data in a smart way allows for
artificial intelligence to be integrated into the workplace and makes creating deci-
sion support systems possible. Knowledge management has both great and positive
effects on digitising supply chains. This chapter links the 4IR and IKM by analysing
the trends and frequency of the publication of topics related to the pillars of the 4IR
in an IKM related journal. How the links were made is explained in the following
section tracking the journey, and outlining the research undertaken and the meth-
odology adopted.

Tracking the Journal Journey

An IKM related journal, Information Technology & People published by Emerald
was the journal chosen for the study because of its strong reputation and its subject
focus. “Information Technology & People publishes work that is dedicated to under-
standing the implications of information technology as a tool, resource and format
for people in society as much as in their daily work in organizations.” Issues of
the journal from 2015 to 2019 were analysed. The method chosen to examine the
content was a mono–method quantitative study through content analysis. The
research design choice was based on pragmatism in which deductive reasoning
258 Tanya du Plessis, Dimpho Z. Gamede, Kevin M. Letsoalo and Neo Ramatsebe

was used with no predicted outcome envisaged. The research strategy was opera-
tionalised by coding on an Excel spreadsheet using category sheets (Appendix A).
The category sheets were used to identify the nine pillars in their different forms
in the journal with one sheet associated with each: autonomous systems, big data,
augmented reality, internet of things, cloud computing, cybersecurity, system inte-
gration, additive manufacturing and simulation. Each category sheet had eight sec-
tions: definition of underlying variable, indicators, time, subject of category, scope
of category, content of category, reported causes, and reported effects.
Purposive and random sampling were used for the study. Purposive sampling
was used to select the journal used. The journal was Information Technology &
People; it was chosen because it was a peer reviewed scholarly publication asso-
ciated with IKM and ranked highly in the International Scientific Indexing (ISI)
journal rankings. The journal is available on the Emerald Insight platform. It has
high citations according to the SCOPUS ranking.
In selecting articles in the journal published between the years 2015 to 2019,
random sampling was used. A total of 752 articles was published in the targeted
journal between 2015 and 2019. From these, 255 articles were randomly chosen
equally and in a proportional manner over the time period, at a 95% confidence
level, leaving a 5% margin error and 50% response distribution. Quantitative data
was collected, and content analysis was the research instrument used. Content
analysis is based on determining the presence of certain words, concepts or themes.
Researchers use content analysis to quantify and analyse the meaning and relation-
ship of words, concepts or themes (Columbia University Mailman School of Public
Health 2019).
The data was collected using an Excel spreadsheet template with coding to cal-
culate the sum of articles on the 4IR pillars in the journal. Since the journal arti-
cles sampled were from 2015 to 2019, each year had a spreadsheet template with
coding. The title and abstract of the articles were captured and coded with “1” in
the case that a pillar was present or “0” in the case that it was absent, using the eight
sections of the category sheets as a guideline. To ensure that the coding was accu-
rate, three of the four researchers checked the coding done by peer researchers.
The fourth researcher then reviewed the accuracy of the three peer researchers’
application of the category sheets.
To answer the research question, the occurrence of the 4IR pillars for each year
from the 2015 to 2019 time period was calculated to obtain the total for each year
and also for the full five-year period. The calculations were used to identify trends
and patterns of the 4IR occurrences. The percentage of the annual increase over the
five-year period was also calculated.
 17 One Journal’s Journey through the Fourth Industrial Revolution 259

The Journal’s Fourth Industrial Revolution Content

The research question was: What is the prominence of the nine pillars of the 4IR
in IKM related journals to support the user in preparing for the Fourth Industrial
Revolution? This section presents the findings of the trend analysis of the articles
sampled from Information Technology & People. Table 17.1 provides the instances
where 4IR pillars appeared in the abstracts of sampled articles from the journal for
each of the years examined, emphasising annual occurrences.

Table 17.1: Occurrences of the 4IR pillars in Information Technology & People.

Pillars 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Autonomous Systems 0 0 1 1 5
Big Data 1 4 4 11 12
Augmented Reality 1 2 1 1 1
Internet of Things 2 1 1 3 1
Cloud Computing 0 0 0 1 4
Cyber Security 0 1 0 1 7
Systems Integration 4 10 7 14 5
Additive Manufacturing 0 0 0 0 0
Simulation 1 0 0 0 3
Total 9 18 14 32 38

Table 17.1 shows a gradual increase in the occurrences of the 4IR pillars from the
period 2015 until 2019 although there was a significant contraction in the year
2017. The annual growth from 2015 to 2019 averages 2.8%, indicating a gradual
but noteworthy increase in the instances of articles related to 4IR pillars from the
sampled journal abstracts. The increases are shown graphically in Figure 17.2 and
indicate a strong upwards trajectory.

Fig. 17.2: Annual trends of increases in 4IR content

260 Tanya du Plessis, Dimpho Z. Gamede, Kevin M. Letsoalo and Neo Ramatsebe

The increase can be attributed to an enhanced awareness and interest in the 4IR
coupled with curiosity about the impact of 4IR technologies and how businesses
across the globe can benefit from their use. From 2015, some components such
as artificial intelligence under autonomous systems became more prevalent and
their impact felt more widely throughout the world, especially in manufacturing
industries where some twenty million jobs were anticipated to be lost due to AI and
robots in the succeeding ten years (Grabowska 2020; Machado, Winroth, and Da
Silva 2020; Oosthuizen 2017; Oxford Economics 2019).
It is likely that the numbers of articles on 4IR will continue to increase from
2020 onwards as a result of expected rapid growth in the advent of 4IR technologies
into the everyday lives of citizens. More research into developments is crucial for
understanding the 4IR and most importantly into what must be done to prepare the
user not only to survive but thrive in the 4IR.
Table 17.2 is an alternative representation of the findings tabulated to empha-
sise the occurrences of the individual 4IR pillars. Additive manufacturing had
no occurrences across the period analysed; simulation had but four; and cloud
computing five. Systems integration with forty occurrences recorded the highest
number, and big data was the second highest with thirty-two instances.

Table 17.2: Findings by 4IR pillar from Information Technology & People

Auto- Big Augmented Internet Cloud Cyber Systems Additive Simulation

nomous Data Reality of Things Com- Security Integ- Manu-
Systems puting ration facturing

2015 0 1 1 2 0 0 4 0 1
2016 0 4 2 1 0 1 10 0 0
2017 1 4 1 1 0 0 7 0 0
2018 1 11 1 3 1 1 14 0 0
2019 5 12 1 1 4 7 5 0 3
Total 7 32 6 8 5 9 40 0 4

Systems integration comprised 36% of the total occurrences, followed by big data
at 28.8% (Figure 17.3). The outlier factor can be attributed to the fact that the char-
acteristics and indicators that gave rise to both big data and systems integration
as pillars of 4IR were established long before the advent of the 4IR. The term big
data has been in use since the 1990s with Francis X. Diebold using it in 2000 and
attributing its origins to John Mashey (Wiktionary 2022). Over a decade later, the
term would be used more frequently with the growth of computing power. With the
advent of the 4IR, technologies to mine, transform and analyse the vast quantities
of data available became more necessary and significant. The research area in big
 17 One Journal’s Journey through the Fourth Industrial Revolution 261

data is broad as it encompasses medicine, management and marketing amongst

others. Big data is defined by its characteristics and dimensions such as volume,
veracity and velocity amongst others (Ahmed and Ameen 2017).
The newer pillars of knowledge within the 4IR such as additive manufacturing,
simulation and cloud computing were represented in the contents of the journal
and growing at a steady rate. It is likely that developments in these 4IR pillars will
grow at a more exponential rate in the future. Triggered growth in other aspects of
topics included may well occur (Figure 17.3).

Fig. 17.3: Percentage distributions of the 4IR pillars.

Two hundred and fifty-five abstracts were sampled from Information Technology
& People. One hundred and eleven, or 43.5% of the total, referred to the 4IR pillars.
Over half of the articles, 56.5% related to other topics and did not mention any of
the identified aspects of the 4IR pillars. The results of the study reveal an increasing
trend in research output referring to the 4IR pillars in the five-year period exam-
ined in one scholarly journal linked to IKM.

Limitations

The study was conducted on one journal only and the findings may not be gener-
alisable to other IKM journals. The study described in this chapter reports on one
262 Tanya du Plessis, Dimpho Z. Gamede, Kevin M. Letsoalo and Neo Ramatsebe

section only of the data collected as part of a larger data set and study. The coding
system and content analysis examined the abstracts and not the entire journal
article. The details from the abstracts were deemed sufficient. The coding was con-
ducted by three individuals who checked for any inconsistencies with the process
ensuring reliability of the data collection. Before coding began, there were certain
expectations of the outcomes. The expectations included lower numbers of articles
related to the 4IR than the reality proved. Researchers had also expected the pillars
to be discussed more explicitly especially as they related to preparing the user for
the 4IR. Big data was accurately expected to have a large research output because
of the significant role played by data and big data in the field in the creation of
information, in the discipline of IKM and in research generally. Such expectations
might be regarded as bias, which was resolved by multiple intercoder data collec-
tion and checking.

Conclusion
The findings of the study, although based on one journal only, suggest that IKM
is progressively supporting activities to be undertaken by the intermediaries who
read the journal in preparing people for the 4IR. Research output produced by IKM
on the 4IR pillars has risen over the identified five-year publication cycle. Broad
research on areas such as big data and systems integration has taken place and
been reported on in the period between 2015 and 2019 in the journal Information
Technology & People. The quantitative data collected shows an upward trend in
the publication patterns of research on various aspects of the 4IR. What remains
unknown is whether the findings reflect a general trend in the publication patterns
of other IKM related journals and whether further significant changes in the publi-
cation patterns will occur going forward. However, it is likely that research output
on the 4IR pillars will see further increases in the future. What also is to be deter-
mined is the impact of the research on practical implementation of technologies
related to the 4IR for the betterment of all. A trend analysis of the research output
of other IKM journals would facilitate generalisation of the results. It remains
crucial that research work about the 4IR and its pillars in the field of IKM continue
and expand with technological developments in the 4IR advancing exponentially.
Research output in areas such as additive manufacturing and simulation ought to
be increased to equal or exceed the more popular areas such as big data.
The final words of this chapter which has tracked one journal’s journey through
IKM and the 4IR pillars echo those of Schwab (2016) who said “we must develop a
comprehensive and globally shared view of how technology is affecting our lives
 17 One Journal’s Journey through the Fourth Industrial Revolution 263

and reshaping our economic, social, cultural, and human environments. There has
never been a time of greater promise, or greater peril”.

Acknowledgement
Without the guidance and expertise of Prof. Martie Mearns from the University of
Johannesburg in South Africa, this paper would not have been possible.

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266 Tanya du Plessis, Dimpho Z. Gamede, Kevin M. Letsoalo and Neo Ramatsebe

Appendix A: Category sheets

4IR Pillar: Autonomous Systems

Category Autonomous Systems

1. Definition of under- An autonomous system is a system that is capable of functioning in real

lying variable: world environments without any external regulators, for a certain amount
of time. In the context of Information and Knowledge Management, an
autonomous system gathers information, and then uses that information
to find a solution that will be used to resolve a problem. In essence, an
autonomous system is based on input – process – output.
2. Indicators: The use of autonomous systems to streamline tasks.
The ability of autonomous systems to perform certain tasks that humans
cannot perform.
The benefits and challenges of using autonomous systems for real world
issues.
3. Time: 2015–2019
4. Subject of category: Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Smart Cities
Machine Learning
5. Scope of category: Emerald Insight (Information and Knowledge Management journals) and
SCOPUS Library and Information Science journals (8 identified journals;
abstracts & keywords).
6. Content of category: Empirical studies reported on in identified scholarly journals
7. Reported causes: System malfunction; Lack of emotional intelligence.
8. Reported effects: Lack of human error; Increased productivity; Integrated data systems

4IR Pillar: Big data

Category: Big Data

1. Definition of under- Data that exceeds the processing capacity of conventional database
lying variable: systems because it bears a varied undertone, as it consists of different
types of digitized data. Data is big because it is unstructured, there is a lot
of it and it is being generated at a fast pace. As a result of this fast pace of
generating it, current technology cannot be applied to probe it, to enable
it produce answers to data driven questions within a faster turnaround
time.
2. Indicators: The features of big data are: volume, velocity and variety (the 3V’s); and
variability, validity and veracity.
3. Time: 2015–2019
 17 One Journal’s Journey through the Fourth Industrial Revolution 267

Category: Big Data

4. Subject of category: Big data;

Data science – discusses various topics, therefore, focus should be on big
data;
Data analytics;
Data mining;
Opinion Mining (OM)
Unstructured data – transactional data, log data, events, emails, social
media, sensor data, external feeds, radio frequency identification (RFID)
scans/point of sale (POS) data, free-form text, geospatial data, audio and
still images/videos.
5. Scope of category: Emerald Insight (Information and Knowledge Management journals) and
SCOPUS Library and Information Science journals (8 identified journals;
abstracts & keywords)
6. Content of category: Empirical studies reported on in identified scholarly journals
7. Reported causes: The type, speed and amount of data being generated daily.
8. Reported effects: Organisations not being able to leverage data to create a competitive edge.

4IR Pillar: Augmented reality

Category: Augmented Reality

1. Definition of under- Augmented Reality (AR) is the blending of interactive elements such as
lying variable: visual overlays and sensory projections into our real-world environments
2. Indicators: Futuristic technology
Holograms
3. Time: 2015–2019
4. Subject of category: Augmented reality technologies
Interactive digital elements
Sensory projections
5. Scope of category: Emerald Insight (Information and Knowledge Management journals) and
SCOPUS Library and Information Science journals (8 identified journals;
abstracts & keywords)
6. Content of category: Empirical studies reported on in identified scholarly journals
7. Reported causes: Futuristic technology, adds to the world you see but does not replace it, it
is not virtual reality
8. Reported effects: Creating a convenient and natural immersion, political and ethical issues.
268 Tanya du Plessis, Dimpho Z. Gamede, Kevin M. Letsoalo and Neo Ramatsebe

4IR Pillar: Internet of Things

Category: The Internet of Things (IoT)

1. Definition of under- The Internet of Things refers to the rapidly growing network of connected
lying variable: objects that feature an IP address for internet connectivity, and the com-
munication that occurs between these objects and other Internet-enabled
devices and systems. These objects are able to collect and exchange data
and objects include thermostats, cars, lights, refrigerators, and other
appliances. IoT devices are able to “talk” to each other, the same way
computers and smartphones can send and receive information without
human interaction.
2. Indicators: Architecture relevant to the IoT
Applications and implications of the IoT
The social impact of the IoT
Challenges associated with the adoption of the IoT
3. Time: 2015–2019
4. Subject of category: Hardware, software and architecture of the IoT
Applications of the IoT including:
– Smart infrastructure & logistics
– Healthcare
– Social applications
Business models in support of the IoT
The benefits of the IoT
Challenges such as security and privacy risks associated with the IoT.
5. Scope of category: Emerald Insight (Information and Knowledge Management journals) and
SCOPUS Library and Information Science journals (8 identified journals;
abstracts & keywords)
6. Content of category: Empirical studies reported on in identified scholarly journals
7. Reported causes: Improvement of efficiency of everyday life through the IoT; Breech of
privacy through connected devices; Broad adoption of IoT principles and
technology
8. Reported effects: Lack of user awareness of the risks involved; Malware leading to loss of
privacy and confidentiality; Infrastructure incompatibility.

4IR Pillar: Cloud computing

Category Cloud Computing

1. Definition of under- In the context of information and knowledge management, cloud com-
lying variable: puting enables effective knowledge sharing and easy access to data and
information from any compatible computing device, for informed decision
making. Cloud computing in this context further improves intelligence
outputs, considering the implications of misinformation.
 17 One Journal’s Journey through the Fourth Industrial Revolution 269

Category Cloud Computing

2. Indicators: Effective use of cloud computing platforms for knowledge sharing;

Improved decision making through streamlined data and information
access;
Increased intelligence outputs, through the use of cloud computing.
3. Time: 2015–2019
4. Subject of category: Cloud computing service models
– Software as a Service (SaaS)
– Platform as a Service (PaaS)
– Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Cloud computing deployment models
– Private cloud
– Public cloud
– Hybrid cloud
– Ethical hacking
– Privacy
5. Scope of category: Emerald Insight (Information and Knowledge Management journals) and
SCOPUS Library and Information Science journals (8 identified journals;
abstracts & keywords)
6. Content of category: Empirical studies reported on in identified scholarly journals
7. Reported causes: Decentralised data repository; delayed or uninformed decision making;
vulnerability of sensitive data and information; inability to respond to
market threats due to ineffective intelligence outputs
8. Reported effects: Centralised data repository; improved decision making; improved security
of sensitive data and information; effective intelligence outputs to reduce
market threats

4IR Pillar: Cyber Security

Category: Cyber Security

1. Definition of under- In this context, cyber security is the application of protecting computer
lying variable: networks and systems from either theft or damage, specifically on hard-
ware, software and or any other electronic data. Cyber security focuses
on the practices, processes and technologies that are designed and devel-
oped to protect devices, programs and data from damage, unauthorized
access and from malicious attacks
2. Indicators: Vulnerability management and hardware protection mechanisms;
secure operating systems; End user security training; digital hygiene;
password hygiene; anti-virus software; caution against phishing attacks;
rise of use and connected technologies
3. Time: 2015–2019
270 Tanya du Plessis, Dimpho Z. Gamede, Kevin M. Letsoalo and Neo Ramatsebe

Category: Cyber Security

4. Subject of category: Internet security

Automotive security
Cyberwarfare
Computer security
Mobile security
network security
Social media ethics
5. Scope of category: Emerald Insight (Information and Knowledge Management journals) and
SCOPUS Library and Information Science journals (8 identified journals;
abstracts & keywords)
6. Content of category: Emerald Insight (Information and Knowledge Management journals) and
SCOPUS Library and Information Science journals (8 identified journals;
abstracts & keywords)
7. Reported causes: Backdoor in a computer system; denial-of-service attack; direct-access
attacks; eavesdropping; phishing; multi-vector polymorphic attacks; privi-
lege escalation; social engineering; spoofing; tampering; business compe-
titions; hackers
8. Reported effects: Global and home depot breaches; office of personnel management data
breach; global surveillance disclosure; electrical blackouts; paralysed com-
puter networks and systems; financial cost of security breaches.

4IR Pillar: Systems Integration

Category: Systems Integration

1. Definition of underly- In this context, System Integration is a process commonly implemented in

ing variable: the fields of engineering and information technology. It involves the com-
bination of various computing systems and software packages in order
to create a larger system, and this is what drives Industry 4.0 to work at
its optimum. System Integration increases value to a system by creating
new functionalities through the combination of sub-systems and software
applications. Examples of System Integration include the automation of
home appliances and electrical systems.
2. Indicators: Implications and effects of System integration:
Awareness of the movement towards automation of process and proce-
dure.
3. Time: 2015–2019
4. Subject of category: Information systems, Software integration, Enterprise integration, com-
puterization, middleware technology, semantic interoperability, informa-
tion fusion, software integration, software systems, digital technology.
“integration/integrated” linked to the following: management systems,
automation, software.
 17 One Journal’s Journey through the Fourth Industrial Revolution 271

Category: Systems Integration

5. Scope of category: Emerald Insight (Information and Knowledge Management journals) and
SCOPUS Library and Information Science journals (8 identified journals;
abstracts & keywords).
6. Content of category: Empirical studies reported on in identified ISI journals.
7. Reported causes: Excessive movement to automation; Social impact with movement to
automation by systems integration.
8. Reported effects: Ethical considerations; effects on productivity; effects on job market.

4IR Pillar: Additive Manufacturing

Category: Additive Manufacturing

Category: Additive Manufacturing

1. Definition of under- Additive manufacturing (AM) is the industrial production name for 3D
lying variable: printing, a computer controlled process that creates three dimensional
objects by depositing materials, usually in layers. Using computer aided
design (CAD) or 3D object scanners, additive manufacturing allows for the
creation of objects with precise geometric shapes. These are built layer by
layer which is in contrast to traditional manufacturing that often requires
machining or other techniques to remove surplus material
2. Indicators: Applications and implications of AM
Advances in AM
Challenges and benefits of AM
Possible impact and consequences of AM
3. Time: 2015–2019
4. Subject of category: 3D modelling
3D printing
Computer-aided design
Reverse engineering
7 Categories of AM
– Vat polymerisation
– Material jetting
– Binder jetting
– Material extrusion
– Powder bed fusion
– Sheet lamination
– Directed energy deposition
5. Scope of category: Emerald Insight (Information and Knowledge Management journals) and
SCOPUS Library and Information Science journals (8 identified journals;
abstracts & keywords)
6. Content of category: Empirical studies reported on in identified scholarly journals
7. Reported causes: Current reality of AM; Futuristic predictions for AM; Research and develop-
ment in AM; Misconceptions of AM
272 Tanya du Plessis, Dimpho Z. Gamede, Kevin M. Letsoalo and Neo Ramatsebe

Category: Additive Manufacturing

8. Reported effects: Intellectual property legislation; ethics in 3D printing; health and safety in
AM; hazardous emissions and controls; social and environmental impacts
of AM

4IR Pillar: Simulation

Category: Simulation

1. Definition of under- In the 4IR context, simulation is the use of technology such as Artificial
lying variable: Intelligence (AI) to synchronise or imitate real world situations and hu-
man like behaviours. The objective is to create a visualisation or imitation
of the space and/or time needed to perform a complex task or solve a
complex problem. This environment encourages a synergetic approach
to complex problem solving, for example, a living lab is a visualisation of
the real world through the analysis of big data in order to test solutions
to real world problems
2. Indicators: Artificial Intelligence simulation models
Artificial Intelligence imitation models
Visualisation of big data
Virtual testing / experimentation
Human and AI synergy
Synchronised complex problem solving
Dynamic gaming processes
Living lab scenarios
Mock-up testing
3. Time: 2015–2019
4. Subject of category: Process modelling
Process simulation
Simulation life-cycle
Verification and validation
Animation and motion analysis
Service/component-based composition
Service/component-based integration
Big data processing and cloud computing
Performance optimisation
Collaboration environments
Simulation standards and languages
– Simulation of Continuous Systems (SIMCOS)
– Continuous System Simulation Language (CSSL)
– Advanced Continuous Simulation Language, or ACSL
Block diagrams
Bond graphs
 17 One Journal’s Journey through the Fourth Industrial Revolution 273

Category: Simulation

Subject of category: Commercialisation life cycle fatigue testing

Stress legends
5. Scope of category: Emerald Insight (Information and Knowledge Management journals) and
SCOPUS Library and Information Science journals (8 identified journals;
abstracts & keywords).
6. Content of category: Empirical studies reported on in identified scholarly journals
7. Reported causes: Time estimate inadequacies.
Achievability of goals
Lack of essential skills
Solution engineering
Lack of related user participation
Obsolete documentation
8. Reported effects: What if analysis systems
Prediction testing
Ethical considerations
Advanced training and deep learning
Automating existing processes
Business innovation
Disrupting markets and business models
Design thinking
Mysterious results.
Siviwe Bangani and Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha
18 A
 n Altmetrics Study of Researchers at
North-West University
Abstract: This chapter reports on a study examining the visibility and social impact
of National Research Foundation (NRF)-rated researchers at North-West University
(NWU). NWU is a public research university located on three campuses in South
Africa. The study examined research output from 2006 to 2017 using two aca-
demic social network platforms, ResearchGate (RG) and Mendeley, as sources of
data. Researchers with RG and Mendeley profiles were identified and the research-
ers’ altmetrics associated with each of the two data sources explored. The major-
ity of NWU’s NRF-rated researchers had embraced the two platforms confirming
their importance to elite researchers although some of the researchers’ profiles
appeared to be inactive. The number of reads and readerships in RG and Mendeley
did not correlate well with the NRF rating categories. From the results of the study,
the academic platforms could not be relied on to predict researcher rankings that
are based on peer review. Enhancing researchers’ visibility and impact in their
environments is complex and multi-faceted. Librarians must conduct workshops,
training and advocacy campaigns to assist researchers in their endeavours.

Keywords: Altmetrics; Bibliometrics; Academic social networks; Research – South

Africa

Introduction
Academic social networks (ASNs) have developed alongside general social media
and networking sites as digital platforms which meet the specific needs of the aca-
demic community. They allow researchers with similar interests to communicate
with each other, publicise their work, gain access to information and potentially
forge links for collaboration. Researchers establish profiles on the networks and
share academic research with others. Most networks are free. Researchers are
increasingly using ASNs (Bhardwaj 2017). There are many reasons why use among
researchers has grown exponentially in the past few years. Many researchers
wish to collaborate, share findings and perspectives on topical issues, acquire new
knowledge, keep track of research developments, and expose research to wider
audiences beyond the academy (Meishar-Tal and Pieterse 2017).
Besides the advantages of ASNs to researchers, bibliometricians have viewed
ASNs as an opportunity to assess the impact of research in its early stages and
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-020
 18 An Altmetrics Study of Researchers at North-West University 275

beyond the academy using altmetrics indicators (Asemi and Heydari 2018; Bhard-
waj 2017). Bibliometrics is the analysis of books, journal articles and other docu-
mentary communication using statistical methods to examine inter-relationships
and impact and frequently involves citation analysis. Altmetrics uses nontraditional
approaches to assess impact. An altmetrics study sought to establish the visibility
and impact of National Research Foundation (NRF)-rated researchers at North-West
University (NWU) from 2006 to 2017 using two academic social networks, Research-
Gate and Mendeley as sources of data (Bangani and Onyancha 2021).
North-West University is one of the largest universities in South Africa with the
third largest student population of almost 54,000 students. It is a public research
university located on three campuses in Potchefstroom, Mahikeng and Vanderbijl-
park. The National Research Foundation (NRF) rating is a South African researcher
rating system that mainly utilises the peer-review system to rate researchers based
on the recent output and impact of their research. “The rating of individuals is
based primarily on the quality and impact of their research outputs over the past
eight years” (South Africa NRF n.d.). The study identified NRF-rated researchers
with RG and Mendeley profiles and examined the metrics for each researcher on
each platform to determine visibility and assess the social impact of their research,
and to make comparisons of the metrics with the NRF rating.

Academic Social Networks

Many academic social networks have emerged across the world. One list of ASNs
includes: Academia.edu, ORCID-Best For Digital Identification, Scopus Author Iden-
tifier (Elsevier), Publons (Clarivate Analytics and part of Web of Science), Research-
Gate, Xing an online job network in German-speaking countries, Google Scholar-Best
For Citations, LinkedIn and Impact Story (SCI Journal 2022). Other listings of ASNs
include Mendeley and Altmetric. ResearchGate (RG) and Mendeley are among the
popular ASNs used by researchers and bibliometricians alike. This study focused
on ResearchGate and Mendeley.

ResearchGate

ResearchGate was founded in 2008 by Ijad Madisch, Sören Hofmayer, and Horst
Fickenscher with the platform’s first membership cohort comprising friends and
colleagues of its founders. In 2008 there were 10,000 members and by 2012 the
number had grown to 2,000,000 (ResearchGate 2021). Investors have included Bill
276 Siviwe Bangani and Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha

Gates, the Wellcome Trust and Goldman Sachs, and by 2021, RG had more than
20,000,000 members. RG boasts over 135 million pages and positions itself as a pro-
fessional network for scientists and researchers to discover research, connect with
community, advance and measure impact (ResearchGate 2022).
Martín-Martín et al. (2016) identified at least eight altmetrics indicators in RG:
reads, which combines views and downloads, RG Score, citations, total number of
publications, following, followers, profile views and impact points. Since then, RG
has added the H-Index and recommendations. In this study, the reads altmetrics
indicator will be used because of its ease of access and relevance to measure the
impact of researchers. Ortega (2015, 41) points out that RG is suitable for obtaining
author-level altmetrics such as reads, number of publications and citations. Ordu-
na-Malea et al. (2017) are highly critical of the RG score as it supposedly relies pri-
marily on activity related to asking and answering questions in RG. The number of
publications and reads altmetrics indicators will be used in this study.

Mendeley

According to Bhardwaj (2017), Mendeley was started in 2007 in London by three

German doctoral students. It was an independent company until its purchase by
Elsevier in 2013.

Mendeley is a free reference manager that can help you store, organize, note, share and cite ref-
erences and research data, automatically generate bibliographies, collaborate easily with other
researchers online, easily import papers from other research software, find relevant papers
based on what you’re reading, access your papers from anywhere online (Elsevier n.d.).

Mendeley positions itself: “Simplify your workflow, accelerate your research.”

There are four altmetrics indicators available on Mendeley (Martín-Martín et
al. 2016). They are readership or readers, publications, followers and following.
Researchers point out that Mendeley is suitable for researchers to share, collabo-
rate, and discover research output (Ortega 2015, 42; Wouters and Costas 2012, 27).

Altmetrics
Priem (2014) and Roemer and Borchardt (2015) trace altmetrics or alternative
metrics from the early 1990s through the development of the World Wide Web
and the early 2000s with the development of social media networks. It built on
work undertaken in bibliometrics, defined by the National Library of Medicine (US)
 18 An Altmetrics Study of Researchers at North-West University 277

(NLM) in its subject headings list quoting the American Library Association ALA
Glossary of Library and Information Science as “the use of statistical methods in the
analysis of a body of literature to reveal the historical development of subject fields
and patterns of authorship, publication, and use” (National Library of Medicine
n.d.). Among other bibliometrics concepts that Bornmann (2014) associates with
altmetrics are webometrics, web-based bibliometrics and web citations which are
all web or social media-based metrics. With the development of social media, there
was a necessity for bibliometricians to develop a term that would distinguish the
academic impact measures from the societal impact measures hence the coining
of the term altmetrics (Bangani and Onyancha 2021). The term altmetrics has its
roots from two words, the English word “alternative” and the Greek word “metrics”
(Priem 2014). It was coined by Priem in 2010 (Roemer and Borchardt 2015). Priem
et al. (2010) would go on to write a document entitled “Altmetrics: A Manifesto”. In
this manifesto, they called for diversity in the way research impact is measured.
They called for altmetrics to be considered as part of the tools of research impact
measurements. The manifesto popularised the use of the term altmetrics to the
research community (Roemer and Borchardt 2015).
Shema, Bar-Ilan, and Thelwall (2014) described altmetrics as web-based metrics
used to determine the societal impact of scholarly research. Altmetrics measure
societal impact of research using social media indicators such as views, reads, read-
ership, downloads, followership and many more (Roemer and Borchardt 2015). The
biggest advantage of altmetrics is that they accumulate almost immediately from
the moment the paper is published (Fairclough and Thelwall 2015; Priem 2014).
Other advantages include broadness, speed and diversity (Priem 2014). Some of
the limitations of altmetrics are that they are easy to manipulate; it is difficult to
determine their origin; and they may be biased towards Internet savvy academics
(Thelwall et al. 2016). For the purposes of this study, altmetrics refer to web and
social media indicators accumulated by research output that are used to measure
the societal impact of research.

Societal Impact of Research

Ireland has developed important research strategies through the work of Science
Foundation Ireland (SFI) which have guided funding and education over the last
two decades, culminating in its latest plan Shaping our Future: Delivering Today:
Preparing for Tomorrow: Science Foundation Ireland Strategy 2025 (SFI [2021]).
Reporting on the economic and social impact of work undertaken is emphasised.
Earlier work involved a focus on defining the impact of research:
278 Siviwe Bangani and Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha

Impact … may be considered as: The direct and indirect ‘influence’ of research or its ‘effect on’
an individual, a community, or society as a whole, including benefits to our economic, social,
human and natural capital…Impact… embraces all the diverse ways in which research-re-
lated knowledge and skills benefit individuals, organisations and nations. A broad definition
has the benefit of inclusivity of all disciplines and multi-disciplinary research areas. It can
encourage researchers and funders to think about the broader implications of the research
from the outset, as priorities shift, or when research raises unexpected discoveries during the
life of the programme… there is also a distinction between the terms ‘relevance’ and ‘impact’
with respect to research programmes. Impact considers both the relevance of the research to
the challenges faced by stakeholders and society, AND implementation or use of the results
(Hartland and O’Connor 2015, 5).

Research impact is a demonstration of the usefulness of research in the academic

program and beyond. It can be demonstrated at different levels including at
researcher level, faculty and institutional level, country level, and international
level. Impacts of research can be academic, societal, health, commercial, policy,
environmental, social, and cultural.
In examining the impact of research, the University City Dublin’s Beyond Pub-
lications Committee took a broad view: “The contribution of UCD’s research to
the advancement of knowledge for the benefit of academia, the economy, society,
culture, industry, public policy, health, the environment or quality of life.” Societal
impact is the impact of research on the life, attitudes, behaviours, culture, welfare,
practices, knowledge and understanding of communities.

In other words, the direct and indirect ‘influence’ of UCD’s research or its ‘effect on’ individ-
uals, communities, the creation of knowledge, the development of policy, or the creation of a
new product, service or technology (University College Dublin 2014, 4).

The most common measures of societal impact are altmetrics indicators which
demonstrate societal interest of the community in academic research (Bornmann
2014; Thelwall et al. 2016). Research impact demonstrates the value of research
to funders, governments, industry, community, and academic institutions. The
reasons for measuring impact include showing return on investment, budgeting
and ensuring accountability to research funders (Hartland and O’Connor 2015).
Many research funders expect researchers to indicate the impact of their research
not only academically but also to the society at large.
 18 An Altmetrics Study of Researchers at North-West University 279

Evaluating Research Through Academic Social

Networks
As already pointed out, RG and Mendeley are two of the most prominent ASN plat-
forms used by researchers and bibliometricians for research. While researchers use
the platforms to enhance the visibility and impact of their research, bibliometricians
use them to evaluate research output. Broadly, there are three things that studies on
specific ASNs seek to achieve. Firstly, they correlate findings with other platforms or
bibliographic databases such as Google Scholar, Scopus and/or Web of Science (WoS)
to ascertain if there is a relationship between various altmetrics indicators and cita-
tion data. In other words, they seek to determine whether a specific ASN, RG and/or
Mendeley, can be used to predict future citations. Such studies include Asemi and
Heydari (2018), Costas, Zahedi, and Wouters (2014), Elsayed (2016), Meishar-Tal and
Pieterse (2017), Ortega (2015) and Shrivastava and Mahajan (2016). Secondly, studies
seek to determine the visibility and impact of research and researchers from certain
institutions in RG and/or Mendeley. The aim of these studies is to rank, compare or
determine the availability of research or researchers from various institutions on
the platforms. The studies include Asnafi (2017), Batooli, Ravandi, and Bidgoli (2016),
Nemati-Anaraki, Razmgir and Moradzadeh (2020), Onyancha (2015), Shrivastava and
Mahajan (2017), Stachowiak (2014), Thelwall and Wilson (2015) and Yan and Zhang
(2018). Thirdly, other studies compare the various ASN platforms. These studies
explain the importance of using the various ASN platforms to evaluate research or
proffer advice on the various altmetrics indicators, their benefits, disadvantages and
how they can be used to evaluate research beyond the academy. The studies include
Bhardwaj (2017), Bornmann (2014), and Martín-Martín et al. (2016).
Asemi and Heydari (2018) extracted 165 articles by Iranian researchers on the
Web of Science and found 164 of them indexed on Mendeley. Newer articles received
more readerships than older ones. The researchers determined the average reader-
ship of Iranian researchers on Mendeley to be 216.56. While using Spearman’s cor-
relation analysis to determine correlations between Mendeley and RG with citations
in WoS, Asemi and Heydari (2018), determined the relationship to be weak but pos-
itive, although Mendeley readership showed a better relationship compared to RG.
Similarly, studies by Costas, Zahedi and Wouters (2014) and Ortega (2015) found weak
correlations between citations and altmetrics indicators. However, other authors
such as Thelwall and Wilson (2015), Fairclough and Thelwall (2015), Shrivasta and
Mahajan (2016) and Asemi and Heydari (2018) found stronger relationships between
citations and Mendeley readership. Thelwall and Wilson (2015) researched Mendeley
readerships of forty-five medical fields using Scopus documents and found that cita-
tions and Mendeley readership correlated strongly.
280 Siviwe Bangani and Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha

Ansari et al. (2019) compared the visibility and impact of researchers from four
medical universities in Iran: the Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan
University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences and
Ilam University of Medical Sciences. The researchers found that on average Iranian
medical researchers in the four medical schools had 13.07 documents in RG. The
findings confirm that medical researchers hold RG in high regard. Other studies
report similar findings. While studying the uptake of physics researchers at the
University of Delhi in India, Shrivastava and Mahajan (2017) found the uptake of
RG at this university to be low. However, the relationship between the papers added
to RG and academic impact was high. Similarly, a study of sixty-one United States
universities on RG found high correlation between research productivity, citations,
profile views and followers and RG scores which prompted the researchers to con-
clude that RG mirrors the research activity of institutions (Yan and Zhang 2018).
ASNs are popular with researchers from South Africa (Onyancha 2015). Onyan-
cha’s study compared RG, Web of Science and the Webometrics Ranking of World
Universities (WRWU) and found the uptake of RG in South African universities to be
fairly good with strong correlations between the coverage of South African research
on RG and WoS (Onyancha 2015). Kerchhoff conducted a study of the Institute for
Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of Western Cape and
determined that 86% of PLAAS researchers who responded to the survey had an
RG profile, cementing RG as a popular ASN platform among researchers (2017).
Although many studies have looked into the visibility and impact of researchers in
ASNs, most have tended to compare ASNs with citations from bibliographic data-
bases. Most of the studies emanate from either Western countries or Asia with very
few from Africa generally and more particularly South Africa.

Methodology of the Study Examining Visibility and

Social Impact of NWU Researchers
NWU’s annual research reports from 2006 to 2017 were obtained digitally. Where
there were gaps, the documents were sourced from the research office of NWU.
Each research report contained a list of NRF-rated researchers for the particular
year by rating category. The lists were treated as separate even in cases where the
same researcher was rated in the same or different categories for several years
meaning that many researchers were counted several times. For example, if
researcher A was C-rated in 2006 and B-rated in 2007, s/he was counted twice. As a
C-rated researcher in 2006 and B-rated researcher in 2007. Similarly, the researcher
would be counted for each year even if s/he retained a C rating in 2006 and 2007.
 18 An Altmetrics Study of Researchers at North-West University 281

The number of rated researchers was 1,707. Once the documents were sourced and
analysed, the list of researchers was transferred to MS-Excel spreadsheets.
Two Excel files were created, one representing RG and the other Mendeley.
Both files were divided into twelve spreadsheets each representing a year covered
by the study. The spreadsheets captured information on the name of the NRF-rated
researcher/s, rating category, availability (either on RG or Mendeley), title of docu-
ments, citations (either on RG or Mendeley), Reads (RG) or Readership (Mendeley),
journal, conference, book/chapter, and notes.
Searches were conducted using the authors’ surnames and initials on Mende-
ley and RG to determine visibility and social impact. To ensure that the data was
correct, the affiliation details of the authors of the documents was checked against
the NWU’s annual research reports from 2006 to 2017. The researcher profiles on
RG and Mendeley were also compared with those provided in the NWU’s annual
research reports. The relevant information was entered into the Excel spread-
sheets. Data was analysed and reported using tables and graphs.

The Study’s Findings

The study’s findings are reported under the two objectives of the study, visibility of
researchers, and social impact.

Visibility of Researchers in Academic Social Networks

The study examined the use and visibility of rated researchers in RG and Mendeley.

Visibility of Rated Researchers on RG

Table 18.1 shows that most rated researchers have embraced RG as evidenced by the
high percentage who have profiles on the platform. The proportion of researchers
with profiles increased in the last five years covered by the study, 2013 to 2017, com-
pared to the earlier years, 2006 to 2012, during which there was almost a balance
between researchers with and those without RG profiles although 2011 stood as an
outlier. However, it was noted that a large number of researchers had profiles that
were not populated or partially populated. There were sixty-three profiles spread
over the course of the twelve years that were not populated at all; forty-one pro-
files were partially populated with one to five items. 1,091 or 64% of NWU’s rated
282 Siviwe Bangani and Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha

researchers had some visibility in RG, although as already noted 104 of the group had
profiles that were not populated or partially populated, comprising just over 6% of all
rated researchers or almost 10% of all rated researchers with RG profiles.
Table 18.2 depicts NWU’s researchers in RG by rating category. The rating cat-
egories are:
A – Leading international researchers
B – Internationally acclaimed researchers
C – Established researchers
P – Prestigious Awards
Y – Promising young researchers (South Africa. National Research Foundation
n.d.)

All 27 A-rated and the 15 P-rated researchers had RG profiles; 62.2% (or 117
out of 188) of B-rated researchers had RG profiles; 65.8% (or 759 out of 1154) of
C-rated researchers had RG profiles; 53.6% (or 15 out of 28) of L-rated researchers
had RG profiles; and 53.6% (or 158 out of 295) of Y-rated researchers had RG pro-
files. However as pointed out, not all profiles were populated. Forty-nine C-rated
researchers’ profiles were not populated over the twelve-year period, and thirty were
partially populated with fewer than five records. The other group with the highest
number of unpopulated profiles were Y-rated researchers with nine, followed by
L-rated researchers with four, and B-rated researchers with one. Partially populated
profiles for -rated and L-rated researchers were respectively. nine and two.

Table 18.1: Numbers and percentages of rated researchers with RG profiles.

Year With RG Without % With % Without Total

Profile/s RG Profile/s RG Profile RG Profile

2006 35 47 42.7 57.3 82

2007 51 44 53.7 46.3 95
2008 56 47 54.4 45.6 103
2009 67 49 57.8 42.2 116
2010 70 47 59.8 40.2 117
2011 80 45 64 36 125
2012 72 68 51.4 48.6 140
2013 113 56 66.9 33.1 169
2014 124 66 65.3 34.7 190
2015 121 25 82.9 17.1 146
2016 141 54 72.3 27.7 195
2017 161 68 70.3 29.7 229
2006–2017 1,091 616 63.9 36.1 1,707
 18 An Altmetrics Study of Researchers at North-West University 283

Table 18.2: Visibility of researchers in RG by rating category.

Year A-rated B-rated C-rated L-rated P-rated Y-rated Total

2006 2 3 25 0 0 5 35
2007 2 4 34 3 1 7 51
2008 2 4 37 4 1 8 56
2009 2 5 44 3 1 12 67
2010 2 7 47 3 1 10 70
2011 2 8 59 1 1 9 80
2012 2 11 54 0 0 5 72
2013 3 10 80 1 2 17 113
2014 3 10 89 0 2 20 124
3 14 80 0 2 22 121
2015
2016 2 17 100 0 2 20 141
2017 2 24 110 0 2 23 161
Total 27 117 759 15 15 158 1,091
Total No. of rated 27 188 1,154 28 15 295 1,707
researchers

Visibility of Rated Researchers on Mendeley

Tables 18.3 and 18.4 show that rated researchers embraced Mendeley wholeheart-
edly with close to 85% (1443 out of 1707) having Mendeley profiles. The percentage
of rated researchers with Mendeley profiles from 2014 to 2017 was close to 90%
indicating that researchers realised the importance of being visible in academic
social networking sites. However, nineteen researchers chose to restrict access to
their Mendeley profiles to only those researchers that follow them. All A-rated and
P-rated researchers had Mendeley profiles compared to 163 or 86.7% of 188 B-rated
researchers, 996 or 86.3% of 1,154 C-rated researchers, 24 or 85.7% of 28 L-rated
researchers, and 218 or 73.9% of 295 Y-rated researchers.

Table 18.3: Numbers and percentages of rated researchers with Mendeley profiles.

Year With Mendeley Without Mendeley % With Mendeley % Without Total

Profile Profile Profile Mendeley Profile

2006 56 26 68.3 31.7 82

2007 76 19 80 20 95
2008 87 16 84.5 15.5 103
2009 96 20 82.8 17.2 116
2010 97 20 82.9 17.1 117
2011 103 22 82.4 17.6 125
284 Siviwe Bangani and Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha

Year With Mendeley Without Mendeley % With Mendeley % Without Total

Profile Profile Profile Mendeley Profile

2012 118 22 84.3 15.7 140

2013 136 33 80.5 19.5 169
2014 170 20 89.5 10.5 190
2015 128 18 87.7 12.3 146
2016 173 22 88.7 11.3 195
2017 203 26 88.7 11.3 229
2006–2017 1,443 264 84.5 15.5 1,707

Table 18.4: Visibility of researchers in Mendeley by rating category.

Year A-rated B-rated C-rated L-rated P-rated Y-rated Total

2006 2 5 40 2 1 6 56
2007 2 6 56 4 1 7 76
2008 2 9 58 3 1 14 87
2009 2 8 62 3 1 20 96
2010 2 12 59 4 1 19 97
2011 2 12 74 1 0 14 103
2012 2 15 91 0 1 8 118
2013 3 14 94 2 1 21 136
2014 3 15 121 1 2 28 170
2015 3 14 91 0 2 20 128
2016 2 24 116 2 2 27 173
2017 2 29 134 2 2 34 203
Total 27 163 996 24 15 218 1,443
Total No. of rated 27 188 1,154 28 15 295 1,707
researchers

Social Impact of Rated Researchers

The study used two altmetrics indicators of rated researchers’ output as proxies for
social impact: reads in RG and readership data for Mendeley.

Social Impact of Rated Researchers in RG

Figure 18.1 shows that there were 6,026 documents added by NWU’s rated research-
ers to RG. The documents increased by more than 638% from 131 in 2006 to 967 in
2017. Particularly sharp increases can be noticed from 2009 to 2011, 2012 to 2013
and 2016 to 2017. The number of rated researchers grew from 35 to 161 (360%)
 18 An Altmetrics Study of Researchers at North-West University 285

during the period covered by the study. The increases in research outputs cannot
be explained only by the increased numbers of rated researchers.
In terms of reads in RG, the most read document in 2006 had 2,343 reads fol-
lowed by 1,861 in 2007, 3,585 in 2008, 5,047 in 2009, 1,360 in 2010, 5,730 in 2011,
3,119 in 2012, 2,043 in 2013, 3,283 in 2014, 3,775 in 2015, 5,287 in 2016, and 3,538 in
2017.
Table 18.5 shows RG reads by rating category. RG reads increased sharply from
2013 to 2017. A-rated researchers received 10,644 reads in RG; B-rated researchers
received 83,236 reads; C-rated researchers received 482,862; L-rated researchers
received 3,662 reads, P-rated researchers received 5,975, and Y-rated researchers
received 90,540. The average reads per rating category were as follows: 394.2 reads
per A-rated researcher; 711.4 per B-rated researcher; 636.2 per C-rated research-
ers; 244.1 per L-rated researcher; 398.3 per P-rated researcher; and 573 per Y-rated
researcher. On average, B-rated researchers’ output received the most reads, fol-
lowed by C-rated, Y-rated, P-rated, A-rated, and L-rated researchers’ output. The
researchers could not find any plausible explanation for these trends.

Fig. 18.1: Documents by rated researchers in RG.

286 Siviwe Bangani and Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha

Table 18.5: Reads by category of rated researchers in RG.

Year A-rated B-rated C-rated L-rated P-rated Y-rated Total

2006 950 670 11,844 0 0 4,565 18,029

2007 546 1,024 8,071 1,800 43 2,356 13,840
2008 634 1253 21,216 334 252 2,000 25,689
2009 207 1,179 30,200 628 53 4,369 36,636
2010 300 1,371 13,275 107 66 7,099 22,218
2011 1,270 5,987 39,532 0 161 2,012 48,962
2012 498 1,751 31,022 0 0 969 34,240
2013 1,123 1,579 62,130 123 1,213 9,699 75,867
2014 911 4,670 74,449 0 344 17,188 97,562
2015 1,598 7,061 83,572 0 1,603 14,328 108,162
2016 1,278 27,611 53,450 0 1,010 12,757 96,106
2017 1,329 29,080 54,101 670 1,230 13,198 99,608
Total 10,644 83,236 482,862 3,662 5,975 90,540 676,919
No. rated 27 117 759 15 15 158 1,091
researchers

Social Impact of Rated Researchers in Mendeley

NWU’s rated researchers increased their output in Mendeley since 2006 as shown
in Figure 18.2. In 2006, there were 159 documents published by NWU authors in
Mendeley while there were 931 in 2017, an increase of 486%. Sharp increases
can be noticed from 2009 to 2011, 2012 to 2013 and 2016 to 2017. The number of
rated researchers grew from 56 to 203, 263%, during this period. The increase in
research outputs cannot be explained only by the increase in the number of rated
researchers. No plausible reason could be proffered as to why the Mendeley and
RG’s increases between 2009 to 2011, 2012 to 2013 and 2016 to 2017 follow a similar
trajectory.
The document with the most readership in Mendeley in 2006 had 340 followed
by 227 in 2007, 197 in 2008, 329 in 2009, 603 in 2010, 406 in 2011, 372 in 2012, 272 in
2013, 881 in 2014, 229 in 2015, 1,707 in 2016, and 3,538 in 2017. Table 18.6 indicates
that Mendeley readership data was on the upward trend from a low of 4,012 in
2006 to a high of 30,934 in 2017. The Mendeley readership data shows a marked
increase from 2013 to 2017. Output of A-rated researchers attracted 3,018 reader-
ships; B-rated researchers 23,870; C-rated researchers attracted 95,159 readerships;
L-rated researchers 1,120 readerships; P-rated researchers 2,068 readerships; and
Y-rated researchers 17,386 readerships. The averages were 111.8 readerships per
 18 An Altmetrics Study of Researchers at North-West University 287

A-rated researcher, 146.4 per B-rated researcher, 95.5 per C-rated researcher, 46.7
per L-rated researcher, 137.9 per P-rated researcher, and 79.8 per Y-rated researcher.

Fig. 18.2: Documents by rated researchers in Mendeley.

Table 18.6: Readership by category of rated researchers in Mendeley.

Year A-rated B-rated C-rated L-rated P-rated Y-rated Total

2006 17 502 2,913 91 96 393 4,012

2007 27 633 1,949 62 21 471 3,163
2008 98 681 3,629 185 30 688 5,311
2009 28 416 3,492 146 26 1,027 5,135
2010 57 309 4,376 283 8 1,380 6,413
2011 117 693 7,004 12 0 1,597 9,423
2012 82 735 6,830 0 487 889 9.023
2013 287 1,165 10,565 190 242 1,987 14,436
2014 242 1,256 13,911 151 338 2,576 18,474
2015 257 1,117 11,758 0 244 1,641 15,017
2016 186 6,183 13,054 0 183 1,674 21,280
2017 1,620 10,180 15,678 0 393 3,063 30,934
Total 3,018 23,870 95,159 1,120 2,068 17,386 142,621
No. rated 27 163 996 24 15 218 1,443
researchers
288 Siviwe Bangani and Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha

What do the Findings Mean?

Discussion of the study is divided into the two areas examined, visibility of rated
researchers and social impact measured by reads or readership.

Visibility of Rated Researchers

Tables 18.1 and 18.3 reflect differences in penetration levels between RG and Men-
deley. There is a 20% difference between the two platforms in terms of their pene-
tration levels, with 64% of rated researchers at NWU embracing RG while close to
85% have profiles in Mendeley. One hundred percent of A- and P-rated researchers
embraced the two ASN platforms. The results for other rating categories are mixed,
with 62.2% of B-rated researchers having RG profiles and 86.7% Mendeley profiles;
C-rated researchers with RG profiles stood at 65.8% while 86.3% of C-rated research-
ers had Mendeley profiles; 53.6% of L-rated researchers had RG profiles and 85.7%
Mendeley profiles; 53.6% of Y-rated researchers had RG profiles and 73.9% Mende-
ley. The higher levels of acceptance of Mendeley over RG might be attributed to the
fact that Mendeley is owned by an established publishing house, Elsevier, that the
researchers trust. Many may have published in Elsevier journals and platforms.
RG on the other hand does not have any discernible relationship with a publish-
ing house which can make some researchers more comfortable. Researchers may
also not be comfortable with the extent of openness shown by RG versus Mendeley.
With regards to the penetration levels, the results of the study are mixed.
The results differ from those reported by Batooli, Ravandi, and Bidgoli (2016)
and Bhardwaj (2017) at the Kashan University of Medical Sciences in Iran and the
University of Delhi in India, respectively. The penetration levels of RG by rated
researchers found in this study are much higher than those reported by Stachowiak
(2014) and Onyancha (2015) but lower than those of Elsayed (2016). In Stachowiak’s
(2014) study, only 14% of researchers at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland
had RG profiles while Kerchhoff (2017) found that 86% of PLAAS researchers who
responded to a survey had an RG profile. The results of this study compare well
with Banshal et al. (2018) who reported 61% for RG and 64% for Web of Science. The
results of this study mean that the penetration levels of NWU’s researchers in RG
may have increased since they were reported by Onyancha (2015).
Another noticeable trend was that researchers established profiles but did
not populate them in RG and restricted their profiles in Mendeley. As a result, out
of 1,091 profiles in RG, almost 10% of the 1,091 profiles were partially populated
or not populated, and nineteen profiles in Mendeley were restricted to those who
followed the researchers. Unpopulated profiles on RG were also noticed in other
 18 An Altmetrics Study of Researchers at North-West University 289

studies. Martín-Martín et al. (2016) found that 17% of researchers’ profiles in Men-
deley were empty with no documentation uploaded. The number of unpopulated
profiles in RG in Shrivastava and Mahajan’s work (2017) was 28.32%. Although
having a profile in RG and Mendeley enhances the visibility and impact of research-
ers and their output, unpopulated profiles may cause frustration for those who are
attempting to access or evaluate research. Restricting a profile limits the accessi-
bility of research. However, the results of this study compare well with those of
Nández and Borrego (2013) who found that 75% of researchers at twelve Catalan
universities did not upload a single document to Academia.edu although they had
profiles.
The fact that the extent of penetration of the two ASN platforms by rated
researchers at NWU has increased in the past five years in both platforms is a sign
that the penetration levels are set to increase further in the upcoming years.

Social Impact of Researchers

Tables 18.5 and 18.6 show that rated researchers’ documents in RG scored many
more reads at 676,919 than did documents in Mendeley which recorded 142,621
readerships. Growth rates were also significantly higher in RG than in Mendeley.
Reads of rated researchers’ work in RG were 112.3 on average compared to 83.6 in
Mendeley. The differential might be attributed to the way the two platforms cal-
culate reads. While RG reads are counted each time somebody opens a summary
or document, whether logging in or not, Mendeley readerships are based on the
number of times the documents are saved into a researchers’ library or profile
(Martín-Martín et al. 2016). This approach leads to RG reads accumulating more
easily than Mendeley readerships. The size of the platforms also plays a role. RG
tends to have more members than Mendeley (Martín-Martín et al. 2016). RG is
also easily accessible to the general public, and it tends to attract a wider reader-
ship than Mendeley which targets researchers (Thelwall et al. 2017). The B-rated
researchers had the highest number of readerships per researcher, followed by
P-rated researchers, A-rated researchers, C-rated researchers, Y-rated researchers,
and L-rated researchers.
The results agree with the findings of other studies. Batooli et al. (2016) found
that between 1997 and 2014, 395 Scopus indexed articles by researchers from the
Kashan University of Medical Sciences accumulated 20,799 reads in RG while 234
articles in Mendeley were read 901 times. The average read per output stood at
52.7 in RG and 3.9 in Mendeley. Other researchers, Asemi and Heydari (2018),
determined that 164 Iranian researchers’ documented output from 1989 to 2015
had accumulated 35,516 readerships in Mendeley and 64,697 reads in RG. Another
290 Siviwe Bangani and Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha

interesting finding of this study is that the trends in terms of average number of
reads per output by age were similar between the two platforms. Older documents
attracted less readership than the newer ones. Thelwall and Kousha (2017) also
found that older articles in RG attract, on average, fewer reads than the newer arti-
cles. This suggests more social impact of new documents in both RG and Mendeley
compared to older content. Both RG and Mendeley are new platforms (Bhardwaj
2017), and new documents have the advantage of being sometimes entered into
them before being published in pre-print format. The older documents on the
other hand had to be uploaded years after they had been published. By then they
might have lost the excitement factor of a new publication to readers. Thelwall
and Kousha (2017) attribute the results to a natural preference by researchers for
reading more current studies.

Future Actions
The results provide suggestions for future actions to be taken by libraries and
librarians to improve visibility of research outputs of their institutions and to
enhance the impact of research within the research community and the world at
large. They are:
–– Academic librarians must keep abreast of developments in the academic social
networks sphere
Knowledge is power and academic librarians must stay abreast of the fast-de-
veloping academic social networks trends. Knowledgeable academic librarians
will be able to promote, recommend, and assist researchers populate and nav-
igate the different academic social networks platforms.
–– Develop knowledge of different altmetrics and bibliometrics
Academic librarians must develop knowledge and understanding of the
meaning of different metric indicators and their use by the wider research
community. They can do so by attending workshops, seminars, symposiums,
and conferences or any meeting where these areas are discussed, but reading
widely to develop their knowledge base, and by participating within the
research communities of their institutions. Academic librarians can organise
knowledge transfer workshops among themselves to share their knowledge of
bibliometrics and altmetrics.
–– Create personal profiles in the different academic social networks platforms
Academic librarians must themselves participate and be visible in academic
social networks to ensure that they understand the research environment and
are part of it, as well as understanding from first-hand experience the bene-
 18 An Altmetrics Study of Researchers at North-West University 291

fits and challenges of each of the social networking platforms. Librarians will
develop the necessary expertise to educate others.
–– Organise researcher profiling and research visibility workshops
Academic librarians with high levels of expertise in academic social networks
must provide workshops to educate researchers and postgraduate students as
they navigate the maze of academic social networks platforms. Some librar-
ies including the NWU Library and Information Service (NWU LIS) has been
involved in such activities for the past few years. NWU LIS provides a range of
research support services including details about altmetrics and bibliometrics
on its website (NWU LIS n.d.) along with webinars and workshops (Makate
2019). Onyancha (2018) highlighted several other libraries in South Africa that
run workshops including libraries at the Universities of Cape Town, Pretoria,
Zululand, Pretoria and Stellenbosch.
–– Academic libraries can enlist the services of external experts to conduct work-
shops on altmetrics and bibliometrics
Experts from industry or other academic libraries can be called upon to assist
where necessary. As part of NWU LIS strategy, for example, the library enlists
the services of World-Wide Information Services (WWIS) (representing WoS)
and Scopus to conduct bibliometrics workshops in all three of its campuses,
annually (Makate 2019). Experts in altmetrics can be identified and asked to
conduct workshops.
–– Conduct advocacy campaigns and other activities to increase profiling and vis-
ibility among researchers
Academic librarians are well placed to take a leading role in promoting profil-
ing and visibility among researchers and postgraduate students. Where neces-
sary, researchers and postgraduate students can be assisted to create profiles
in different academic networking platforms for visibility and impact purposes.
NWU LIS is currently involved in campaigns to assist researchers create ORCID
and Scopus profiles. Reports of the extent of profiling in the two platforms in
the research study were sent to the office of the Vice-Chancellor: Research and
Innovation. For its part, as already mentioned, NWU LIS provides research
support through web pages including a section on measuring research and
impact (NWU LIS n.d.).
–– Library managers must include researcher profiling as part of faculty liaison
librarians’ job descriptions
Knowledge and skills in the use of academic social networks should form part
of each faculty liaison librarian’s job description and performance. If academic
librarians are to support research effectively, they must be able to advise
researchers about social networking platforms as part of their roles.
292 Siviwe Bangani and Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha

–– Ensure that up-to-date subscriptions to various bibliometrics and altmetrics

platforms and databases are held
Onyancha (2018) advises that libraries must keep their subscriptions to the
various bibliometrics and altmetrics databases up-to-date to ensure access to
researchers for self-evaluation purposes.
–– Conduct research and publish about different aspects of altmetrics and biblio-
metrics
Academic librarians can be involved in activities that support researchers, but
they can also be researchers themselves. As such, Onyancha (2018) postulates
that librarians must also consider conducting altmetrics and bibliometrics
studies.
–– Assist faculties and departments with bibliometrics and altmetrics reports
Faculties and departments conduct research evaluations. Faculty liaison librar-
ians can assist and play the role of experts when it comes to evaluations based
on bibliometrics and altmetrics databases and platforms. The first author of
this chapter was involved in preparing bibliometrics reports for the Educa-
tion Faculty at the Mafikeng Campus of NWU for their annual research awards
for most cited paper, most recognised paper internationally, most productive
researcher and other categories.
–– Use bibliometrics and altmetrics indicators as input to management decisions
as well as proving the value of libraries
Bibliometrics can assist librarians make collection development decisions
through indications of usage patterns of materials in the library. Bibliomet-
rics can help librarians to track publishing output and its impact (Thomson
Reuters 2008:2). Libraries in South Africa are faced with financial challenges
that necessitate that decisions are taken based on scientific and objective indi-
cators. Bibliometrics and altmetrics can and do assist libraries to decide which
resources or types of resources to prefer and which ones to discard or cancel.
Bibliometrics and altmetrics can also help libraries to prove their value to the
universities that are concerned about value for money.

Final Words
The study described in this chapter examined profiles of rated researchers on two
ASN platforms, RG and Mendeley. The results indicated that NWU’s rated research-
ers are more visible in Mendeley than in RG. The reasons included the fact that the
former is owned by Elsevier, a publishing company with a reputation for quality
within the academy. However, significant percentages of researchers had inactive
 18 An Altmetrics Study of Researchers at North-West University 293

profiles on both databases. There were significantly more reads in RG than Men-
deley which was determined to be in line with previous studies in the area. Two
explanations are that reads in RG are counted each time somebody clicks and opens
a document in RG while Mendeley readership counts the saves to a researcher’s
Mendeley profile. In Mendeley, researchers must show an intention to interact with
the document rather than simple clicking and opening it. RG is also bigger com-
pared to Mendeley. Based on these results, it can be concluded that RG has more
visibility and social impact than Mendeley although the latter is better at academic
impact. The results demonstrated the usefulness of altmetrics indicators such as
reads as indicators of social impact. Visibility of research extends to the wider com-
munity. Research output is no longer accessible only to researchers but also to the
wider community. Libraries and librarians have the potential to extend their roles
in strengthening research visibility and social impact of their institutions.

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Oluyemi Folorunso Ayanbode and Williams E. Nwagwu
19 K
 nowledge Management Strategies in
Clinical Settings, Southwest Nigeria
Abstract: Clinical settings focus on delivering quality health care to patients in
hospital and other settings. The creation and sharing of insights, ideas and exper-
tise are crucial to effective care and treatment. This chapter reports on a study
conducted in 2017 which investigated knowledge management (KM) strategies
used by members of therapy teams including doctors, nurses, nutritionists, clin-
ical psychologists, social workers and occupational therapists in two psychiatric
hospitals in south-west Nigeria. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected
with a self-administered questionnaire and interviews to understand what knowl-
edge was shared and how, and to investigate whether workers were rewarded for
activities undertaken in carrying out research and in sharing knowledge. A key
question to answer was what mechanisms could be put in place to improve patient
care through encouraging members of therapy teams to be more innovative and
productive.

Keywords: Knowledge management; Therapy teams; Psychiatric hospitals – Nigeria

Introduction
Organisations have begun to recognise the importance of managing knowledge
within their environments. Healthcare facilities, including hospitals, have shared
in valuing effective knowledge management. This chapter focuses on psychiatric
hospitals in Southwest Nigeria, which were established over one hundred years
ago. The study described in this chapter was conducted in 2017 in the Neuropsy-
chiatric Hospital, Abeokuta, and the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, in
Southwest Nigeria (Ayanbode and Nwagwu 2020). Psychiatric hospitals are clinical
settings where the provision of mental healthcare services is a function of high task
interdependence and teamwork (Menninger 1998), a strategy of continuous profes-
sional development, and a need for a knowledge-friendly culture to foster quality,
evidence-based clinical practices (Dizon, Grimmer-Somers, and Kumar 2012). Col-
laboration is the hallmark of healthcare professionals, particularly those who are
saddled with the responsibility of effective treatment in mental health (Menninger
1998).
Mental health disorders are complex and require clinical care by a multidisci-
plinary team. The therapies used in treatments are wide-ranging, including drug
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-021
298 Oluyemi Folorunso Ayanbode and Williams E. Nwagwu

therapy, electroconvulsive therapy, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, psychodynamic

psychotherapy, behavioural, cognitive and interpersonal approaches; the skills,
knowledge and experience of team members are diverse and include psycholo-
gists, psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, nutritionists,
and various members of allied health specialties. Therapy team members (TTMs)
work closely together in the best interests of the people in their care.
It had been observed that employees in clinical settings in Nigeria deploy dif-
ferent approaches to create, share and retain knowledge for individual and col-
lective purposes (Olasina 2012; Oyetunde and Ayeni 2014; Udousoro 2014). The
strategies used in psychiatric hospitals in Nigeria had not been clearly documented
to provide clear policy guidelines for the effective deployment of knowledge man-
agement strategies. This study investigated the strategies used to create, share and
retain knowledge in psychiatric hospitals in Southwest Nigeria, including codifica-
tion and personalisation.

Knowledge and Knowledge Management

Knowledge is variously understood but can be described as “a fluid mix of framed
experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a
framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information”
(Davenport and Prusak 1998, 5). Knowledge is expert and context dependent. From
an individual perspective, knowledge is human and highly personalised, a product
of combined expertise, an effort of network and collaboration (Smith 2001, 312).
Cheng (2015) observes that knowledge is the comprehension that people build as
they interact with information, either individually or collectively. Such comprehen-
sion is dependent on collaboration and the degree of interaction with human and
material resources, which enable refertilisation and motivation for new knowledge.
Diversities of tacit and explicit knowledge exist in clinical settings and are indis-
pensable to effective care and treatment of patients, and continuous professional
development of the clinical experts. Tacit knowledge is sometimes called implicit
knowledge. It involves insight and intuition and is difficult to express, verbalise,
write down or transfer. Explicit knowledge on the other hand can be articulated,
documented, explained and communicated.
From an organisational perspective, knowledge is described as an asset for
competitive advantage, innovation, transformation and sustainability (Mubaraka,
Jirgi, and Mamman 2013; Omotayo 2015). In organisations, knowledge is found in
repositories, routines, processes, practices, norms, and cultures (Omotayo 2015, 4),
 19 Knowledge Management Strategies in Clinical Settings, Southwest Nigeria 299

and can be increased through effective knowledge activities. According to Slavković

and Babić

Increasing knowledge in the organization can be done in two ways: by creating knowledge,
which includes internal development of new knowledge or the improvement of existing
knowledge, and by capturing knowledge, which refers to the inflow of external knowledge
into the organization (2013, 89).

Knowledge is basic to value creation in an organisation and must be managed care-

fully (Dhamdhere 2015, 35).
Knowledge management (KM) has many definitions but refers primarily to the
methods and processes related to creating, sharing, using and managing the knowl-
edge and information of an organisation. Effective knowledge management is con-
sidered necessary not only for competitive advantage, but also for the development
of individuals. Knowledge resources will grow at the rate at which individuals
are willing to share their expertise, creativity, intuition, experience, and wisdom
with colleagues within and across organisations (Kim and Mauborgne 1998, 324).
Effective utilisation of knowledge resources and capabilities involves investing
in human or technology oriented strategies and is indispensable for sound KM
practices which positively drive individual and organisational performance and
foster outstanding performance (Rehman, Rehman, and Ilyas 2015, 68). KM strate-
gies refer to the overall approaches an organisation adopts to align its knowledge
resources and capabilities with intellectual requirements to reduce any knowledge
gap between what ought to be known and what is known (Zanjani, Mehrasa, and
Modiri 2008, 392).
Activities employed in managing knowledge include codification, building of
repositories, collaboration, establishing online forums of experts, developing com-
munities of practice (CoPs), teaming, and human resource management (HRM)
(Omotayo 2015). Organisations look to manage their knowledge through adequate
acquisition, retention, creation and sharing processes including those related to
HRM, CoPs, mentoring, apprenticeship, subject matter experts, leveraging the expe-
rience of retirees and storytelling (Chigada 2014, 159). Kankanhalli et al. (2003, 225)
say that organisations have unique patterns in their approaches to KM depending
on whether they are product-based or service-based, and whether they operate in
a context of high or low volatility. According to Geisler and Wickramasinghe (2015,
44), approaches to KM are mainly categorised as people-centric or technology-cen-
tric. The two approaches are also referred to as personalisation and codification
approaches (Jahn 2013). An organisation may adopt a combined or integrated strat-
egy of personalisation and codification with varying ratios of the two, for example,
80/20, with either component comprising the percentage (Blunt 2001).
300 Oluyemi Folorunso Ayanbode and Williams E. Nwagwu

Others take a different view. At Knowledge Praxis, Barclay and Murray (2000, 8)
adopted a three-part categorisation involving mechanistic, cultural or behavioural,
and systematic approaches to knowledge management, and noted that new knowl-
edge could be derived from the use of mechanistic methods. According to Mentzas
et al. (2003, 17), KM efforts may fall under one of two approaches which need to
be integrated: the product-centric and the process-centric approaches. The two
approaches are distinct and imply a different strategic focus with the use of differ-
ent software tools. They comment that:

The product-centric approach is more likely to be followed by those companies with a busi-
ness strategy based on standardized and mature products. The processes for developing and
selling such products involve well-understood and well organised tasks, and the product
knowledge is relatively rigid and thus more easily codified. In such cases, developing a strat-
egy around the “knowledge as a product” approach seems more suitable.
The process-centric approach is more likely to be followed by those companies with a
value proposition based on developing highly customized and/or extremely innovative prod-
ucts or services that meet unique customer needs. Because these needs vary dramatically,
codified knowledge is of limited value. In those cases, adopting a “knowledge as a process”
approach, which mainly supports the sharing of knowledge, expertise and judgement, seems
more appropriate (Mentzas et al. 2003, 17).

The management of both internal and external environmental knowledge is

considered significant to effective healthcare service delivery in clinical settings
(Slavković and Babić 2013). Research has indicated the importance of the use of
personalisation or people-centric approaches in clinical settings (Albro 2011; Ase-
mahagn 2016; Bordoloi and Islam 2012; Gatero 2010; Gordon, Deland and Kelly
2015; Kanerva, Kivinen and Lammintakanen 2015; Olasina 2012; Oyetunde and
Ayeni 2014). Likewise, credence has been given to the effective deployment of cod-
ification strategies (Borousan et al. 2012; Udousoro 2014).

Codification Strategies in Knowledge Management in Clinical

Settings

A systems or technological approach to KM has necessitated the design, adoption

and implementation of knowledge management systems (KMS). KMS support tacit
and explicit knowledge and they collect and contain information for building
new knowledge. They are evolving as powerful tools for competitive advantage.
Technology-centric or approaches to KM have been applied effectively in hospital
settings (Ghosh and Scott 2008). Codification approaches to KM in clinical settings
exist, such as keeping a repository of best practices, data warehousing and data
 19 Knowledge Management Strategies in Clinical Settings, Southwest Nigeria 301

mining, knowledge mapping and use of electronic libraries with access to research
databases or knowledge portals such as HINARI to support research activities and
acquisition of knowledge, stimulating the creation, transfer, storage, retrieval, inte-
gration, and application of knowledge (Loebbecke and Crowston 2012). HINARI is
a World Health Organization (WHO) programme which collaborates with major
publishers to provide access to published biomedical and health information for
low- and middle-income countries. Knowledge portals store knowledge and make it
easily available to users (Kažimír, Bureš, and Otčenášková 2012, 7). Other codifica-
tion practices include the storage of patient case notes in hospital databases, many
on a regional or national basis, the use of electronic patient record systems, and the
use of information technology to review and update all kinds of health and medical
data (Mentzas et al. 2003; Udousoro 2014).
Hansen, Nohria, and Tierney (1999) found that the construction of an electronic
repository allowed many people to access and retrieve codified knowledge without
having to contact the creator of the knowledge. Repositories foster the achievement
of optimal knowledge reuse and productivity. Codification strategies include the
use of different ICT to update, collate, store and retrieve data or information and
the capture and preservation of tacit and explicit knowledge for future reuse. Ali
(2018) noted that codification ensures knowledge is subsequently made accessible
to professionals who are interested in reusing and applying it to support clinical
problem solving.
A technology-centric approach “enhances and enables knowledge generation,
codification (know-how), and transfer” (Ruggles 1997, 8). Ngulube and Lwoga con-
firmed that a technology-centric approach is strategic to the management and inte-
gration of both tacit and explicit knowledge. Knowledge captured mechanistically
through the use of collaborative technologies is stored and available for future
retrieval and the generation of new knowledge (Barclay and Murray 2000, 8). Such
an approach is strategic to the management and integration of tacit and explicit
knowledge (Ngulube and Lwoga 2007, 121).
The use of KMS such as electronic patients’ record systems supports codifica-
tion of knowledge. A case study of implementing KMS in healthcare in Malaysia
by Borousan et al. (2012, 491–492), revealed the use of KMS in hospitals and the
accrued benefits. According to them, a KMS can assist hospitals to improve the five
KM stages of accumulation, sharing, utilisation, internalisation, and creation of
knowledge, not only within the hospital but also collaboratively among regional
hospitals. Through effective use of KMS, 94.34% of users agreed “they were able
to learn what is necessary for new tasks”; and 95.29% agreed they referred to best
practices and applied them to their tasks. In the knowledge creation phase, 95.28%
of users agreed they could apply knowledge in KMS to perform their new tasks
without duplicating work already done. A study of health care organisations in Iran
302 Oluyemi Folorunso Ayanbode and Williams E. Nwagwu

found that 15% of those surveyed recorded high use of clinical information systems
for information exchange inside their institutions (Kahouei et al. 2015, 1).
Nabutete (2013) stated that codification of knowledge in online repositories is
required to make hospital information and knowledge available for reuse, making
the tasks for nurses, doctors, and other health professionals easier and enhanc-
ing productivity. But healthcare professionals in psychiatric hospitals in Southwest
Nigeria have considerable difficulty in gaining access to knowledge portals and the
Internet. The lack of Internet access may be an indication of underfunding of the
health sector in Nigeria or non-availability of technological infrastructures in psy-
chiatric hospitals in Nigeria. Internet issues are common throughout Africa. Ase-
mahagn (2016) found that the majority, 70%, of healthcare professionals reported
no Internet access in hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Ajuwon (2015) noted that
the Internet is a popular source of information for both healthcare providers and
consumers. Ajuwon however found that the University College Hospital Ibadan did
not provide Internet access for employees in their offices or consulting rooms due
to funding constraints (2006). Only 36% of physicians had their own private Inter-
net connections and the majority did not have access at work.

Personalisation Strategies in Knowledge Management in

Clinical Settings

In organisations that adopt personalisation or people-centric strategies in KM, col-

laboration, teamwork, mentoring, CoPs, and a more open learning-focused culture
are found. People and not technology are the focus and technology is adopted as an
enabler (Blunt 2001, 15). Many different personalisation approaches to KM exist in
hospitals. Oyetunde and Ayeni (2014) found that encouraging staff to attend work-
shops and conferences, providing training and career advancement opportunities,
and study leave for training were KM retention strategies employed by hospitals in
Lagos, Nigeria. This is in line with the work of Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), who
noted that tacit knowledge is externalised during workshops which incorporate
presentations, lectures, discussions and demonstrations through which knowledge
is externalised.
Gordon, Deland, and Kelly (2015) discovered that good communication among
care team members in a hospital is a strategy for sharing effectively knowledge
of best practices of patient care and treatment, and Kanerva, Kivinen, and Lam-
mintakanen’s (2015) findings showed that effective communication existed among
healthcare professionals in psychiatric hospitals, and that it was beneficial to
knowledge creation and sharing among healthcare professionals. Communication
takes many forms including speech, signs, nonverbal gestures, and documents.
 19 Knowledge Management Strategies in Clinical Settings, Southwest Nigeria 303

Good communication is highly valued in hospitals where clinical information in

different formats must be passed from one health professional to another to ensure
successful patient care and treatment. Communication is from senior professionals
to junior professionals and vice versa, and from one disciplinary team member
to another. Effective communication positively impacts on team interaction, the
sharing of clinical knowledge, and job efficiency. Gordon, Deland, and Kelly (2015)
found that communication among care team members in a hospital is a strategy to
share knowledge or information effectively to have better understandings about
patient care, treatment and other needs.
According to the Institute for Healthcare Communication (2011), communica-
tion among healthcare professionals impacts on the quality of working interaction,
job satisfaction and healthcare service delivery. Similarly, Gooch (2016) noted that
effective communication within hospitals promotes the development and sustain-
ability of a culture of safety. A culture of safety in a psychiatric hospital is all about
accurate dissemination of the right information and knowledge among therapy
team members and patients at the right time which will reduce medical errors.
Collaborative technologies are often deployed in hospitals to foster effective com-
munication among healthcare professionals.
CoPs may be real or virtual. Anthony et al. (2009) stated that CoPs become
virtual when the mode of interaction uses primarily ICT without community
members physically congregating for meetings or discussions. According to Ahmed
and Akram (2011, 49), unlike teams, membership in CoPs is voluntary according to
an individual’s interest in the topic and association with the community. The focus
is on collaboration for improved learning and sharing of best practices without
limitations by barriers of distance. Effective collaboration is the hallmark of quality
mental health care service delivery. Guptill (2005, 11) identified CoPs as one of the
five major components of knowledge management in health care. Lathlean and
Le May (2002) and Gabbay and Le May (2004) noted that CoPs foster the sharing
of clinical evidence and new knowledge among the multidisciplinary healthcare
professionals who are community members, and leverage on their tacit knowledge
base. Similarly, the findings of Higginson, Walters, and Fulop (2012) confirmed
the existence of mortality and morbidity meetings and case presentations as KM
strategies established for clinical reviews and sharing of clinical practices updates.
Ikeazota concluded that

The use of communities of practice is to facilitate quality improvements, provide some process
support, coaching and logistic assistance, and generate high levels of satisfaction on the job
and knowledge translation among participants. Communities of practice may take time to
maintain, but the benefits of them far outweigh the challenges (2016, 356).
304 Oluyemi Folorunso Ayanbode and Williams E. Nwagwu

El Morr and Subercaze (2010, 500) noted that in hospitals, medical professionals’
continuing practice is dependent on ongoing education to update their knowledge.
Evidence based practice is aimed at integrating clinical professionals’ expertise and
the best external evidence available in research. The findings of a study by Foster et
al. (2016, 6) on physician decision making in benign and malignant breast disease
management showed that multidisciplinary case conferences had a significant
impact on physician decision making. Case conference meetings are an indispens-
able KM strategy used in all hospitals. A case study of a patient presented by a team
of experts in anonymity exchanges and generates clinical information, knowledge,
and best practices among professional colleagues. It incorporates storytelling and
conversation modes of experientially based knowledge sharing. Wenger, McDer-
mott, and Snyder’s (2002) community of practice theory applies in psychiatric hos-
pital settings where experts physically congregated for meetings to share clinical
stories through interactive face-to-face meetings relaying responses of patients to
treatment, along with complications that arose and how they were resolved. The
socialisation process of knowledge conversion is enhanced during participation in
case conference meetings. Experiences and expertise shared during such meetings
are highly beneficial to less experienced professional colleagues for reuse in the
future.
Kalid and Mahmood (2010) noted that experientially based knowledge is an
invaluable asset which can be shared through storytelling. In psychiatric hospitals,
other types of formal meetings like consultants’ ward rounds are means of sharing,
transferring and creation of new ideas, insights and experience. Knowledge experts
are often referred to as knowledge specialists or subject matter experts. They are
people grounded in their specialisations and are individuals from whom knowl-
edge can be elicited. Knowledge experts are found in all departments in the hospi-
tal and might be external to the hospital.
Chigada (2014) found that use of subject matter experts was the most vital
strategy for safeguarding knowledge; Gatero (2010) found that medical profession-
als at Kenyatta National Hospital regularly consulted experienced professional col-
leagues for clinical insights and knowledge and that the practice promoted coach-
ing and mentorship for continuing professional development. Steffen (2016) also
noted that use of knowledge specialists or experts is a strategy for knowledge cap-
turing and sharing. In psychiatric hospitals, knowledge experts or specialists are
regarded as human repositories of expertise, skills, insights and experiences. Their
knowledge is in the form of tacit knowledge. Such people are regularly consulted
in times of treatment complications and by less experienced staff to gain insights.
The consultation of knowledge experts is vital to the sharing and transfer of tacit
knowledge on which psychiatric hospitals depend.
 19 Knowledge Management Strategies in Clinical Settings, Southwest Nigeria 305

Resident doctors work with the consultants and learn in a practical way details
about effective diagnosis and treatment of patients. Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995,
63) confirmed that apprentices work with their masters and learn craftsmanship
not through language but through practical experiences. In psychiatric hospitals,
the residency programme for doctors and internship training for pharmacists, clin-
ical psychologists, social workers and occupational therapists adopt mentoring and
apprenticeship strategies of acquiring, sharing and transferring knowledge and
skills. According to Ylihärsilä (2007, 24), with time, the apprentice learns to work
independently and can have her or his own apprentices. Working in pairs could
also be considered mutual apprenticeship and is an effective form of transferring
knowledge through socialisation.
An effective knowledge sharing culture is collectivistic rather than individu-
alistic and staff must be motivated to participate. Asemahagn (2014, 6) found that
around 62% and 80% of health professionals in hospitals in Ethiopia agreed respec-
tively on the importance of internal and external motivation for effective knowl-
edge sharing practices among staff. A knowledge friendly culture enables effective
communication, openness, continuous learning, teamwork, and collaboration and
must be encouraged in psychiatric hospitals. Bordoloi and Islam (2012) found that
patient care teams existed in a large public hospital in Thailand and that physicians
attested to their positive impact on both healthcare delivery and knowledge sharing
among the team members. However, this differs from the finding in a university
setting by Mosha (2017, 215) who found that team building was limited among the
staff of the universities. Teaming is a common phenomenon in hospital settings
where expertise of professionals from different specialties is mutually deployed for
effective service delivery.
Albro (2011, 40) found that interdisciplinary collaboration provided an oppor-
tunity for gaining new insights and treatment practices.
A team building strategy is simply collaboration and there is an undeniable
relationship between collaboration and knowledge management. The practice is
in line with the findings of O’Daniel and Rosenstein (2008, 272) who noted that
collaboration among doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals not only
reduced medical errors, but also optimally fostered cross-fertilisation of knowl-
edge for continuous improvement in decision making. According to Abubakar et
al. (2017, 6), the relationship between collaboration and knowledge management
is direct, because collaboration is affected by the degree of bonding among team
members, which is also in line with the assertion of Chen, Elnaghi and Hatzakis
(2011, 4) who noted that collaborative interactions such as open dialogue, social
interaction and coactivity fostered knowledge creation.
The critical importance of HRM strategies in effective knowledge manage-
ment has been mentioned. Rewards and incentives are forms of motivation that
306 Oluyemi Folorunso Ayanbode and Williams E. Nwagwu

can foster optimisation of knowledge creation, sharing and retention processes.

When employees are motivated to conduct research, new knowledge is created,
and such knowledge becomes internalised. Retention policies must ensure that
staff are nurtured and motivated to remain working in an organisation and that
their knowledge is captured. The retention of competent employees is the retention
of knowledge. Employing a qualified and competent workforce and executing a
programme to retain employees are essential components of successful workforce
planning (Minnesota Hospital Association (2012, 1; Wamundila 2008). In a study of
employee retention in the healthcare sector in Hyderabad conducted by Kavita and
Matta (2013), while a plan to retain workers existed in the hospital, the retention
rate was highest among the paramedical staff. According to the authors, hospitals
are organisations that need 100% competency unlike other organisations.
Employees leaving the organisation take with them valuable knowledge and
expertise acquired through experience. There is a dire need to ensure a high
employee retention rate in hospitals. It becomes extremely taxing to replace a
skilled worker with one who has skills of the same order. Omotayo (2015) noted that
staff retention should be an important component of an organisation’s KM strategy
to avoid the loss of valuable tacit knowledge. Staff will inevitably retire, and their
tacit knowledge may remain untapped. Poole and Sheehan (2006) opine that retir-
ees should be re-engaged as consultants due to their knowledge of the workplace.
Wamundila and Ngulube (2011) stated that knowledge retention strategies include
education, training, CoPs, professional networks, documentation and use of appro-
priate technology to capture knowledge.

Undertaking the Study

The study’s objectives were to examine the codification and personalisation strate-
gies of TTMs in psychiatric hospitals in Southwest Nigeria. Two federal psychiatric
hospitals in Southwest Nigeria were purposively selected based on ease of access:
the Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Abeokuta, and the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hos-
pital, Yaba. The results would be used to assist hospital management in apprais-
ing its deployment of knowledge management strategies, and the establishment of
policies and best practice in codification and personalisation to trigger increased
innovation and productivity among staff, and improved patient care.
 19 Knowledge Management Strategies in Clinical Settings, Southwest Nigeria 307

Methodology

The study was conducted within both the positivist and constructivist paradigms,
and employed both quantitative and qualitative techniques with a descriptive
sample survey research design. Interviews were conducted to collect qualitative
data to corroborate the quantitative findings.

Participants in the Study

Two federal psychiatric hospitals in the Southwest Nigeria were purposively selected
based on ease of access. At the time of the study in 2017, the two hospitals had 2,632
employees, of which 990 were members of therapy teams including doctors, nurses,
nutritionists, clinical psychologists, social workers and occupational therapists. A
proportionate-to-size stratified sampling technique was used to select the sample of
496 TTMs participating in the study. The sample size of each stratum was proportion-
ate to the population size of the TTMs in the particular stratum (Table 19.1).

Table 19.1: Participants in the Study. NPH = Neuropsychiatric Hospital; FPH = Federal Neuropsychiatric
Hospital.

Categories of NPH Sample FPH Yaba Sample Total Sample Size

Respondents Abeokuta (A) size of (A) (B) size of (B)

Doctors 45 23 67 34 57
Nurses 338 169 400 200 369
Psychologists 6 3 18 9 12
Social Workers 10 5 22 11 16
Occupational therapists 37 19 40 20 39
Nutritionists 5 3 2 1 4
441 221 549 275 496

Data Collection

Data was collected through the use of a structured questionnaire. A 5-point Likert
scale was used to measure the variables, ranging from strongly agree (SA = 5), agree
(A = 4), undecided (U = 3), disagree (D = 2) to strongly disagree (SD = 1). For ease
of presentation and interpretation, responses given as SA and A were combined
to form A, and D and SD were combined to form D. The structured questionnaire
contained questions on the demographic characteristics of team members and the
308 Oluyemi Folorunso Ayanbode and Williams E. Nwagwu

KM strategies deployed in their hospitals. The questionnaire was pre-tested on

ten medical and para-medical professionals from the Community Mental Health
Hospital, Oke Ilewo, Abeokuta to refine it and subsequently distributed to 496
respondents. 283 responses were accurately completed and returned, constituting
a response rate of 57.06 per cent. The failure to complete the questionnaire and
the comparatively low response rate were due to the busy work schedule of the
participants.
A semi-structured interview was also used to collect data from four depart-
mental heads among the TTMs who took part from the two selected departments.
The interview guide was pre-tested on three members of staff selected from the
School of Psychiatric Nursing, Abeokuta.

The Respondents

One hundred and sixty-five, 58.3%, of the respondents were employees of NPH Aro
Abeokuta, while 118, 41.7%, were employees of FNPH Yaba Lagos. Members of the
teams were predominantly female and the rate of participation of females to males
was 2:1. The mean age of all respondents was 38.68 years, with 18.0% under 30
years, 35.0% aged 30–39 years, 34.6% aged 40–49 years, 11.3% aged 50–59 years,
and 1.1% over 59 years. The six main categories of the respondents were: doctors,
12.7%; nurses, 71.4%; occupational therapists, 7.1%; clinical psychologists, 3.9%;
social workers, 3.9%, and nutritionists, 1.1%. The mean number of years of expe-
rience was 10.55 years. Twenty-four point seven percent of the respondents had
under five years’ work experience; 34% had six to ten years of working experience;
20.9% had eleven to fifteen years; 9.5% had sixteen to twenty years; 6.7% twen-
ty-one to twenty-five years; 2.1% twenty-six to thirty years; 1.8% had thirty-one
to thirty-five years; and only one person, 0,4%, had more than thirty-five years of
experience.

The Results
Participants were asked to identify approaches to knowledge management that
existed in their hospitals and the results were categorised according to whether
they were technology-centric, also known as codification, or people-centric, using
personalisation approaches,
 19 Knowledge Management Strategies in Clinical Settings, Southwest Nigeria 309

Technology-Centric Approach or Codification

Table 19.2 identifies the various responses aligned with the technology-centric
approach. The strategies in use are listed along with the responses reported accord-
ing to A, agreed or strongly agreed, U undecided or D, disagreed or strongly dis-
agreed.

Table 19.2: Use of strategies related to a technology-centric approach (N=283).

Strategy A% U% D%

Computerised repositories of best practices of mental health 73.1 18.0 8.9

care services are maintained by my hospital
In my hospital, knowledge in documented form e.g. patient 70.0 14.8 15.2
case notes, is stored in hospital databases.
My hospital promotes access to research databases/knowl- 65.4 21.6 13.0
edge portals such as HINARI
Access to the Internet is provided by my hospital 17.3 19.1 63.6
My hospital manages its knowledge through the combined 74.2 15.9 9.9
harness of available technology and human intellectual
capability
In my hospital, information technologies are used to update 66.4 17.3 16.3
data.
In my hospital, information technologies are used to review 61.1 20.5 18.4
data
In my hospital, information technologies are used to facili- 61.2 19.7 19.1
tate communication among workers.

As seen in Table 19.2, most participants responded positively to confirm the exis-
tence of technology-centric approaches to KM in the psychiatric hospitals exam-
ined. The maintenance of computerised repositories of best practices of mental
health care services was confirmed by 73.1% with easy access to best practices for
reuse in the future. Patient case notes were routinely stored in hospital databases;
access to research databases and knowledge portals such as HINARI was provided.
ICT was used to update and review data and to facilitate communication among
workers. Knowledge captured mechanistically through the use of collaborative
technologies was being stored and made retrievable for future use and for genera-
tion of new insights, ideas and expertise. The exception was provision of access to
the Internet by the hospitals to which the majority, 63.6%, responded negatively.
In the psychiatric hospitals surveyed, it was observed that the majority of the
employees owned personal Internet connections through diverse modems and
access through cyber cafes. Internet access is crucial to retrieval of information or
knowledge about evidence based mental healthcare practices available in online
310 Oluyemi Folorunso Ayanbode and Williams E. Nwagwu

journals and electronic knowledge repositories like HINARI. Though the hospitals
provided access to electronic knowledge portals through subscriptions, the utility
of such knowledge portals is dependent on access to the Internet. The high cost of
owning personal connections will deter use and invariably affect knowledge man-
agement practices.
A high proportion, 74.2%, of the respondents, indicated that knowledge was
managed through the “combined harness of available technology and human
intellectual capability”, and demonstrated the dual existence of codification and
personalisation strategies within psychiatric hospitals in Southwest Nigeria. The
combined application of collaborative technologies and relevant human resource
management actions, including communities of practice, coaching, mentoring and
teamwork, had been adopted in psychiatric hospitals in Southwest Nigeria. The
nature of services being rendered may have dictated this indispensable combined
approach.

People-Centric Approach or Personalisation

Table 19.3 presents the responses of participants to strategies related to a peo-

ple-centric or personalised approach to knowledge management. The strategies are
listed along with the responses reported according to A, agreed or strongly agreed,
U, undecided or D, disagreed or strongly disagreed.

Table 19.3: Use of strategies related to a people-centric approach (N=283).

Strategy A% U% D%

Knowledge sharing to create new one [knowledge] is accept- 83.0 13.5 3.5
ed as part of services in my hospital
There is a culture intended to promote knowledge sharing in 73.2 17.0 9.8
my hospital
In my hospital, workers are rewarded for carrying out re- 41.4 33.1 25.5
search
In my hospital, workers are rewarded for sharing knowledge 41.4 32.8 25.8
In my hospital, activity such as knowledge acquisition is an 61.4 22.7 15.9
explicit criterion for assessing worker’s performance
My hospital regularly fosters effective working together with 74.6 17.0 9.4
colleagues as a process of knowledge management
My hospital uses strategic alliances with other hospitals to 61.9 22.2 15.9
acquire knowledge
My hospital encourages workers to participate in task inter- 74.9 17.0 8.1
dependence forum during which experts create insight that is
uniquely experience dependent
 19 Knowledge Management Strategies in Clinical Settings, Southwest Nigeria 311

Strategy A% U% D%

Team building approach for the purpose of knowledge shar- 77.7 14.5 7.8
ing exists in my hospital
There is regular organization of internal forums for knowl- 82.7 9.9 7.4
edge spreading
e.g. workshops
My hospital offers on-the-job training to workers in order to 81.3 9.5 9.2
keep skills current
Workers are sponsored to conferences where they acquire 64.3 18.0 17.7
knowledge
Research is regularly initiated in order that workers may 64.7 24.0 11.3
create new knowledge in the hospital
Journals club is a knowledge acquisition strategy available in 56.2 17.0 26.8
the hospital
Case conference meeting is knowledge management strategy 88.4 6.0 5.6
that exists in my hospital
In my hospital, experts are consulted as stores of knowledge 75.6 15.9 8.5
Experts form online groups of people who interact in on-going 55.1 26.9 18.0
bases in order to learn
Learning by practical experience exists in the hospital through 76.7 15.9 7.4
which personal expert insight that is experience dependent is
transferred
My hospital encourages experienced workers to transfer their 83.7 7.8 8.5
knowledge to less experienced workers
Policies intended to improve workers’ retention exist in my 60.8 23.7 15.5
hospital
Contractual appointment to retain experts exists in my hos- 55.9 21.8 22.3
pital
Consultancy services are often rendered by retired therapy 41.7 27.2 31.1
team members
There is effective communication among senior and junior 61.3 13.7 5.0
workers in my hospital
There is effective communication among workers of the same 87.6 8.5 3.9
status in my hospital

In the two psychiatric hospitals surveyed, nine people-centric approaches or per-

sonalisation strategies to knowledge management were found to be extensively put
to use and the results depicted in Table 3 show that most respondents were positive
to the majority of the statements on the people-centric strategies for KM available
in their hospitals.
A negative finding was that less than half, 41.4%, of the respondents indicated
that workers were rewarded both for carrying out research and for sharing knowl-
edge. Rewards and incentives were not extensively deployed. A further result of
312 Oluyemi Folorunso Ayanbode and Williams E. Nwagwu

less than half of the responses was that 41.7% indicated that consultancy services
were often rendered by retired therapy team members.
A large percentage, 83%, of the respondents indicated that knowledge sharing
was accepted as part of the services in their hospital and strongly suggests the exis-
tence of a knowledge sharing culture. Seventy-seven point seven per cent of the
respondents indicated that a team building approach for the purpose of knowl-
edge sharing existed in their hospital, strongly supporting the existence of good
collaboration. The high proportion, 82.7% indicating regular organisation of inter-
nal forums and workshops for knowledge spreading along with 81.3% agreeing
that on the job training was offered to workers to keep skills current suggest the
existence of effective CoPs, good human resource management and appropriate
training. The strategy receiving the highest support from respondents, 88.4%, was
the case conference meeting. Just over 55.1% indicated that experts formed online
groups to learn. Communities of practice and internal meetings and forums exist
both face-to-face and virtually in psychiatric hospitals in Southwest Nigeria. A high
proportion, 74.6%, agreed that the hospital regularly fostered effectively working
together with colleagues as a process of knowledge management. The interdisci-
plinary collaboration was aimed at harnessing the expertise of all professionals
and working together was seen as a useful means of achieving effective knowledge
creation, sharing and retention.
Consultation of experts as stores of knowledge was a regular practice with
75.6% agreement, and 76.7% agreed that learning by practical experience from
insights of personal experts was undertaken. Eighty-three point seven percent
agreed that the hospital encouraged experienced workers to transfer their knowl-
edge to less experienced workers with tacit knowledge shared and transferred
through apprenticeship and mentorship. Apprenticeship and mentorship were KM
strategies found to be in place.
Support was given to the existence of policies intended to improve workers’
retention with 60.8%. The policies included sponsorship for conference, seminar
and workshop attendance, on the job training, career development programmes,
knowledge transfer initiatives, succession planning, knowledge repositories of best
practice, contractual appointments, mentorship/ apprenticeships, coaching, pro-
motion of task interdependence forums, enhancement of effective communication,
rewards or incentives for carrying out research and accessing consultancy services
as needed; 87.6% agreed that there was effective communication among workers.
 19 Knowledge Management Strategies in Clinical Settings, Southwest Nigeria 313

The Interviews

Interviews were undertaken as part of the study and revealed the importance of
collaboration and teamwork in psychiatric hospitals. All the respondents confirmed
that working as members of a team resulted in useful exchanges of ideas across
disciplines and emphasised its importance. With teamwork, no single person was
responsible for the treatment of a patient; collaborative efforts and an interplay
of multidisciplinary skills were involved, with expertise and information shared
and new knowledge created. In psychiatric hospitals, every member of the therapy
team is an expert who has his or her own knowledge to offer with the opportunity
for cross-fertilisation of ideas.
The interviews revealed the significance of formal meetings in psychiatric hos-
pitals and established that monthly departmental briefings, elders’ forums, clinical
meetings, monthly nursing teaching forums, residency training, consultant ward
rounds, consultant reviews, nursing care plans, slip charts, case conferences, jour-
nals clubs, psychotherapy classes, continuing education programmes every Wednes-
days, and research classes were all held and led to knowledge creation, sharing,
transfer and retention strategies in psychiatric hospitals in Southwest Nigeria. The
various meetings triggered discussion on topics of interest and exchanges of knowl-
edge on issues related to patients’ treatment and other best practices.
Findings from the interviews revealed the significance of communication to
KM. Information shared about a patient’s treatment response or reaction to medi-
cation would result in the acquisition of new insights. Communication in clear and
understandable language was considered essential to both day-to-day operations
of professionals and knowledge creation and sharing. Clinical services were seen
to be the embodiment of communication, both oral and written, horizontally and
vertically, to share vital information needed to make informed decisions and to
take immediate necessary actions. Good communication was regarded as vital to
enabling knowledge management.

Conclusion
The results of the survey of psychiatric hospitals in Southwest Nigeria indicated
that they deployed codification and personalisation approaches to knowledge man-
agement extensively. The strategies in play related to both codification and per-
sonalisation and included building or consulting computerised repositories of best
practices of mental healthcare services, provision of access to research databases
and knowledge portals such as HINARI, use of information technologies for update
314 Oluyemi Folorunso Ayanbode and Williams E. Nwagwu

and review of data, documentation, mentorship, coaching, apprenticeship, com-

munication, team building, workshops, seminars, on the job training, case confer-
ences, research group meetings, consultant ward rounds, monthly departmental
briefings, elders’ forums, clinical meetings, monthly nursing teaching forums, res-
idency training, consultant reviews, nursing care plans, slip charts, psychotherapy
classes, continuing education programmes every Wednesday, employee retention
policies, consultation of knowledge experts and communities of practice.
It was evident that most strategies were embedded in the everyday activities of
members of the therapy teams and that they had adopted high levels of profession-
alism in mental healthcare with constant involvement in the various activities. The
results indicated that members of the therapy teams valued the personalisation
approach to knowledge creation, sharing, transfer and retention. Many of the KM
strategies in use were people-centric rather than technology-centric. The people
involved seemed to have cravings for face-to-face interactions or social interaction
to exchange medical information or knowledge, most of which is tacit in nature.
Limitations in practices in the psychiatric hospitals emerged from the study.
There were no reward or incentive strategies in place; consultancy services by
retired therapy team members were not apparent; provision of Internet access by
the hospitals was extremely limited. The management of psychiatric hospital needs
to focus on establishing supportive policies in these areas to trigger further innova-
tion and productivity within the therapy teams, and ultimately to improve patient
care and treatment. Both the background literature and the survey revealed that
rewards or incentives, training, supportive technological infrastructure, a knowl-
edge friendly culture, leadership support, good human resource management,
mentorship, apprenticeship, electronic repositories of knowledge, communities
of practice and specialised competencies are required to facilitate knowledge cre-
ation, sharing, transfer and retention in psychiatric hospitals.
All members of the therapy teams engaged in knowledge creation, sharing,
transfer and retention. The future focus must be on the provision of adequate infra-
structure and an enabling environment to optimise effective implementation of
knowledge management initiatives. Further sponsorship of workshops and confer-
ence and seminar attendance, at both local and international level to increase KM
competence should be the priority for hospital management. Regular intervention
must trigger the application of KM practices in the hospitals.
Codification and personalisation approaches to knowledge management were
found to be practised in the hospitals. Personalisation is invaluable to tacit knowl-
edge creation and sharing, but codification must also be encouraged and imple-
mented and ICT applied effectively. Hislop (2013, 207) recommends the codification
of knowledge so that it can be transferred and shared among people through ICT.
It is imperative that structured policies incorporating all stakeholders in mental
 19 Knowledge Management Strategies in Clinical Settings, Southwest Nigeria 315

healthcare services be put in place to ensure adequate provision of Internet access

and reward initiatives for creating and sharing knowledge.

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Tom Kwanya
20 F rom Collections to Connections:
Transforming Libraries to Knowledge
Centres
Abstract: The environment in which libraries operate has changed radically. Many
empirical studies have confirmed that libraries all over the world are losing their
crowns as premier information service providers. Libraries have responded to
threats by espousing diverse information services and products. Many responses
have concentrated on how to improve the content of, and access to, collections. This
chapter argues that libraries will thrive by transforming themselves into knowl-
edge centres anchored on conversations facilitated by multifaceted connections.
The topics discussed include the nature and trends of changes faced by libraries;
the role and place of library collections in the emerging information universe; and
how libraries can be transformed into knowledge centres through multidimen-
sional connections and conversations. New models that libraries may consider
using to become centres of knowledge-laden conversations are presented. Argu-
ments for a new order are developed using evidence and facts from the literature
to make the case for libraries to shift their focus from static collections to dynamic
and conversation-enabling connections.

Keywords: Instructional materials centres; Digital libraries; Libraries – Automa-

tion; Librarians – Effect of technology on; Apomediation

Introduction
Conversations about the future of libraries are ongoing. Many facets of the library
as an institution and service provider are under scrutiny. One dominant theme
in the discussions is the fading image of the library as the centre of the informa-
tion universe. In the words of Chad and Miller, the “library’s information provider
crown is slipping” (2005, 4). Although the symbolical fall of the library from grace
to grass has been misunderstood and exaggerated (Chad and Miller 2005), there
are many competitors seeking to inherit its crown. Many people hold the view that
techno-based information platforms exemplified by Google, have angled to dis-
lodge the library from its coveted position. However, MacColl (2006) has argued
that the perceived competition between libraries and search engines like Google, is
misplaced because both facilities serve different purposes. He contends that Google
is a universal search facility providing information which people ordinarily do not
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-022
 20 From Collections to Connections: Transforming Libraries to Knowledge Centres 321

seek from libraries. Robinson (2008) echoed this view and explained that libraries
need not get into competition with Google. Conversely, they should rethink their
service models and value propositions.
According to Watstein and Mitchell (2006), there has been evident change
in the interests, behaviours, habits and expectations of modern library users.
Vårheim, Steinmo, and Ide (2008) noted that many library users in the new mil-
lennium appreciate libraries as places where people meet and find help. In this
view, the collection of a library is of secondary interest to the users. Lankes, Sil-
verstein, and Nicholson (2007) explained that unfortunately libraries have been
evaluated through numeric counts of collection size and how effectively collections
have circulated. In the emerging information landscape, this focus is unlikely to
yield appropriate benefit to the users. According to Maness (2006), libraries are
facilities of community service which should not change with the community but
allow communities to change them. Anderson (2011) stated that libraries ought to
focus on improving their services rather than trying to change their users. Criti-
cally, libraries should not just deal with individual needs, but enable communities
to seek, find and use knowledge. Noh (2015) envisioned the library of the future
as having infinite creative spaces anchored on social informatics. Users of such
libraries interact with each other and the librarians to create services and products
which add value to the whole community (Maness 2006).
Libraries could do better by focusing on activities which bring members of its
user community to interact socially and collaboratively to confront personal and
organisational challenges (Aabø and Audunson 2012). The library can be the third
place, after home and work, where people meet regularly to socialise and share.
Users meeting in physical and virtual library spaces participate in diverse conver-
sations and activities depending on their needs and interests, oscillate between high
and low intensity activities, and float between diverse profiles of student, family
member, friend, neighbour, and citizen, all at the same time (Aabø and Audunson
2012). Massis (2011) proposed the adoption of joint-use library models as a means
of maximising the benefits of libraries to communities. Libraries should facilitate
the creation of real-life knowledge such as how to survive a natural disaster in spe-
cific communities (Hagar 2015), or respond to crises (Stenstrom, Cole, and Hanson
2019). Libraries can create social trust in communities (Ebrahimi and Najmi 2013).
Mose and Mose (2021) underscore the variability in the profiles of library users.
Focusing on the needs of retirees, they explain that libraries should strive to offer
something for everyone, not everything for just a few. Neglected potential users of
libraries are people who are new in a community (Kumaran 2009), as well as vul-
nerable populations, like the homeless (Dennis, Abbott, and Sell 2020; Stenstrom,
Cole, and Hanson 2019).
322 Tom Kwanya

The foregoing arguments provide evidence that for the library to reinvent and
assert itself in the new information universe, it must shift its focus from collections.
This view is informed by the understanding that information collections are avail-
able from alternative sources, including online services like Google. It is the thesis
of this chapter that libraries must transform themselves into knowledge centres to
be relevant for modern and future user communities. Since knowledge is created
and shared through conversations, libraries in the knowledge age must facilitate
conversations which may span millennia or be short-lived (Lankes, Silverstein,
and Nicholson 2007). Librarians must not only facilitate conversations, but collect,
manage and disseminate conversations through programmes such as reference
interviews or speaker series.
What is a conversation? A conversation is an exchange of thoughts and ideas
between people. Conversations happen when people interact and collaborate with
each other to share experiences on specific issues of mutual interest. Conversations
are one of the most natural and universal means of exchanging knowledge. Conver-
sations occur between two or more people but can also occur within an individual
(Lankes, Silverstein, and Nicholson 2007). Conversation parties can be individuals,
companies, groups, or states. Librarians do not have to arbitrate the conversations.
As apomediaries, librarians step in only when needed to enhance the conversa-
tions (Kwanya, Stilwell, and Underwood 2013). Libraries, both physical and virtual,
should be environments which are conducive to conversations among their com-
munities of users. The environments should be safe, comfortable, and transparent
(Kwanya, Stilwell, and Underwood 2015; Lankes, Silverstein, and Nicholson 2007).
Such environments stimulate the creation of participatory networks of users which
harness the powers of wisdom of the crowd, folksonomies, mashups, permanent
betas, and open catalogues, enabling tagging and annotations and ultimately giving
birth to participatory librarianship characterised by conversation-based program-
ming (Johnston 2016; Johnston 2018). Librarians can participate through social
media with users through listening, participation, transparency, policy, and strat-
egy, and libraries can become places where conversations are happening (Schrier
2011).

Library Collections
Lee (2000) describes a library collection as the accumulation of information
resources created by an information professional to meet the information needs of
a user community. It is the sum total of all information holdings of a library. Accord-
ing to Okolo et al. (2019), a facility is named a library because it holds a collection
 20 From Collections to Connections: Transforming Libraries to Knowledge Centres 323

of information resources which are useful to specific users. Levine-Clark (2014)

states that the definition of the term library carries with it the connotation of a col-
lection of books. The term library emerged from the Latin word liber which means
book. To many people, libraries are about collecting, organising and disseminating
books. Okolo et al. (2019) argue that librarianship, developed as a profession from
the need for people with specialised skills to manage library collections. Nwosu and
Udo-Anyanwu (2015) assert that regardless of the beauty of its buildings, exper-
tise of its staff, and quality of services it offers, a facility cannot be called a library
without any collections. All library services, products and spaces are considered
subservient to collections in the minds of many librarians and library users. To
them, the library is fundamentally about information collections regardless of their
format. Okolo et al. (2019) assert that collections are the heartbeat of the library.
According to Buckland (1989), library collections serve four major roles: pres-
ervation of information materials for current and future use; providing convenient
access to and dispensing of information resources; identifying and locating doc-
uments through appropriate bibliographic descriptions, systems and tools; and
enhancing the symbolic status and prestige of the parent institution as a citadel of
scholarship. Libraries have boasted about the size of their collections: the bigger
the collection the greater the prestige (Jones 2007). Institutions, especially aca-
demic ones, invested considerable resources in building their library collections as
a means of attracting funding, students and staff. Tucker and Torrence (2004) state
that collection development is one of the key performance or competency areas
in librarianship and involves identifying the information needs of library users;
selecting information materials which in the opinion of the librarian are able to
satisfy the information needs of the users; and acquiring the selected materials. Lee
(2005) points out that, traditionally, collection development has not meaningfully
involved library users. Librarians created and controlled collections with minimal
input from users. Even when users made suggestions, the final decision for pur-
chase was with the librarian and based on many considerations key among which
was the available budget.
Over the years, the formats of information resources have changed drastically.
But the collection development process has remained the same (Gregory 2019). Lee
(2005) argues that in the traditional sense, a library’s collection ought to be stable
and freelyaccessible but dynamic and ephemeral information sources on the Inter-
net are considered unsuitable for collection by libraries. One of the significant ele-
ments of collection development involves preservation of the collection as a means
of making it permanent. Traditionally only materials selected and processed by
the librarians were considered part of the collection. However, Levine-Clark (2014)
argues that libraries need to be information-rich, just like Google or Amazon, and
able to give their users prompt access to anything they need. “If Amazon.com can
324 Tom Kwanya

supply the unusual book they want, why can’t the local public library?” (Gregory
2019, 5). “[I]t seems highly likely that the very idea of the ‘collection’ will be over-
hauled if not obviated over the next ten years, in favour of more dynamic access to
a virtually unlimited flow of information products” (Anderson 2011, 215), Regard-
less of the collection approach applied, Lee (2005) argues that modern library users
need user‐centred and flexible collections rather than library‐centred and fixed
collections. Modern collections must include dynamic content such as streaming
media and online videos (Gregory 2019).
Another pertinent issue about library collections is the concept of ownership.
In the past, libraries purchased and owned their collections (Levine-Clark 2014).
This view echoes Lee (2000) who argued that in the traditional sense, a library col-
lection was tangible, owned and stored in a specific location or space. Remotely
accessed resources not stored directly in library systems were not perceived as
being part of its collection. The ownership model has changed as libraries opt for
licences to access and lease materials, and purchase relevant materials anchored
on a demand driven access model (Albitz, Avery, and Zabel 2014). Library consortia
have emerged to facilitate federated collection development approaches based on
sharing of resources. Besides cost considerations, Connell (2010) has argued that
libraries should also be concerned about environmental issues associated with
maintaining physical resources and work to reduce their carbon footprint. One
obvious way of achieving this is by reducing the volume of print collections. In
the digital era, the librarian selects sources and does not necessarily have to house
them physically onsite, which is an excellent way of addressing environmental con-
cerns exemplified by climate change and global warming (Gregory 2019).
Dempsey, Malpas, and Lavoie (2014) argue that dominant collection develop-
ment approaches used by libraries focus on obtaining information resources from
outside the library into the library community with minimal efforts to take content
from the library community to the outside world. Libraries are able to enhance the
image and prestige of their institutions, especially in academic settings, by increas-
ing the volume, variety and visibility of content their users contribute to the outside
world. Libraries can facilitate user-generated content creation and sharing through
social networking. Gregory (2019) asserts that librarians ought to become more
active in the creation, maintenance, and promotion of locally-created content. As
social institutions, libraries should find it natural to become involved in the social
networking movement as a means of enhancing content generation by their user
communities.
Although the library will continue to be associated with collections in the digital
age, the understanding of the concept of what constitutes a library collection will
take on a radically different meaning (Levine-Clark 2014). The collection will com-
prise anything and everything that the library identifies as able to meet the needs
 20 From Collections to Connections: Transforming Libraries to Knowledge Centres 325

of its community. Such collections will be built to facilitate discovery of knowledge

and will be as broad as possible (Finch and Flenner 2017). Anderson (2011) pre-
dicted that by 2021, most libraries would still have traditional collections, but their
value would be minimal because libraries would be unable to meet the changing
information needs of library patrons with static preselected information sources.
Future users would require a constant flow of real-time information impossible to
anticipate by either librarians or users.
Many scholars and practitioners (Blume 2019; Crawford et al. 2020; Hallam,
Reel, and Heisserer-Miller 2021; Levenson and Hess 2020; Morris and Presnell 2019;
Mwilongo, Luambano, and Lwehabura 2020) recommend “just in time” instead of
“just in case” approaches to collection development. While the former is flexible,
user-centred and cost-effective, the latter is rigid, costly and controlled by librari-
ans. By applying the just in time collection development approach, libraries have a
higher chance of providing access to the widest yet most relevant range of informa-
tion resources covering diverse perspectives on the interests of their communities.
Various concerns about library collections emerge from the foregoing perspec-
tives. One is the understanding of what constitutes a library collection. It is evident
from the literature reviewed that library collections traditionally were expected
to be stable or static information resources. Such a rigid view is untenable in
the digital era where dynamic information can be generated and shared in real
time. There must be a shift to information sources which can sustainably meet the
ever-changing information needs of users. Another concern relates to the collection
development process. While some changes are occurring, collection development
remains controlled by librarians. User input remains in most circumstances limited
to mere suggestions which are weighed against other considerations. User involve-
ment continues to be peripheral in the collection development process however
progressive the approach is. Significantly, collection development has focused on
external acquisition with little emphasis on creating and exposing internally-cre-
ated content. The impact of libraries and their parent institutions is limited; they
consume more content than they produce. This chapter argues that libraries should
shift their focus from building collections to building connections which can trans-
form them into knowledge centres and subsequently overcome the limitations.

Knowledge Centres
Knowledge centres are “the repositories of the intellect of ages stored in the form of
recorded information for use of present and future generations to come” (Mansur
2012, 166). A knowledge centre is a knowledge integration system and corrobora-
326 Tom Kwanya

tion engine designed to facilitate an evolving multi-disciplinary dialog leading to

new insights and discoveries and to bring the benefits of collective wisdom to the
organisation’s decisions (Mohanavel and Ravindran 2010, 1) . The systems contain
the collective wisdom of the organisation, community or society. Paulussen (2012)
regards a knowledge centre as a specialised centre facilitating the creation, organ-
isation, sharing, use and preservation of information on a specialised theme or a
related set of themes. Guntuku et al. (2011) assert that a facility can only be consid-
ered a knowledge centre if it translates information into knowledge. Subramanian
and Arivanandan (2009) argue that knowledge centres do not have to be anchored
on technology. They explain that in rural communities, a knowledge centre can be
used to share tacit knowledge such as indigenous farming techniques or skills on
how to prepare indigenous cuisine.
There is considerable literature on knowledge centres aimed at preserving
Indigenous knowledge with many of the centres located in remote rural areas all
over the world. The culture and languages of many Indigenous communities around
the world are threatened with extinction and indigenous knowledge centres have
been created in many communities to help preserve unique indigenous knowledge
(Stevens 2008). Ngulube (2002) highlighted the use of specialised resource centres
to preserve Indigenous knowledge in eastern and southern Africa. Sillitoe and
Marzano (2009) state that knowledge centres support research on diverse aspects
of Indigenous knowledge, including its place in and contribution to socioeconomic
development. Owusu-Ansah and Mji (2013) echo the view and urge Indigenous
people to add their voices to global issues through Indigenous knowledge research.
In this chapter, a knowledge centre is defined as a physical or virtual space
where people interact to share both tacit and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge
is defined as the intangible but highly valuable knowledge resident in people’s
talents and experiences. Explicit knowledge, on the other hand, is defined as cod-
ified knowledge which is available in documents and artefacts. Tacit knowledge
exchange requires the presence and interaction with the people who hold the
knowledge. Explicit knowledge can be shared through information-bearing docu-
ments such as papers, books, and manuals. Knowledge centres can provide either
general or specialised knowledge or both. Knowledge centres can be set up in spe-
cific geocultural contexts which influence their structure, services and products.
The aim of a knowledge centre is to facilitate the creation or collection, organisa-
tion, sharing or diffusion, use and perpetuation of knowledge which is considered
valuable in a given context. Characteristics of knowledge centres are summarised
in Table 20.1.
 20 From Collections to Connections: Transforming Libraries to Knowledge Centres 327

Table 20.1: Characteristics of knowledge centres.

Description Characteristics

Place or location Physico-virtual

Composition Networked knowledge sources
Structure Flexible, mashups
Products Collective wisdom
Services Connections
Activities Conversations
Geocultural setting Contextualised
Orientation User-centred, user-driven
Role of intermediaries Apomediation
Environment Mutually safe, collaborative

Libraries as Knowledge Centres

That there is a close relationship between libraries and knowledge centres is not in
doubt. Lawrence (2007) describes a knowledge centre as a specialised facility in a
library. Servin and De Brún ask and answer the question:

What is a knowledge centre? In short, an enhanced version of a library. The “enhancement”

lies in a wider focus on knowledge as well as on information: a knowledge centre typically
provides a focus for collecting, organising and disseminating both knowledge and informa-
tion. This does not necessarily mean that the knowledge centre will actually perform all of
these activities itself. Rather, it will create a framework and provide leadership, co-ordination,
guidance and expertise (Servin and De Brún 2005, 34).

India’s National Knowledge Commission (2007) perceives knowledge centres as

part of libraries which, in addition to other roles, facilitate learning. Nakata et al.
(2007) and Pilot (2005) argue that knowledge centres are part of libraries, particu-
larly in public library settings.
Libraries can serve as knowledge centres but there are differences between
the two; transformation on several fronts must occur for libraries to become effec-
tive knowledge centres. Table 20.2 contrasts and compares libraries with knowl-
edge centres.
328 Tom Kwanya

Table 20.2: Contrasting and comparing libraries and knowledge centres.

Description Knowledge centres Libraries

Place or location Physico-virtual Physico-virtual

Composition Networked knowledge sources Information resources
Structure Flexible, mash-ups Clear boundaries
Products Collective wisdom Collected information
Services Connections Collections
Activities Conversations Reading
Geocultural setting Contextualised Generalised
Orientation User-centred, user-driven Librarian-driven
Role of intermediaries Apomediation Intermediation
Environment Mutually safe, collaborative Competitive

Libraries manage information resources. Library collections are composed of phys-

ical and digital information resources which patrons use to meet diverse infor-
mation needs whilst knowledge centres hold a network of knowledge sources. It
is important to note that original, tacit knowledge resides in people. If libraries
focus solely on information resources which hold explicit knowledge, they miss
the opportunity to facilitate the sharing, use and validation of the rare yet valuable
tacit knowledge. If one accepts the estimate that tacit knowledge comprises over
70% of global human knowledge, a focus on explicit knowledge omits a significant
portion of knowledge.
In terms of structure, libraries are clearly demarcated in terms of roles and
processes and use various protocols to ensure order and minimise conflicts. In
knowledge centres, it is not easy to point out clear roles and protocols because
knowledge flows in multiple pathways where library patrons play both producer
and consumer roles interchangeably. Each activity and its role cannot be prede-
termined but created instantly at the point of use. Libraries tend to be keen on
maintaining order and control over what both patrons and librarians can do in
the library or with library resources. Knowledge however thrives in flexible and
less controlled ecosystems through unanticipated, serendipitous innovation and
creativity.
While knowledge centres trade in collective wisdom, the currency in library
engagements is information. In knowledge centres, the community of users collab-
oratively creates knowledge and transform information to knowledge by applying
it to real life scenarios. Over time, knowledge is transformed into wisdom through
extensive application to solve both practical and philosophical challenges in the
environment. In libraries, individuals create knowledge, and most libraries are
configured to support individual work. Even when group work is facilitated, the
 20 From Collections to Connections: Transforming Libraries to Knowledge Centres 329

groups are often short-term and normally do not last long enough to generate
wisdom. In knowledge centres, however, knowledge is created collaboratively, con-
tinuously and sustainably, and translated into wisdom with continual use.
Libraries frequently prioritise collections. As already noted, many libraries
boast about the volume and variety of their collections. Rich collections are indeed
valuable but physical and documentary collections can be repositories of static and
dated information. Knowledge centres, on the other hand, recognise that important
knowledge resides in people and prioritise linking to people who make connections
and hold conversations. While library patrons spend time reading the collection,
knowledge centre users interact, learn and share.
Knowledge centres empower communities to support each other thereby
enhancing capacity to serve members in the long tail. Libraries are interested
in meeting the needs of the majority and are constrained by resource, time and
human limitations to address patrons in the long tail. Libraries rely on librarians
to drive the information agenda whereas knowledge centres are not only user-cen-
tred, but also user-driven. Librarians act as infomediaries linking users with the
information they need; knowledge centres apply apomediation where members of
the community are empowered to self-serve while also serving each other. Librar-
ians working as apomediaries in knowledge centres play an indirect, subtle, sup-
portive role at the point of need (Kwanya, Stilwell, and Underwood 2014; Nakitare
et al. 2020).

Sources of Knowledge
There are several sources of tacit and explicit knowledge. Libraries can be true
knowledge centres only if they can manage both. Major sources of knowledge are
instinct, intuition, perception, reason, memory, testimony, introspection, observa-
tion, authority, and faith, dreams and visions.

Instinct

Instinct is a way of behaving, feeling or thinking which is not learned. It is a natural

ability and something one knows without learning. It is inherited and unalterable;
an inborn pattern of behaviour, a powerful motivation or impact (Lighthall 1930).
Any behaviour is deemed instinctive if it is not based on prior experience. One
example of instinctive behaviour is how a new-born child learns to suckle the
mother’s breasts (Birchley 2015). Instinct is a unique source of tacit knowledge.
330 Tom Kwanya

Intuition

Knowledge can be obtained without the use of rational processes. Intuition enables
people to obtain knowledge without reasoning or perception through the senses.
Intuition is the power of understanding something without thinking and resembles
a feeling. People might say something like “I have a feeling he is not telling the truth”
without being sure of why. Intuition provides people with views, understandings,
judgements, or beliefs that they cannot in every case verify empirically or justify
rationally (Shapiro and Spence 1997). Intuition is a natural ability or power that
makes it possible to know something without proof or evidence and a feeling that
guides a person to act a certain way without fully understanding why. Intuition is
an original, independent source of tacit knowledge, and is credited with unique
kinds of knowledge that other sources do not provide (Hales 2012; Smith 2009).

Perception

Knowledge can be perceived through human sense organs of touch, sight, hearing,
smell and taste. Human beings are constantly using their senses to explore and
perceive their environment. Some schools of thought opine that experience and
perception are the primary sources of both tacit and explicit knowledge. People
learn that candy is sweet, and so are sugar and jam, while lemons and onions are
not. The sun is bright and blinding. Glowing coals in the fireplace are beautiful if
you do not touch them. Sounds soothe, warn, or frighten. Through millions of single
sense events people build a fabric of empirical information which helps them to
interpret, survive in, and control the world about them (Cassam 2008; Pillow 1989).

Reasoning

Knowledge can be obtained through reasoning by deducing facts from existing

knowledge or discovering new truths. Reasoning enables people to collect facts,
generalise about issues, unravel cause and effect relationships, and draw conclu-
sions, propositions and proofs; reasoning is a source of explicit knowledge.

Memory

Knowledge can be obtained from memory, which is a means of knowing what hap-
pened in the past. History influences the future, and memory serves as a source of
 20 From Collections to Connections: Transforming Libraries to Knowledge Centres 331

knowledge which can be applied in the present and into the future (Tulving 1989).
Some philosophers are of the view that memory stores previous knowledge but
does not produce any new knowledge. Others consider that memory can produce
new knowledge when historical data is applied in a new environment and assigned
a new meaning. Memory is a source of explicit knowledge but when it is undocu-
mented, it is a source of tacit knowledge.

Testimony

Knowledge can be obtained from the experiences and testimonies of others (Coady
1992). Asking a person the time, and receiving an answer, is an example of coming
to know something on the basis of testimony. Learning about happenings in distant
lands by reading a newspaper is an example of acquiring knowledge on the basis
of testimony. The credibility of testimony as a source of knowledge is dependent on
whether it comes from a reliable source. Testimony can be a source of both tacit
and explicit knowledge.

Introspection

Introspection is knowledge of oneself obtained through personal self-evaluation.

Introspection is the capacity to inspect, metaphorically speaking, the inside of one’s
mind. Introspection is closely related to self-reflection and is contrasted with exter-
nal observation. Through introspection, one knows what mental state one is in:
whether one is thirsty, tired, excited, or depressed (Spener 2015). Some philoso-
phers consider that introspection is less prone to error. Other scholars have argued
that introspection can be erroneous because human beings sometimes do not
understand themselves fully (Smithies 2013). When appropriately applied, intro-
spection is an invaluable source of tacit knowledge.

Observation

People can obtain knowledge by observing phenomena or how things are done.
Observation provides both tacit and explicit knowledge without manipulation (Van
Lent and Laird 2001). People can be passive or active observers of phenomena or
events which influences the quality of knowledge they obtain.
332 Tom Kwanya

Authority

Knowledge can be obtained from authorities or specialists in their respective

domains. It is derived from written works, documentation and reports of others.
Authoritative knowledge is used in all academic activities with reference made to
authorities, writers and authors in specific fields. Both tacit and explicit knowledge
may be obtained from authoritative experts.

Faith, Dreams and Visions

Both tacit and explicit knowledge can be obtained through revelation from super-
natural sources or beings (Sloan 1994). This type of knowledge is commonly found
in religion. People professing this knowledge must surrender themselves to the
source of such revelations, that is, the supernatural being, who is eternally supe-
rior and cannot be said to lie or make a mistake (Fales 2020). In Christianity, for
instance, dreams, visions and even the Bible have come to be accepted as forms of
revealed knowledge. In the Islamic tradition, the Koran is held to be an authorita-
tive and revealed source of knowledge. In African traditional religions, the status
of self-revelation is given to deities, ancestors, divination of oracles and dreams.
This chapter argues that by focusing on collections, libraries manage only
explicit knowledge from works of specialists and authorities. Collections may also
hold explicit knowledge in the form of memory and testimonies. Libraries connect
users to collections and enable them to acquire explicit knowledge. There is a need
for people to connect to other people to obtain first-hand knowledge through obser-
vation. Library users can obtain valuable tacit knowledge by accessing people with
unique experiences and memories directly. Libraries, as true knowledge centres,
should endeavour to connect people to each other through diverse forms of social
networking. Some knowledge can be obtained only from supernatural sources.
Libraries should design environments in which patrons can connect with super-
natural sources, for example, creating special rooms to be used for worship, prayer
and meditation. The same facilities could be used by patrons to connect with them-
selves and obtain knowledge through introspection.
Libraries can serve as knowledge centres if they enable connections between
patrons and collections; patrons and other patrons; patrons and supernatural
deities; and patrons with themselves. Libraries can facilitate, organise, preserve,
and promote conversations between members of the library community, becoming
knowledge centres and serving as centres of conversations.
 20 From Collections to Connections: Transforming Libraries to Knowledge Centres 333

Transformation Strategies from Libraries to

Knowledge Centres
Three suggestions for libraries to consider in their efforts to transform themselves
into knowledge centres relate to the concepts of human libraries, communities of
practice and knowledge cafes.

Human Libraries

According to Kudo et al. (2011), the concept of human libraries was developed as a
Danish not for profit organisation in the year 2000. According to Johannsen (2015), a
human library is an innovative method designed to promote dialogue, reduce prej-
udices, and encourage understanding. The concept was originally created to help in
addressing stereotypes by hosting people who were differently abled in some way
to demystify unfounded beliefs. The stereotypes could be about people living with
disabilities such as albinism, medical conditions, or mental health concerns. Other
form unfounded beliefs about people who are different in some way (Fonseca 2018;
Kwan 2020). In this chapter, a human library is perceived as a space, virtual or phys-
ical, for dialogue and interaction between library patrons and people on loan. The
library can lend a human book, for instance, a person living with albinism, to talk
about the disability. Participants or readers register to attend the reading sessions
which may be dialogues with one book and one reader, or lectures with one book
and many readers. The model can be adapted to fit any library context and can take
the form of expert lectures, counselling sessions, storytelling events, and call-in ref-
erence sessions with special guests, among others. Application of the model can
develop social networks to support conversations that create, validate and diffuse
knowledge. Kudo et al. (2011) applied the model in libraries in Japan and found that
it enhanced knowledge and empathy of readers; increased self-reflexivity of books;
and transcended self-other images of librarians. The model has been applied in
many countries since its development in 2000 (Watson 2015). At the time of writing,
there appears to be no human library in Africa. It is a concept which librarians in
Africa and elsewhere could adopt and adapt to create and sustain knowledge-laden
conversations.
334 Tom Kwanya

Communities of Practice

Communities of Practice (CoP) is a common knowledge management technique of

which many librarians are aware. “Communities of practice are groups of people
who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it
better as they interact regularly” (Wenger 2011, 1). Eckert (2006) explains that CoPs
emerge in response to common interests or positions, and influence members’ par-
ticipation in, and orientation to, the world around them. Three attributes charac-
terise CoPs: domain or knowledge area of interest; community created by shared
relationships; and close interactions and practice of the domain by the community.
CoPs are groups of closely connected persons who have a common interest in a
specific domain or interest area and who interact regularly to improve practice.
Libraries are natural hosts of CoPs which they can use to create and promote con-
versations. Despite the potential, Koloniari and Fassoulis (2017) argue that librar-
ians have not adopted CoPs, which could facilitate effective tacit knowledge and
expertise sharing. Diverse forms of CoPs including knowledge ambassadors (Kibe
and Kwanya 2015); book clubs and discussion groups (Stephenson et al. 2014); users
of maker-spaces (Curry 2017); and study groups (Burns, Howard, and Kimmel 2016)
would enhance the knowledge management capacity of libraries.

Knowledge Café

“A knowledge café may be defined as a way of bringing together a group of people

who have some sort of common interest and who will be able to benefit from
talking together and listening to each other on the subject of issues related to and
surrounding that common interest” (Remenyi 2004, 4), In this chapter, a knowl-
edge café is defined as a special event bringing together people to discuss, share
or test new ideas. Each knowledge café focuses on a specific topical issue. Singh
(2017) explains that a knowledge café encourages sharing of knowledge through
conversations amongst the participants. Besides creating opportunities for people
to learn new things, a knowledge café provides opportunities for networking and
socialisation which can drive knowledge management processes. A knowledge café
can enhance learning and networking through serendipity. A knowledge café is an
appropriate learning model for adults (Baim 2016). Knowledge cafés are informal,
facilitated events, or roundtables. Libraries can organise and host knowledge café
events on strategic or topical issues and encourage conversations which librari-
ans can collect, collate, refine and share. Librarians can serve as facilitators and/or
allow experienced members of the community to facilitate.
 20 From Collections to Connections: Transforming Libraries to Knowledge Centres 335

Conclusion
This chapter has recognised the significant role collections play in the traditional
definition of the library and acknowledged that the collections hold rich knowl-
edge of immense benefit to library communities. Important as they may be, col-
lections alone do not promote knowledge creation and diffusion. Libraries exist in
the knowledge age, and regardless of their typology, can make meaningful contri-
butions to their communities and society by serving as knowledge centres which
function as citadels of knowledge management. Libraries can best transform them-
selves into knowledge centres by facilitating multiple forms of connections which
result in knowledge-laden conversations. Patrons can connect with themselves,
other patrons, librarians and supernatural deities to generate and share knowledge
through conversations. Human libraries, communities of practice and knowledge
cafés can be used to model and nurture conversations in the library. The ultimate
vision of modern libraries is the facilitation of conversations through operating as
knowledge centres.

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Adeyinka Tella, Sunday Segun Bamidele, Oluwakemi Titilola Olaniyi,
and Yusuf Ayodeji Ajani
21 L ibrary and Information Science
Graduate Skills Needed in the Fourth
Industrial Revolution: A Nigerian
Perspective
Abstract: The unemployment rate in Nigeria and other African countries is fright-
ening with a current rate of about 33%. With unemployment highest among young
people, it is vital that appropriate educational opportunities are provided to stu-
dents to ensure that Africa has the skills and knowledge required for its ongoing
development. Graduates in library and information science (LIS) have a contribu-
tion to make, particularly in meeting the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolu-
tion (4IR). This chapter examines the knowledge and skills required for successful
employment of LIS graduates, the capacity of library schools to impart the knowl-
edge and skills required, and the barriers to progress. It also addresses what can
be done to provide quality educational outcomes, makes suggestions for ongoing
improvement and outlines a study of Nigerian LIS graduates which found a mis-
match between the skills possessed and the skills required.

Keywords: Library education – Nigeria; Librarians – Education; Library schools –

Nigeria

Background
Unemployment in Africa rose steadily from 14% in 2017 to 33% in 2021 (Trading
Economics n.d.). According to econometric models, Nigeria’s unemployment rate
will continue to trend at 33% in 2022 and 2023 (Statista n.d.). Unemployment is
highest among young people at over 50% including graduates in library and infor-
mation science (LIS) with bachelor’s degrees who are between the ages of 18 and
35. The report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2017 The Future of Jobs and
Skills in Africa: Preparing the Region for the Fourth Industrial Revolution noted that
Sub-Saharan Africa had a global share of high-skilled employment of 6%, compared
to a global average of 24% (WEF 2017, 3). “With more than 60% of its population
under the age of 25, Sub-Saharan Africa is the world’s youngest region.By 2030,
the continent’s working-age population is set to increase by two-thirds, from 370
million adults in 2010 to over 600 million in 2030” (WEF 2017, 5). With the disrup-
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110772753-023
 21 Library and Information Science Graduate Skills 343

tion of employment and skills brought on by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR),
it was predicted that by 2020, 39% of fundamental skills required across occupa-
tions in South Africa alone would be completely different (WEF 2017, 5).
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has brought about many changes which
are affecting all aspects of society, including job chances for young graduates. Many
occupations are being lost, while new jobs are being created that demand new skills
in the 4IR. More than 65% of students graduating from higher education institutions
today are expected to work in wholly new jobs that did not exist a decade ago (WEF
2018). “[W]orkers will need to have the appropriate skills enabling them to thrive in
the workplace of the future and the ability to continue to retrain throughout their
lives …by 2022, the skills required to perform most jobs will have shifted signifi-
cantly (WEF 2018, 12). Many vocations in demand did not exist fifteen or even ten
years ago. Significant advances have been brought about by automation and robot-
ics in many industries. Global labour markets have experienced massive upheav-
als as technological innovations rapidly shifted the boundary between human and
machine-based work responsibilities. The 2020 WEF Future of Jobs Report stated:

It is now urgent to enact a GlobalReset towards a socio-economic system that is more fair, sus-
tainable and equitable, one where social mobility is reinvigorated, social cohesion restored,
and economic prosperity is compatible with a healthy planet. If this opportunity is missed,
we will face lost generations of adults and youth who will be raised into growing inequality,
discord and lost potential…inequality is likely to be exacerbated by the dual impact of technol-
ogy and the pandemic recession (WEF 2020, 3, 5).

Information and communications technologies (ICT) have been deployed across

society and impacted on all aspects of the economy. The bulk of transactional and
other vital services is conducted digitally or electronically. For some, the increasing
rate at which jobs are being replaced by automated systems, along with the wave of
industrial employment disruption, is indicative of the divergent potential for either
a god-like future for humanity or a collapse in the need for a significant amount of
current human expertise and endeavour (Harari, Reaves, and Viswesvaran 2014).
Lack of knowledge and skills has become a significant barrier in many organi-
sations. The requirements imposed in many position descriptions are stringent and
challenging, and choosing the best candidate for the job is a difficult endeavour
(Chen and Nega 2019; Madu 2017). Employee turnover has increased in most organ-
isations. The African education system faces a huge challenge in preparing grad-
uates for an uncertain future. Many teaching institutions are unconcerned about
the growth of their graduate students. LIS graduates must have the essential atti-
tudes, skills and knowledge to perform their tasks effectively in the changing work-
place and play clear and relevant roles in the information industry and society at
large in what has been described as the new normal. This chapter examines the
344 Adeyinka Tella, Sunday Segun Bamidele, Oluwakemi Titilola Olaniyi, and Yusuf Ayodeji Ajani

4IR and reports on a study undertaken in Nigeria to examine the skills and train-
ing possessed by LIS graduates after graduation from library school, and the skills
required by LIS graduates in working effectively now and in the future.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) refers to the rapid societal changes occur-
ring in the 21st century asa result of ubiquitous, ongoing developments in informa-
tion technology, connectivity, and automation and is being experienced all over
the world. Beyond mere mechanisation and automation, it encapsulates the rise
of robotic technologies, machine learning, augmented and virtual reality, artifi-
cial intelligence, blockchain, and cloud computing. The world is currently in the
4IR age, which is a technological revolution that will fundamentally and gradually
alter human behaviour patterns (Tella 2020). It has already radically disrupted the
human experience and collective human endeavour. The 4IR will be unlike any
other in terms of scale, scope, and complexity, and there will be an increase in
ambiguity, volatility, instability, disruptive innovation, and uncertainty.
There are various discussions, interpretations, and conceptualisations of what
4IR includes, depending on the discipline or industry. However, most people link
4IR with technology (Johal et al. 2018; Xing and Marwala 2017). The term 4IR was
popularised in 2015 by Klaus Schwab, the WEF’s founder and executive chairman,
when he acknowledged the emergence of 4IR as a technological revolution that
would drastically disrupt the way people live, work, and interact, and designated it
a revolution marked by a fusion of technologies that blurred the barriers between
the physical, digital, and biological domains (Schwab 2015, 2017). He emphasised
the importance of connectivity and the possibilities for natural environment regen-
eration and greater industrial efficiency through better collaboration (Schwab
2017). The 4IR is described on the WEF website:

The Fourth Industrial Revolution represents a fundamental change in the way we create,
exchange, and distribute value. It is a technological shift merging our physical, digital, and
biological worlds into one. The fast-developing technologies pushing it forward …are prom-
ising smart solutions for intractable challenges. But this revolution also calls for governing
these solutions in ways that empower, foster collaboration, and help build a more sustainable
foundation for social and economic development (WEF 2022).

The shift required to deal with the 4IR is unlike anything humankind has ever seen
in terms of magnitude, scope, and intricacy. Nobody knows how it will play out, but
one thing is certain: a comprehensive and integrated response is required, encom-
 21 Library and Information Science Graduate Skills 345

passing all players in the global polity, from the public and business sectors to aca-
demia and civil society. The 4IR disturbances started quietly but have been steadily
increasing. They are following the traditional paradigm of technological change:
slower than expected at first, but with an eventual impact that is broader, more
diverse, and more ubiquitous than anyone could have envisioned. This could be
one of the reasons why there has not been extensive discussion on the influence of
4IR in the long run. Some African countries are still seeing a surge of transforma-
tion as a result of the third industrial revolution.
The 4IR is evolving at an exponential rather than a linear rate, with substan-
tial implications for employment, services, education, and entertainment (Alade,
Windapo, and Wachira-Towey 2021). There have been three industrial revolutions
before the current 4IR. The industrial revolution framework, according to Groum-
pos (2020), consists of three revolutions. The first was the steam engine and indus-
trialisation; the second concerned electricity and mass production; and the third
related to ICT and computers, networks, and information technology. The 4IR is
recognised as a continuation of the third, although it is viewed as a breakthrough
rather than a continuation due to the disruption caused and its predicted breadth,
depth, scale, and speed. Technology has always been at the cutting edge of human
advancement throughout history, including past industrial revolutions (Ameen,
Hosany, and Tarhini 2021). The 4IR is providing a significant opportunity for indi-
viduals in a variety of businesses.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the World of

Work
According to Susskind and Susskind (2017), technology is shaping the workforce
and leading to the emergence of new job roles, with many individuals facing redun-
dancy and entire professions likely to be absorbed by technology in a short period.
This could be the first time in history that a technology breakthrough has resulted
in a net loss of graduate opportunities and a corresponding and quick decline in
overall employment. Businesses and educational institutions must reconsider their
employer-employee relationships. Organisational control and work styles are expe-
riencing stress and strain (Mpofu and Nicolaides 2019). The 4IR, like each of the
other industrial revolutions, offers both opportunities and risks to individuals and
the sectors in which they work (Penprase 2018).
Even though the 4IR label is not widely used in corporate training, the list of
essential competencies is comparable to what large organisations and executives
claim they desire in their employees (Njuguna and Landry 2020). Rather than tech-
346 Adeyinka Tella, Sunday Segun Bamidele, Oluwakemi Titilola Olaniyi, and Yusuf Ayodeji Ajani

nical knowledge or experience, the highlighted competencies are often so-called

soft skills such as creativity, empathy, problem-solving, critical thinking, leader-
ship, and teamwork. According to Wolf (2015), as the world organisation confronts
and considers the socio-technological imaginary, graduates will be required to
demonstrate sound skills to cope with the vast changes in the economic, political,
and social milieus in which value will be fashioned and traded in novel ways. The
synthesis of numerous technologies, the Internet of things (IoT), robotics, big data,
augmented and virtual reality, cloud computing, genetic editing, and 3D printing,
among other things, pose diverse dangers to the development of local enterprises
and the world of work in the 4IR.
The impacts and hazards connected with 4IR technologies, such as data pro-
tection, algorithmic bias, discrimination, and privacy, are exponentially exacer-
bated as 4IR technologies spread. There is a conviction that as entrepreneurs begin
to develop creative ideas and talents, there will be benefits that will improve the
quality of life for many graduates around the world and that income levels will
rise (Jee 2017). Individuals with unique notions and designs, or even billionaire
investors, will become uncommon resources as a result, and skilled graduates
will become more important to organisational success than finance (Brynjolfsson,
McAfee, and Spence 2014; Brynjolfsson and McAfee 2015). Individuals must work
to endure and provide a respectable living for their families and themselves. As
firms seek qualified graduates, the employment market will become increasingly
segregated, as low-skilled graduates will be replaced by technology. Very well-paid
occupations, on the other hand, will demand a bigger number of graduates with
skill sets that are unlikely to be substituted. An exacerbated dichotomy may worsen
workplace difficulties and contribute to an increase in social conflict (Wolf 2015).
Some graduates around the world are finding it difficult to obtain work. Some
librarians are being replaced by robots, automated systems, and learning tech-
nologies. Some librarians are losing their jobs, which is expected to cause labour
discontent and agitation, but new sorts of library positions with new sets of skill
requirements are emerging. All libraries and librarians must work together and
play important roles in supporting educational projects around the world. To
manage information successfully, LIS graduates will need to move between digital
domains and offline realities through coupled advanced technologies (Deja, Rak,
and Bell 2021). The use of robots has helped organisations, such as libraries, by
making operations and routines easier to carry out (Nagy et al. 2018). However, as
technology increasingly replaces human employees, there is a likelihood of signifi-
cantly greater inequality and discrimination than there is now (Reaves 2019; WEF
2020). With the changing world, library schools must consider how to identify new
skills that will be relevant and valuable to students.
 21 Library and Information Science Graduate Skills 347

Skills of Library and Information Science Graduates

According to the findings of empirical studies conducted in Africa, LIS graduates
are deemed to be underprepared for future career roles. In Kenya, for example,
Kavulya (2007) found that many employers of LIS graduates believed the gradu-
ates were unfit or underprepared for the job. In Zimbabwe, according to the Nzi-
ramasanga Commission Report, graduates from higher education institutions were
unprepared for the labour market (Dakwa 2016). Widespread criticism of LIS grad-
uates has increased pressure on LIS education and training programmes around
the world, including Zimbabwe, to equip graduates with generic employability
skills to enable them to contribute to their future workplaces and “perform suc-
cessfully as citizens in the knowledge economy” (Nel and Neale-Shutte 2013, 437),
allowing them to stay relevant in their jobs and maintain promotion opportunities
(Hollis-Turner 2015).
A study conducted on the IT knowledge and skills needed by academic librar-
ians in the digital library environment revealed that 70 to 75% of job advertise-
ments in the academic library sector emphasised a need for advanced IT skills,
including knowledge of integrated library systems, advanced computer skills, digi-
tisation, web design and development, information retrieval, institutional reposi-
tories, and curation of research data and other digital content. Librarians require
IT knowledge and skills to a significant extent in the academic library environ-
ment. Chanetsa and Ngulube (2016) in a survey of subject learning support librari-
ans found that key requirements included presentation skills, information literacy
and course design, reference and research skills, as well as information and search
retrieval skills. Web design, online cataloguing, details of classification schemes,
HTML knowledge, virtual reference, online chats, use of mobile technologies such
as cell phones and tablets in education, and construction of subject portals in teach-
ing, learning, and research were topics on which knowledge and skills were needed
by over one third of the respondents.
Baro and Eze (2016) investigated librarians’ ICT and information literacy (IL)
skills in Nigerian Colleges of Education to see what obstacles they experienced in
learning the skills. The librarians responding evaluated their IL abilities as average.
Another notable study by Nkamnebe et al. (2015) of ICT skills possessed by librar-
ians in the universities in Anambra State, Nigeria, revealed low levels of skills.
Ayoku and Okafor (2015) examined the relevance and adequacy of IT skills in some
Nigerian universities in a digital environment and found that many respondents
had knowledge and skills of email use and word processing but lacked knowledge
of search engines and directories other than Google and Yahoo.
Bajpai and Madhusudhan (2019) examined skills in colleges libraries at the Uni-
versity of Delhi and found library professionals had above average skills in infor-
348 Adeyinka Tella, Sunday Segun Bamidele, Oluwakemi Titilola Olaniyi, and Yusuf Ayodeji Ajani

mation retrieval and accessing, searching, and using ejournals, and average skills
in electronic document delivery and networked interlibrary loans, online indexing
and abstracting services, digital reference services, development of an institutional
repository, and alerting or selective dissemination of information services. Grgic
and Zivkovic surveyed the skills and competencies needed by reference librarians
in Croatian academic libraries. General searching skills were rated as being import-
ant by 82.9%, followed by IT skills with 34.1% and traditional reference interviews
with 14.6%. Important technology skills needed were found to be online searching
with 90%, web maintenance with 50% and social media with 25%. Technology skills
identified as being less important were web design, software and hardware trou-
bleshooting, chat and instant messaging, with 5% or less.
The findings of the various studies indicate growing gaps between the needs
of work contexts and LIS education and training. The quality of LIS education
must be examined to identify gaps in the curriculum and solutions recommended
to empower students to meet the demands placed on graduates entering the 4IR
labour market. There is a supply demand mismatch in the LIS area, with increased
demands on the LIS labour force on the one hand, and traditional professional edu-
cation programmes’ products on the other. The mismatch has caused unhappiness
among LIS organisations and legislators, and has led to accusations that the prod-
ucts of professional library school systems are not ready for the workplace.
Chidiadi (2020) claimed that LIS education and training programmes would fail
and diverge from their primary objective of developing qualified human capital for
society and the profession if the problems under consideration were not addressed.
The relevance and, ultimately, the viability of LIS academic subjects would be jeop-
ardised. With the arrival of the 4IR, it is critical that the skills of LIS graduates be
examined to determine whether or not they are appropriate.

A Skills Framework for Librarians

The librarian of the 21st century, according to Salter (2003) and Missingham (2006),
must respond to new circumstances and critical self-analysis. Myburgh (2003)
stated that a broad, theoretical framework is required rather than relying on a
narrow set of skills. Because LIS graduates must be ready to respond to new and
unexplored situations during their careers, an effective knowledge base is more
likely to give the most helpful guidance to a rookie information worker than a col-
lection of rapidly dated abilities. According to Van House and Sutton (1996), LIS is
in a battle with other professions and academic fields for control of information
functions. To develop new skills, a new niche must be discovered. LIS education is
 21 Library and Information Science Graduate Skills 349

not constrained to the continuation of current programmes, and it does not need
to continue current forms of education. A strong knowledge base, methodologies,
attitudes, practices, and instruments must be developed and applied to new issue
areas which will survive. Myburgh (2003) advocated for the creation of a new strat-
egy for graduate skill development that takes into account the needs of employers
and different career stages. To tackle the current global problems posed by the 4IR,
the possession of skills required of LIS graduates must be strengthened (Withorn
et al. 2021).
An Economist Intelligence Unit (2018) report lists critical thinking, the ability
to communicate effectively, to solve problems creatively, to work collaboratively,
and to adapt to changing priorities as the skills most needed by employers. Chigona,
Gillwald, and Unwin (2019) and Sutherland (2020) noted that employers demand
leadership, administrative know-how, and information and communication tech-
nology (ICT) competencies. Lowden et al. (2011) suggested that multidisciplinary
competencies such as project management, communication, presentation, peda-
gogy, and skills related to technology, business, planning, designing, and general
management are integral to efficient workflows and service provision in the transi-
tory labour environment. Changes in library services and collections have necessi-
tated the acquisition of a wide range of information and skills. Much has been said
about the new soft skills that LIS graduates will need. However, as 4IR evolves in
tackling the difficulties and opportunities of digital transformation, new job specifi-
cations and professional abilities required will emerge as shown in Table 21.1 (Lee
et al. 2018; WEF 2018).

Table 21.1: Comparing top ten skills demand 2018 vs. 2022 (WEF 2018, 12)-

Today: 2018 Trending: 2020 Declining: 2022

Analytical thinking and Analytical thinking and Manual dexterity endurance and precision
innovation innovation
Complex problem solving Active learning and Memory, verbal, auditory, and spatial abilities
learning strategies
Critical thinking and Creativity, originality, Management of financial, material resources
analysis and initiative
Attention to detail, trust- Complex problem- Management of personnel
worthiness solving
Active learning and learning Technology design Technology installation and maintenance
strategies and programming
Emotional intelligence Leadership and social Quality control and safety awareness
influence
Coordination and time Systems analysis and Technology use, monitoring, and control
management evaluation
350 Adeyinka Tella, Sunday Segun Bamidele, Oluwakemi Titilola Olaniyi, and Yusuf Ayodeji Ajani

Today: 2018 Trending: 2020 Declining: 2022

Creativity, originality, and Critical thinking and Reading, writing, math, and active listening
initiative analysis
Reasoning, problem-solving, Emotional Intelligence Coordination and time management
and ideation
Leadership and social Reasoning, Visual auditory and speech abilities
influence problem-solving,
and ideation

Examining Skills of Nigerian Library and

Information Science Graduates
A study was undertaken of the skills possessed by Nigerian LIS graduates after
graduation from library schools, as well as the skills required to ensure relevance
in the 4IR employment market.

Objectives

The specific objectives of the study were:

–– Identify the skills possessed by LIS graduates in the 4IR era
–– Ascertain the relevant skills required and needed by LIS graduates in the 4IR
era
–– Determine the future training needed in the 4IR era and identify the conse-
quences of inadequate preparation of LIS graduates
–– Determine how library schools will prepare graduates for the 4IR era, and
–– Identify the challenges associated with the preparation of LIS graduates for
possession of 4IR skills.

Methodology

The study adopted a survey design methodology. A survey is commonly used in

LIS information system research to collect self-report data from study participants.
A survey may focus on information about individuals, or it might aim to collect
the opinions of respondents. A survey was considered appropriate in this instance
because a substantial percentage of LIS alumni could be included and it enabled
generalisation of the outcomes.
 21 Library and Information Science Graduate Skills 351

The questionnaire included elements related to the study’s five objectives. The
questionnaire was divided into two parts with demographic data concerning the
respondents in Part A. Part B was divided into five sections, each related to one of
the five goals of the study.
–– Part 1 focused on current skills possessed by LIS graduates, with ten skills
identified from the literature, and three alternative responses for each: Yes,
Partially, No. Example: Which of the following do you consider as the current
skills you possess as LIS graduates? Communication skills…..the respondents’
response: Yes, Partially or No
–– Part 2 related to the relevant 4IR skills, with ten 4IR skills listed. The respon-
dents were asked to specify the skills relevant in the 4IR job market by check-
ing the boxes
–– Part 3 focused on the consequences of failing to prepare LIS graduates suffi-
ciently for the digitally driven 4IR. The respondents indicated their level of agree-
ment with each of the five points and, if relevant, offered additional outcomes
–– Part 4 included information about how LIS graduates might prepare for the
4IR. It was open-ended and asked for suggestions about improvements to their
training and preparation for the 4IR job market, and
–– Part 5 concentrated on the issues of preparing LIS graduates for the 4IR. The
respondents were asked to highlight issues connected with preparing LIS grad-
uates for the 4IR job market.

Graduates of Nigerian universities with Bachelor degrees in LIS formed the

study’s target demographic. The study focused on graduates from universities in
the south-west and north-central regions. The researcher connected with LIS stu-
dents through an online alumni forum. Four different forums enabled access to the
respondents who were LIS graduates from four library schools in the two regions
with a total of 288 LIS graduates. A questionnaire was delivered using online plat-
forms to 158 LIS graduates.
The questionnaire developed for the collection of data on the study was posted
to a contact person in each of the four LIS graduate forums identified. After inform-
ing the link individuals of the goal of the activity, an agreement was reached for
uploading the questionnaire to the respective forums. The researchers’ email
addresses were distributed for return of the completed questionnaire. Due to the
second wave of COVID-19, when strict adherence to all COVID-19 regulations, par-
ticularly social distance, was required, face-to-face delivery of the questionnaire
was not possible. The respondents were given four weeks to complete and submit
the questionnaires. One hundred and fifty-eight questionnaires were returned
after the four weeks, with 150 correctly completed and suitable for data analysis.
The survey was conducted between October 2020 and February 2021.
352 Adeyinka Tella, Sunday Segun Bamidele, Oluwakemi Titilola Olaniyi, and Yusuf Ayodeji Ajani

Results

The qualitative data was thematically analysed, while the quantitative data was
analysed using percentage and frequency counts, with the results displayed in
tables.

Current Skills of LIS Graduates

The objective was to identify the skills possessed by LIS graduates. To achieve the
objective, respondents were asked to indicate which of the listed skills they pos-
sessed as LIS graduates. The results are presented in Table 21.2.

Table 21.2: Skills Possessed by LIS Graduates.

Current Skills Yes Yes % Partially Partially % No No %

Communication 148 98.7 2 1.3 0 0

Teamwork 142 94.7 6 4 2 1.4
Problem-solving 56 37.3 12 8 82 54
Ethics and professionalism 102 68 12 8 36 24
Lifelong learning 87 58 2 18.6 35 23
Critical thinking 12 8 2 1.3 136 90
Leadership 121 80.7 9 6 20 13.3
Creativity 12 8 2 1.3 136 90.7
Technology 25 16.7 5 3.3 120 80
Management 127 84.7 15 10 8 5.3

According to the findings in Table 20.2, LIS graduates had skills such as commu-
nication, teamwork, ethics and professionalism, lifelong learning, and leadership,
but they lacked problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, and technology skills.
LIS graduates lacked the technology-related abilities considered necessary in the
4IR job market.

Skills Required by LIS Graduates in 4IR

Respondents were asked whether or not they could confidently state they pos-
sessed relevant skills for the 4IR job market and then asked to choose which 4IR
skills they deemed relevant in the 4IR from a list of twenty. Tables 21.3 and 21.4
show the results.
 21 Library and Information Science Graduate Skills 353

Table 21.3: Confidence of Skills Relevance in the 4IR Job Market.

YES Partially NO

Can you confidently state that you have the current 4IR skills 23 (15.3%) 117(78%) 10 (6.7%)
needed in the global job market?

The majority of LIS graduates (78 per cent) were unsure that they had the essential
abilities to secure a position in the 4IR job market.

Table 21.4: Skills Required for the 4IR Job Market.

4IR Skills Needed YES YES % Partially Partially % NO NO %

Analytical thinking and innovation 11 7.3 2 1.3 137 91.3

Active learning and learning strategies 120 80 12 8 18 12
Creativity, originality and initiative 12 8 2 1.3 136 90.7
Technology design and programming 25 16.7 5 3.3 120 80
Critical thinking and analysis 13 8.7 4 2.7 133 88.7
Complex problem solving 52 34.7 12 8 86 57.3
Leadership and social influence 121 80.7 9 6 20 13.3
Emotional intelligence 42 28 18 12 90 60
Reasoning, problem solving and ideation 50 33.3 28 18.7 72 48
System analysis and evaluation 25 16.7 5 3.3 120 80
Technical Skills – Knowledge and 5 3.3 1 0.7 144 96
capabilities to perform specialized tasks
Entrepreneurship – Knowledge, and abil- 87 58 11 7.3 52 34.7
ities that support success in creating and
building a workplace opportunity or idea
Soft Skills – Personal attributes, social 80 53.3 12 8 58 38.7
skills, and communication abilities that
support interpersonal relationships and
interactions with others
Workforce readiness – Foundational to 12 8 2 1.3 136 90.7
individuals’ entry and ongoing success
in the workplace, ranging from initial
job search to maintaining continuous
employment
People Management 130 86.7 11 7.3 9 6
Coordinating with Others 120 80 9 6 21 14
Judgement and decision making 77 51.3 12 8 61 40.7
Service orientation 55 36.7 13 8.7 87 58
Negotiation 15 10 15 10 120 80
Cognitive flexibility 47 31.3 22 14.7 81 54
354 Adeyinka Tella, Sunday Segun Bamidele, Oluwakemi Titilola Olaniyi, and Yusuf Ayodeji Ajani

Table 21.4 shows the skills required and possessed by the graduates. For each of the
twenty skills considered relevant for the 4IR job market, seven were identified by
more than 50% of the respondents as being held, and twelve as not held The results
showed that LIS graduates possessed active learning and learning strategies, lead-
ership and social influence, entrepreneurship knowledge and abilities, soft skills,
and people management skills. LIS graduates possessed a few general 4IR related
skills but lacked the core skills needed.

Consequences of Poor Preparation

The consequences of poor preparation and lack of training were explored and the
results are provided in Table 21.5.

Table 21.5: Consequences of Inadequate Preparation.

Consequence Agree Agree % Not Not Sure % Disagree Disagree %

Sure

Greater income inequality 137 91.3 7 4.6 6 4.0

Increased unemployment 142 94.6 5 3.3 3 2.0
Increased government expenditure 137 91.3 3 2.0 10 6.6
More mass migrations 20 80.0 17 11.3 13 8.6
Loss of already acquired jobs due to 150 100 0 0 0 0
relevance and under-performance

Inequality, unemployment, higher costs, mass migration, and job loss were all seen
in Table 21.5 to be repercussions of failing to teach 4IR skills as part of the LIS
school curriculum. All were deemed important. Failure to prepare students appro-
priately has serious short-term and long-term implications.

Library School Preparation of Graduates for the 4IR

General unhappiness with their education and training was expressed by respon-
dents. They were asked to suggest improvements in library education in Nigeria.
Some of the comments were:

It’s not a big deal; all library schools in Nigeria need to do is adopt the system of library schools
in advanced nations of the world, such as the I-School in Canada, library schools in the United
 21 Library and Information Science Graduate Skills 355

States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and others, and borrow a leaf from them on
how to best prepare LIS graduates for the new era.

Now that library schools are aware of the skills they have been teaching students, as well as
the skills that are necessary or needed to be thought about in the new period, the onus is on
them to bundle the new talents into a new curriculum to be established.

Our library schools are weak in so many ways. Most schools, in particular, lack the necessary
facilities for practical learning. There aren’t enough laboratory areas to teach students practi-
cals, and those that are offered aren’t enough. Similarly, manpower to teach students the new
abilities described in the 4IR literature is unavailable, and the majority of people now teach-
ing in library schools lack the expertise of how new technologies work and hence are unable
to instruct students. These challenges may be remedied if facilities and infrastructure such as
laboratories for teaching practice are accessible, as well as staff to educate the students. Then
the tale will change, and we will see LIS graduates competing favourably with LIS graduates
from other areas of the world.

The survey showed that LIS schools in Nigeria had much to learn from schools in
other countries. They required facilities upgrades, staff with enhanced knowledge
and curriculum redesign with greater emphasis on ICT.

Challenges of Preparing LIS Graduates

The final part of the survey examined the challenges associated with the prepara-
tion of LIS graduates for work in the 4IR world in Nigeria. The results suggested
numerous challenges. There was a lack of funding, student lethargy, insufficient
instructor motivation, and a shortage of personnel to teach the new 4IR skills, as
well as an outdated and obsolete curriculum, inappropriate mindset, recalcitrance
in the adoption of new technologies, and a conservative approach of LIS teachers.
Comments from respondents included:

LIS institutions in Nigeria will have to go above and beyond to train LIS graduates for 4IR posi-
tions. The reason for this is that we have far too many problems. It all starts with compensation.
The salaries paid to library school teachers and other university lecturers in Nigeria are medio-
cre at best. As a result, Nigerian LIS schools have lost a large number of students to LIS institu-
tions in neighbouring African countries and advanced countries. Not only that, but the majority
of teachers at Nigerian library schools nowadays are merely wage-earners rather than profes-
sionals in their respective professions. So, who is left to teach the 4IR skills to the students?

The LIS school curriculum, in my opinion, is at the heart of the problem. I always read through
the curriculum, even though I have graduated and before graduating. Because the Nigerian
LIS curriculum does not include much of this, teaching 4IR skills to LIS graduates may be
impossible.
356 Adeyinka Tella, Sunday Segun Bamidele, Oluwakemi Titilola Olaniyi, and Yusuf Ayodeji Ajani

I believe that the basic difficulty in educating LIS graduates for 4IR positions is a lack of desire to
adopt new technology. We’ve been hearing and reading in the literature about how libraries in
advanced countries, including Africa, are incorporating new technologies such as robots, artifi-
cial intelligence, the Internet of Things, big data, virtual reality, cloud computing, maker-spaces,
blockchain, and other similar technologies into their operations. Unfortunately, none of our
library schools or libraries is ready to ring the bell and implement one or two of these technolo-
gies. How can we teach it, how can students be inspired to study about what they haven’t seen?

The study examined through empirical analysis, LIS graduates and the skills
required in the 4IR. It concentrated on four library schools in the south-west and
north-central regions of Nigeria. Extending the study to other library schools in the
rest of the country might yield worthwhile and helpful results. Future research
could investigate a qualitative skills evaluation, focus on specific skills, examine
the work environment, and investigate the library schools themselves to explore
the skills required and the solutions possible.

Conclusion
This chapter has provided an overview of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and
outlined a study examining the status quo of the preparedness of LIS graduates and
LIS schools in Nigeria for the new world of work. The study polled 158 LIS gradu-
ates via online forums and platforms and revealed that few had technology-related
abilities or the new soft skills required for the 4IR job market, with 78% indicat-
ing a lack of appropriate 4IR skills and competencies. The consequences of lack of
skills and knowledge are inequality, unemployment, higher costs, mass migration,
and job losses. Students and teaching staff need greater motivation; recruitment of
new teaching staff with technology skills is required; mindsets must be altered; and
clear strategies outlined for the future.
Going forward, Nigerian library schools must model their development on suc-
cessful library schools elsewhere in the world (Moran and Marchionini 2012); cur-
ricula must be revised with input from the relevant educational and library com-
munities; new programmes must include a strong focus on ICT and clear student
outcomes; the government, through the Ministry of Education, must allocate more
funds to provide upgraded facilities and equipment and to increase salaries for
teaching staff; the library community must develop clear strategies for staff devel-
opment and training and incentives to motivate LIS students. As Stephen Curry
said: “Success is not an accident; success is a choice” and Dale Carnegie noted:
“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who
have kept on trying when there seemed no hope at all.”
 21 Library and Information Science Graduate Skills 357

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Contributors Contributors

Ajani, Yusuf Ayodejii Studies for the 2015/2016 academic year and is a
Free-lance librarian working with multiple library PhD candidate at the Department of Information
schools and non-governmental organisations in Science, University of South Africa. She has
Illorin, Kwara State in Nigeria. Yusuf is a research worked in academic libraries for the past ten
assistant and part-time lecturer at the University years, beginning as a Senior Library Assistant
of Ilorin. Previous places of employment include and rising through the ranks to become
the Kwara State College of Education, the Kwara Assistant Librarian. She assists researchers and
State Library, the Kwara State Polytechnic the university community at large by providing
Library, and the Al-Hikmah University.Yusuf is a support ranging from literature exploration
public speaker who engages audiences in critical to publishing in peer-reviewed journals. Amy
thinking. He earned a Masters’ degree from the supports heritage restoration and archival
Department of Library and Information Sciences, information management through proposal
University of Illorin. He is a team player with a development, field implementation, monitoring
focussed interest in information systems and and project evaluation. She is the leader of a
knowledge management. three-member team who won a Gerda Henkel
Stiftung/Foundation grant entitled “Renovation
Alabi, Raliat of Repository and Conservation of Archival
Law Librarian, Faculty of Law, Kwara State Records at Ho Regional PRAAD Offices” in
University, Malete, Nigeria. Raliat studied Library 2020. She is a chartered member of the Ghana
and Information Science at the University Library Association. Her recent scholarly work
of Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria. She gained a has focused on library management software,
Bachelor of Law Degree from Obafemi Awolowo digital libraries and excellent customer service in
University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and a Barrister at Law academic libraries in Ghana.
at the Nigerian Law School, Abuja, Nigeria. She
has worked in various capacities as a teacher, Ayanbode, Oluyemi Folorunso
librarian and law librarian and participated Chief Librarian, Neuropsychiatric Hospital
in the planning and establishment of law Aro Abeokuta, Nigeria, and Head, Technical
libraries in various law faculties throughout Section of the library. Oluyemi has a BLIS in
Nigeria. Raliat has published articles in both Library Archival and Information Studies and an
local and international journals. Her research MInfSc from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria,
interests include law library administration and a PhD in Information Science (knowledge
and management and use of information and management specialisation) from the University
communications technology in law library of South Africa. He has reviewed and authored
operations. notable library science related publications and
presented many papers at both international and
Asimah, Amy P. A. national conferences. His publications appear
Client Service Librarian, Evangelical Presbyterian in Information Development, INDILINGA – African
University College, Ho, Ghana and Head of Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Mousaion:
the Library’s E-Resource Unit. Amy holds a South African Journal of Information Studies,
Bachelor of Education Arts (History) degree and IRCAB Journal of Social and Management
from the University of Cape Coast and a Master Sciences. Oluyemi’s research interests include
of Arts degree in Information Studies from the bibliotherapy, digitisation, human computer
University of Ghana. She was judged the best interaction, indigenous knowledge, information
graduating Master of Arts student in Information and knowledge management social informatics,
362 Contributors

and social media use. He is a Certified Librarian and conferences in the areas of open access,
of Nigeria and a member of the Nigerian Library institutional repositories, bibliometrics and
Association. altmetrics, community engagement, information
literacy and research data management. Siviwe
Azeroual, Otmane is an active peer-reviewer for various South
Researcher, Deutsche Zentrum für Hochschul- und African Department of Higher Education and
Wissenschaftsforschung/German Centre for Training approved international and national
Higher Education Research and Science Studies journals such as Global Knowledge, Memory
(DZHW). After studying business information and Communication; Information Development;
systems at the Hochschule für Technik und Information Discovery and Delivery; Open Learning:
Wirtschaft Berlin/University of Applied Sciences The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning; The
(HTW), Otmane obtained his PhD in engineering Journal of Academic Librarianship; and Mousaion:
informatics with the Research Group Databases South African Journal of Information Studies.
and Software Engineering at the Otto-von-Guer-
icke-Universität Magdeburg. His research and Boloka, Mamotshabo Johanna
teaching activities address digital corporate Lecturer and PhD candidate, Department of
transformation, database systems, software Information Science in the University of South
engineering, artificial intelligence, data science Africa. Mamotshabo holds a Master of Arts
and project management. As a member of the in Information Science from the University of
research information organization euroCRIS, he South Africa and a Bachelor of Information
supports international universities and non-uni- Studies from the University of Limpopo. Her
versity institutions as well as their researchers areas of interest include information retrieval,
with applied solutions to ensure the data quality cataloguing and classification, indexing and
of research of note in computer science. He abstracting, public/community librarianship,
is widely published and the editor of various as well as user studies in the library and
internationally renowned journals. ORCID: information services field. She has published
0000-0002-5225-389X. several articles in accredited journals and is a
reviewer for local and international journals in
Bamidele, Segun Sunday library and information science.
College Librarian, Kwara State College of
Education, Oro, Kwara State, Nigeria. Segun has Chigwada, Josiline
obtained Diploma, Bachelor and Master degrees Post Doctoral Research Fellow, University of
in library and information science. He started his South Africa (UNISA). Josiline has sixteen years
career as a library attendant and steadily worked of experience in academic librarianship. Her
his way to senior positions. He has worked with librarianship journey began in 2002 when
the Kwara State Library Board, Nigeria, and she joined the National University of Science
the Kwara State Polytechnic Library. Segun is a and Technology in Zimbabwe for the Bachelor
PhD student in the Department of Library and of Science Honours degree in Library and
Information Science, University of Ilorin, Nigeria. Information Science. She graduated with a
first-class degree and was the best female
Bangani, Siviwe student in the Faculty of Communication and
Director, Research Services, Stellenbosch Information Science in 2006. She was conferred
University Library and Information Service, South with a Master of Science degree in Library and
Africa. Siviwe is a PhD student in information Information Science in 2009 from the same
science at the University of South Africa. He is university. She holds a Doctor of Literature
passionate about research and has published and Philosophy in Information Science from
articles and presented papers in journals the University of South Africa. Before joining
 Contributors 363

UNISA, Josiline worked at the Chinhoyi University in Information Sciences from the University
of Technology as Deputy Librarian, Bindura of Pretoria, a Master in Information Sciences,
University of Science Education as an Assistant Bachelor of English and Communications, Higher
Librarian, Sub Librarian, and Acting Deputy Diploma in Information Sciences, and a Diploma
Librarian, and also at the University of Zimbabwe in Public Relations and Communications. He
as the Law Librarian. Her research interests is a renowned writer and speaker who has
are open science, research data management, presented papers at various forums including
digital libraries, big data, indigenous knowledge the Euro African Cooperation on ICT Research
systems, open access, marketing library products (Euro-Africa ICT), Promoting African European
and services, and the changing roles of librarians. Research Infrastructure Partnerships (PAERIP), the
She has published several book chapters, journal International Federation of Library Associations
articles, conference proceedings and presented and Institutions (IFLA), among others. Collence is
at various national, regional and international a member of several library associations, including
conferences. Josiline is a Mendeley certified CILIP and the Zimbabwe Library Association, and
librarian, Mendeley Advisor, an Altimetric is Secretary of IFLA’s Indigenous Matters Section
Ambassador and a CORE ambassador. (IFLA-IMS) and the African Library & Information
Associations and Institutions (AfLIA)’s Library
Chikonzo, Agnes C. Education & Training Institutions Section.
University Librarian, University of Zimbabwe.
Agnes holds a PhD in Information Science from Du Plessis, Tanya
the University of Pretoria, and a Master of Library Associate Professor, Department of Information
and Information Science from the University of and Knowledge Management, University of
Botswana where she was awarded the Indian Johannesburg. Tanya holds a B.Bibl. (Cum Laude)
High Commissioner’s Prize for the Best Student and an M. Bibl. (Cum Laude) from North-West
and Student of Good Conduct in the Faculty University and she completed a D Litt et Phil in
of Humanities. She also holds a Post Graduate 2005 from the University of Johannesburg. She
Diploma in Library and Information Science is a postgraduate research supervisor of Masters
with distinction from the same University and a and Doctoral students, Chair of the Departmental
Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Academic Research Ethics Committee, and
Zimbabwe. In her time as University Librarian, lectures honours and undergraduate third
she has had the opportunity to lead the library year Information and Knowledge Management
team as it explores new avenues for information modules. Tanya has published widely and is on
delivery. The Library has maintained its position the editorial board of two journals. Her teaching
as a leading library in the country. Her research profile is aimed at preparing students for the
interests pertain particularly to information and world of work based on the principles of design
communications technology. She has published thinking.
extensively internationally on information and
communications technology, and information Enakrire, Rexwhite Tega
needs and seeking behaviour for HIV and AIDS, Research Fellow, Department of Information
and contributed to several book chapters. Science, University of South Africa, Pretoria.
Rexwhite’s qualifications include a PhD from
Chisita, Collence Takaingenhamo the University of Zululand, South Africa), a Post
Senior Lecturer, Department of Information Graduate Diploma in Education, a BSc, MSc,
Systems at the Durban University of Technology, and Diploma in Library Science from the Delta
South Africa. Collence has been a Post-Doctoral State University, Nigeria. Rexwhite has attended
fellow and is currently a Research Fellow at several national and international training
the University of South Africa. He holds a PhD programmes and conferences. He is a seasoned
364 Contributors

tutor, graduate research assistant, lecturer, Citizenship at the University of South Africa. Her
researcher and librarian with over twelve years’ broad research interests include knowledge
experience. His research interests include management, particularly for sustainable
information and communications technologies, development and corporate governance.
information and knowledge management,
indigenous knowledge systems, knowledge Gamede, Dimpho Z.
sharing, information ethics and research Graduated with a BA in Public Management
methodology both qualitative and quantitative. and Governance in 2019 from the University of
Johannesburg and went on to graduate with
Farrugia, Charles J. a BCom honours degree in Information and
National Archivist of Malta, and Head, Knowledge Management in 2020 from the same
Department of Library, Information and Archive university. Dimpho tutored final year students in
Sciences, University of Malta. Charles graduated the Information and Knowledge Management
in history from the University of Malta and in undergraduate course at the University of
archives and records management from three Johannesburg in 2020 and was certified as
UK higher education institutions, the University a tutor by the College Reading & Learning
of Newcastle at Northumbria, University College Association (CRLA) International Tutor Training
London and the University of Aberystwyth in Program Certification (ITTPC) in 2020.
Wales. He has worked for over thirty years at
the National Archives of Malta, taking charge of Gunjal, Bhojaraju
its transition from a small hall in the Palace in Chief Library Officer, Library, Indian Institute
Valletta to the current network of six buildings. of Technology, Hyderabad Telangana. Prior to
In 2005 he established records management this position, he was Deputy Librarian, Central
and archives courses at the University of Library, National Institute of Technology
Malta. Charles has addressed world-wide Rourkela, Odisha, India; Deputy Librarian
conferences and in 2009 hosted and organised at Thapar University, Patiala, Punjab, and
the International Conference on the Round Table Knowledge Management Consultant at TATA
of Archives (CITRA) in Malta. His activity outside Consultancy Services, Bangalore. He has over
Malta resulted in his holding the Chairmanship twenty-three years of professional experience in
of the Association of Commonwealth Archivists library management, knowledge management,
and Records Managers for nine years, and he enterprise content management, and project
currently occupies the post of Chairman of the management in academic and information
European Branch of the International Council on technology sectors using enterprise content
Archives. Charles has published extensively in management tools such as SharePoint,
Malta and internationally. Documentum, and InQuira. His academic
background is a PhD in Library and Information
Fombad, Madeleine C. Science from the University of Mysore, and an
Full Professor, Department of Information Science MLISc from Karnataka University, Dharwad,
at the University of South Africa. Madeleine holds securing a gold medal. Bhojaraju was an
Master’s Degrees in Law from the University Endeavour Research Fellow in 2008 and visited
of Yaoundé II, Cameroon, and Library and Australia to conduct research at the School of
Information Studies from the University of Computer Science and Mathematics, Victoria
Botswana, and a PhD in knowledge management University, Melbourne. He has published and
from the University of Pretoria South Africa. presented widely nationally and internationally,
She completed a postdoctoral fellowship attended various professional training programs,
on collaborative governance. She works in organised events and won many awards. ORCID:
partnership with the Institute for Corporate 0000-0002-9658-1473.
 Contributors 365

Ikegune, Daniel Olusegun Coast University library system. Kwame manages

Librarian, KolaDaisi University, Ibadan, Nigeria. the virtual library services of the University
Daniel is a Master’s graduate from the University Library. He has a PhD in Information Science
of lbadan. He holds degrees which are uniquely from the University of South Africa, an MA and
relevant to information and information MPhil in Information Studies from the University
resources manufacturing, with a Bachelor of Ghana and a Bachelor of Management Studies
of Education in Educational Management/ from the University of Cape Coast.
Economics in 2009 from Tai Solarin University of
Education, Ijagun, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, and Kowalsky, Michelle
a Masters in Library, Archival and Information Librarian and professor, Rowan University in
Studies in 2014, and a Masters in Publishing and New Jersey, US. Michelle holds an EdD from
Copyright Studies in 2021, from the University Pepperdine University and an MLS from Rutgers
of Ibadan, Nigeria. He is a member of Nigerian University, and is a National Board Certified
Library Association. His research interests Teacher of Library Media. She is the business
include knowledge management, library librarian at Rowan and works in research and
administration and management, leadership instructional services to assist undergraduates,
styles, preservation and conservation of graduate students, and faculty in learning the art
information and archival resources, reading and science of research. She has been a teacher
habits, marketing of library services and and librarian for over twenty years, and worked
textbook publishing. Daniel has attended in college libraries, school libraries, corporate
workshops held by the Nigerian Publishers libraries, and public libraries throughout her
Association aimed at creating a crop of career. Her research interests as an education
small-scale scholarly publishers who are highly and library and information science professor
educated and with the right brief for scholarly focus on the intersection between libraries,
publishing in Nigeria. He is a prolific writer and learning, and technologies. She has written with
erudite researcher and has published articles in John Woodruff a book titled Creating Inclusive
several journals and book chapters both locally Library Environments: A Planning Guide for Serving
and internationally. Patrons with Disabilities (Chicago: ALA, 2016) and
with Robert S. Fleming a book titled Survival Skills
Kasiroori, Justice for Thesis and Dissertation Candidates (London:
Lecturer, University of Zimbabwe, Department Springer Nature, 2021).
of Analytics and Informatics. Justice is a
qualified data analyst with academic and Kwanya, Tom
professional qualifications in data analytics. His Associate Professor, Department of Information
research interests include library technologies, and Knowledge Management at the Technical
practical applications of big data and enhancing University of Kenya. He is currently also serving
academic process using big data and data as the Director of the School of Information
analytics. He has been involved in library and Communication Studies. Prior to becoming
technology and information and communi- a full-time academic in 2013, he worked as a
cations technology applications for the past consultant on public information and knowledge
twelve years. management. Key consultancy positions held
include service as a World Bank communication
Kodua-Ntim, Kwame consultant seconded to the Ministry of
Assistant Librarian, University of Cape Coast, Information and Broadcasting, Government of
Ghana. He is a chartered librarian of Ghana Southern Sudan, Juba; knowledge management
and assigned to the Department of Information consultant for the United Nations Entity for
Technology and Research Support of the Cape Gender Equality and the Empowerment of
366 Contributors

Women (UN Women); public information Matlala, Mpubane Emanuel

specialist and team leader of the Public Sector Lecturer, Department of Finance and Information
Information Project for the Republic of South Management at Durban University of
Sudan, Juba; and facilitator of a five-day Technology, South Africa. Mpubane is a PhD
professional course on the fundamentals of Candidate in the Department of Information
organisational knowledge management on Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal,
behalf of the African Advanced Level Telecom- Pietermaritzburg Campus, South Africa. He
munications Institute (AFRALTI) in Kenya, holds a degree in information studies from
Mozambique, the Gambia, Sierra Leone and the University of Limpopo, a Post-Graduate
Liberia. Tom holds a BSc (Information Science), Diploma in Records and Archives Management
Moi University, Kenya, an MA (Communication and Master of Information Studies from the
Studies), University of Nairobi, Kenya and a PhD University of KwaZulu-Natal. Mpubane has
(Information Studies), from the University of a multi-disciplinary background and varied
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. research interests, which include records
management, preservation of electronic records,
Letsoala, Kevin M. information and knowledge management.
Business Analyst/Consultant, Faranani DocTec He has contributed to and published articles
Midrand. Kevin holds a BCom Hons degree from extensively in South African Department of
the University of Johannesburg and has also Higher Education and Training accredited
completed a short course on artificial intelligence journals and conference proceedings and
at the same institution and a certification in delivered papers at local and international
content server business analysis from Open Text. conferences.
Kevin’s prior work experience includes serving as
formerly a student assistant at the University of Millar, Laura
Johannesburg. Records, archives, and information management
consultant and independent scholar for over
Maphoto, Asania Reneilwe 35 years. Laura received her Master of Archival
Lecturer, Department of Information Systems at Studies degree from the University of British
Durban University of Technology, South Africa. Columbia, Canada, in 1984 and her PhD in
Asania previously worked as a temporary lecturer Archive Studies from University College London,
in the Department of Information Studies at the United Kingdom, in 1996. Laura consulted
University of Zululand. She is a PhD candidate with the International Records Management
in the Department of Information Studies at the Trust for many years, serving as Managing
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg Editor and contributor for the Management
Campus, and holds a degree in Information of Public Sector Records training project,
Studies from the University of Limpopo and completed in 1999, and as General Editor and
a Master of Information Studies from the contributing author for the International Records
University of KwaZulu-Natal. Asania has an Management Trust’s Training in Electronic Records
interdisciplinary background and varied research Management programme, completed in 2009.
interests, which include information-seeking Laura has served as a consultant on records
behaviour, library services, and information, and information management with agencies,
knowledge and records management. Asania has associations, governments, universities and
contributed to and published articles extensively organisations in Bermuda, Canada, Ghana,
in South African Department of Higher Education Hong Kong Malawi and Trinidad and Tobago.
and Training accredited journals and conference She taught for many years in the fields of
proceedings and presented papers at local and records and archives management, as well as
international conferences. in editing and publishing, and is the author
 Contributors 367

of dozens of publications and presentations member of the Journal of the South African Society
on various topics related to records, archives, of Archivists, and the ESARBICA Journal: Journal
editing and education. Her books include The of the Eastern and Southern Regional Branch of
Story Behind the Book: Preserving Authors’ and International Council of Archives editorial team.
Publishers’ Archives (Vancouver: CCSP Press, 2009) He is a National Research Foundation of South
and Archives: Principles and Practices (London: Africa C2 rated researcher. He is also an external
Facet, 2010, rev. ed. 2017). Laura was awarded examiner for the Department of Information
the Society of American Archivists’ 2011 Waldo Science, University of South Africa. His research
Gifford Leland Award for Archives: Principles and interests are archival education, digital records
Practices, for ‘writing of superior excellence management, research methodology, and the
and usefulness in the field of archival history, impact of Industry 4.0 on records management.
theory, or practice.’ Her latest book, A Matter of Olefhile was a Research Assistant and member
Facts: The Value of Evidence in an Information Age of Team Africa in the International Research
(Chicago: ALA Neal-Schuman, 2019), written for a on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic
public audience, has been praised as offering ‘a Systems (InterPARES Project) from 2013 to 2018.
compelling case for the fundamental importance
of evidence.’ Laura is a Fellow of the Association Mugenyi, Andrew
of Canadian Archivists and an Honorary Senior Cataloguing Librarian, International Library of
Research Associate at University College London. African Music (ILAM), Rhodes University, Eastern
She is a frequent guest speaker at professional Cape, South Africa. Andrew is passionate about
and public events, addressing the value of research, metadata, collection development,
records, archives and other sources of evidence information and communications management,
as tools for accountability, identity and memory knowledge management and sharing, library use
in society. in academic and special libraries, and current
trends in library and information science. He
Minishi-Majanja, Mabel K. completed a Diploma in Library and Information
Professor of Information Science, University of Studies from Kyambogo University in 2002, and
South Africa. Mabel holds a BA in Librarianship a bachelor’s degree in library and information
from the University of North London, 1979, science from the University of Fort Hare in
a Postgraduate Diploma in Education from South Africa in 2019. Andrew is working towards
Kenyatta University 1987, a Master of Library a Masters of Information Science from the
Science from the University of Pittsburgh, 1993, University of South Africa.
and a DPhil in library and information science
from the University of Zululand KwaZulu-Natal, Muziringa, Masimba C.
South Africa in 2003. Mabel’s research interests Deputy Librarian, Research and Learning,
include library science education and training University of Zimbabwe. Masimba is a PhD
in Africa and information and communications candidate at the University of Zimbabwe and
technology. ORCID: 0000-0003-0253-3081. holds MSc and BSc Honours degrees in Library
and Information Science from the National
Mosweu, Olefhile University of Science and Technology Zimbabwe.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of He has specialist training in implementation
Information and Knowledge Management, science from the King’s College London, UK, and
School of Consumer Intelligence, and has implemented various research outcomes
Information Systems, University of into policy projects and programmes. His
Johannesburg, South Africa, in the College of research interests include evidence-based
Business and Economics. Olefhile regularly healthcare, implementation science, knowledge
reviews academic works and is an editorial board management and open science.
368 Contributors

Nwagwu, Williams Ezinwa Olaniyi-Adegoke, Oluwakemi Titilola

Associate Professor, Department of Data and Librarian, Federal College of Education
Information Science, University of Ibadan, (Technical) Library, Akoka, Lagos, Nigeria.
Nigeria. Williams specialises in science Oluwakemi has published papers both in
communication, scholarly publishing and national and international refereed journals
scientometrics, and teaches courses that along with some chapters in books.
include information behaviour and knowledge
management. He is a Research Associate Omoike, Adenike Damilola
in the Department of Information Science, Senior Librarian, Cataloguing Section, Kenneth
University of South Africa, and has held visiting Dike Library, University of lbadan, Nigeria.
fellowships in several universities including Adenike graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in
the University of Western Ontario, Canada, political science in 2005 and an MLS from the
Duke University in North Carolina US and the University of Ibadan in 2009. She is a member
University of Washington US. He is an author of the Nigerian Library Association and a
of over one hundred papers in core journals of Chartered Librarian of Nigeria. Her research
the Web of Science and over thirty conference interests are in information and communi-
papers. Williams is on the editorial board of the cations technology applications, and library
South African Journal of Library and Information administration and management. Adenike has
Science, World Journal of Science and Technology published extensively on cataloguing both
and Sustainable Development, among others. locally and internationally, with journal articles
Until March 2019, Williams was the Head of and chapters in books. She is a seasoned
Knowledge Management at the Council for the librarian who has always taken a keen interest
Development of Social Science Research in Africa in training upcoming and potential librarians in
(CODESRIA) based in Dakar, Senegal. library routines, administration and operations
which foster the growth of talent and establish
Ojobor, Rebecca Chidimma contemporary librarians firmly in their
Academic Librarian, Nnamdi Azikiwe Library, profession with innovative practices.
University of Nigeria. Rebecca is a graduate of
library and information science of the University Onyancha, Omwoyo Bosire
of Nigeria. She obtained her MLS in 2014 and her Research Professor, Department of Information
PhD in 2020 from the Department of Library and Science, University of South Africa. Omwoyo
Information Science, University of Nigeria Nsukka. holds a PhD in Library and Information Science
She began her career in the private sector in 2007, from the University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal,
and in 2019 gained employment at the University South Africa, and is a C2 rated researcher in
of Nigeria, where she works as a lecturer and South Africa. He was previously Deputy Librarian
academic librarian in the Special Information at the University of Eastern Africa, Baraton,
and Technology Unit, Nnamdi Azikiwe Library. Kenya. His areas of research interest include
She is devoted to lifelong learning and has a altmetrics, information and communications
strong enthusiasm for librarianship. Rebecca is technology, information resource and services
a member of the Nigerian Library Association, management, knowledge management,
conducts research herself, and is a reviewer for scientometrics and user education. ORCID:
various journals, gaining a reviewer’s certificate 0000-0002-9232-4939.
from most journals for her work as a peer
reviewer. She has contributed to book chapters Ramatsebe, Neo
published by reputable publishers and has written SAP Certified Associate Consultant with a
numerous journal articles. Rebecca is happily background in information management. He
married with children. works closely with clients to understand their
 Contributors 369

business needs and to develop customised Nigeria and Research Fellow in the Department
solutions. Neo holds a BCom Hons from the of Information Science at the University of
University of Johannesburg and a certificate in South Africa, following a stint as a visiting
business systems analysis from the University of researcher with the Department. Adeyinka was
Capetown. Neo worked as a student assistant at a Commonwealth scholar who finished his PhD
the University of Johannesburg. He was an SAP at the University of Botswana in 2009. He is a
Young Professionals Program Trainee in 2022, an three-times winner in 2014, 2017 and 2018 of the
application support intern at Deutsche Telekom Dr. T.M. Salisu Most Published Librarian Award
Healthcare in 2021 and 2022 undertaking work made by the Nigerian Library Association and a
at Netcare Hospitals and National Renal Care, 2007 winner of a Council for the Development
and a student assistant at the University of of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)
Johannesburg in 2020. small grant for thesis writing for the PhD student
category. Adeyinka has authored many articles
Schöpfel, Joachim in high impact Web of Science/Scopus rated
Associate Professor in information and journals and as at November 2022 had scored
communication sciences, Université de Lille/ an H-index of 33, an i10-index of 71 and 5021
University of Lille in France. Joachim is interested citations. He edits or is on the editorial board of
in scientific and technical information in the many recognised journals.
wider environment of academic publishing,
research assessment and open science. His Zimu-Biyela, Acquinatta Nomusa
research focuses on organisational strategies Academic and Researcher, Department of
of open access publishing, research data Information Science, University of South
repositories and research information Africa. She holds Bachelor’s degrees in Arts
management. He is a board member of the and Education, a Post-Graduate Diploma in
International Organisation for Research Information Science from the University of
Information (euroCRIS), the Networked Digital Transkei, a Master of Library and Information
Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) and Science from the University of KwaZulu-Natal,
the Grey Literature Network Service (Greynet Pietermaritzburg, and a doctoral degree
International). He is working as an independent from the University of South Africa (2016).
consultant with the Ourouk Consulting company Her academic interests include information
in Paris. Joachim holds a PhD in psychology from organisation and retrieval, archives and records
Universität Hamburg/University of Hamburg in management, knowledge management and
Germany. ORCID: 0000-0002-4000-807X. indigenous knowledge systems, community
information centres and community libraries and
Tella, Adeyinka empowerment of women.
Professor, Department of Library and
Information Science, University of Ilorin,
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