A Maturity Model for Digital Information Management in University Libraries: A Design Science Study

Abstract

Identifying dimensions and levels of maturity in digital information management is of high significance for university libraries because it would highly influence their daily businesses and future decisions. The current study is an effort to develop, confirm and test a maturity model for digital information management in the context of university libraries as a response to ever-increasing digital information. A design science approach in qualitative-quantitative order was considered as the research design. Initially, a meta-synthesis was conducted to systematically review the related literature and to develop the conceptual model for dimensions and levels. Afterward, a set of 30 related experts analyzed and confirmed the model with a 95% confidence level. Finally, the maturity levels of 14 central university libraries across Iran were measured through a multiple case study design. The MMDIM (Maturity Model for Digital Information Management) includes 10 dimensions, 20 components and 5 levels. Regarding priorities given to the components by the experts, the digital business model and digital work environment were the first and last priorities respectively. The results showed that most selected libraries were at level three namely slight management of digital information. Moreover, library managers evaluated levels of their maturity which showed that digital processes and operations and digital culture were given the first and last levels respectively. The model could be regarded as a diagnostic tool to identify development needs that could be supported by objectives of other similar libraries.