A Review of Digital Libraries and Their Impact in Africa

Peter Buba Zirra,Nuraini Abdulganiyyi,Alhassan Jamilu Ibrahim

doi:10.11648/j.ajcst.20190204.13

Abstract

Digital libraries, recommender systems and information retrieval are some of the most celebrated breakthroughs in the book of internet evolution. Digital libraries are referred to digital resources that are a collection of electronic materials and technical facilities used in searching, creating, and making use of information. They became important sources of information sharing which are extensions and enhancement of information storage and retrieval system used in manipulating data or materials in digital medium. This designed digital storage are used by set or group of users were they will collect and organize the said storages in a way their contents along with their usability supports the information needs of the said of group of users. These digital information resources have revolutionized many aspects of human lives that includes, in especially, the academia. This research is an attempt to show how internet has paved way for a much easier means of information sharing in various communities across the world. The paper is also an attempt to review the idea behind digital libraries and investigate the use of digital resources among African communities and their socio-economic importance and impact to the continent. The research did also review construction and networking of digital libraries among African institutions, some of which roles are played by e-libraries and information decimation in socio-economic development, sectorial information needs and the issues involved in the lack of establishment of these digital libraries. Lastly, after the paper reviewed works in progress across Africa, it clearly outlined that in a global neighborhood, large work needs to be done in order for African nations to use information in harnessing their full potentials

Highlights

Digital library, as defined by researchers, is used to refer to a library where some or all of the holdings are available in electronic form, and the services of the library are made available electronically – frequently over the Internet [1]
As demand for information increased, electronic information became broadly available on tapes and CD-ROMs, the need for interfaces and Local Area Networks (LANs) [4] became necessary in order to solve the rising issues associated with information selection
Digital library design and software selection are vital issues, and to start with, this paper proposed the used of simple bibliographic database approach [8], like the modified version of the ones implemented by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertation (NDLTD) which suits the African environment as well as provide access to search facilities with abstract and bibliographic details

Summary

Introduction

As defined by researchers, is used to refer to a library where some or all of the holdings are available in electronic form, and the services of the library are made available electronically – frequently over the Internet [1]. Research showed that attempted work on digital libraries began not more than two decades ago, with the 1994 Digital Library Research Initiatives in the US [2] and the 1995 Electronic Libraries programme (eLib) in the UK [2] as those responsible for large scale orderly research and development activities in digital libraries. In addition to other factors, selection processes applied by users are parameters like links to other information sources, password protection mechanisms, training standards and full-text availability. Traditional means of these selection processes became ineffective as the dynamism of this

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Conclusion