Digitization of library collection in developing countries the

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Digitization of library collection in developing countries: the Hezekiah Oluwasanmi Library’s experience By Jagboro, K. O. (kojagboro@yahoo. com) Omotayo, B. O. (bomotayo@oauife. edu. ng) Aboyade, W. A. (abowakan@hotmail. com)

Introduction Business Dictionary. com (2009) defines digitization as conversion of analog information in any form (text, photographs, voice, etc. ) to digital form with suitable electronic devices Reasons for digitization Wider access Prevention of theft of library materials Preservation

Obafemi Awolowo University experience Historical background OAU was founded in 1962 Digitization started in 2003 Carnegie grants of ($220, 000) was used for conversion of manual catalogue to electronic format Purchase of equipment for digitization of newspapers On going digitization projects include: Digitization of Nigerian Newspapers; Digitization of abstracts of Masters and doctoral theses

Yet to be attended to is the Manuscripts of court cases Before Digitization started, it was manual processing of newspaper clippings, and microfilming of pre 1986 copies Problems arising from manual system include: space constraints, limited access and heavy usage of the indexed newspapers

Digitization of newspaper collection National newspapers involved include: Daily Times; National Concord; Daily Sketch (all now out of circulation); the Comet (now the Nation; the Guardian; Nigerian Tribune; the Punch, and Vanguard. These newspapers were digitized from 1986 to 2006. It is a complete digitization. Hardware used include: SMA 2 scanner; an Internet ready computer; CD/DVD writer for the backup

Digitization process: Scanning (double page) Each page is stored in JPEG format Files saved into hard disks (for local access) and burnt to DVD/CDs as backup Problems include: Inadequate storage media e. g. hard disk Compression of the large file size Indexing; and Content management software

Facing the challenges Commissioning of an in-house software engineer to develop a software for content management and compression of the large file size. A 60% compression result was achieved Software still at the developmental stage. Digitization of abstract of theses Only the abstracts of theses of OAU. The University is participating in the DATAD project (The database of African theses and dissertations)

Sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Association of African Universities (AAU). Started in 2004 Equipment supplied by the AAU Training sessions were conducted for some members of staff. Equipment and process 2 PCs; 1 flatbed scanner, 1 printer The software include Omnipage 14 Pro and Procite

The Omnipage converts the JPEG image to OCR and saved as Ms-Word document. It is then transferred into Procite software with the following data items like: the supervisor, degree obtained, the university’s name, keywords for search, etc. Written to CD/DVD and then sent to the AAU, DATAD unit for uploading. A copy is retained for our users’ online access.

Copyright The concept of fair use applies but not to the detriment of authors’ moral and economic rights. The materials digitized are essentially for research and learning purpose. Students on submission of their projects give a written permission to the University for the use of their theses for research and learning

Challenges Inadequate funding Electricity and power supply Storage media for digital information Scanning of brittle old newspapers and courts manuscripts. National infrastructures (laying of fibre optics cable nationally) Capacity building for staff (training and retraining)

Conclusion There is need for collaboration among the libraries in the developing countries and the donor agencies (both national and international) as exemplified by OAU and Carnegie Corporation of New York. Training and re-training of staff should be accorded priority. Library management need to lay much emphases on computerization and digitization.