Attitudes of Librarians in Selected Nigerian Universities towards Digital Libraries in E-Learning

Introduction

Integrating e-learning resources into digital libraries in Nigerian universities depends largely on librarians’ attitudes towards it. The application of ICT to library services has caused significant changes in Nigerian university libraries. Cooper (1998) opined that the advent of the internet, digitisation, e-learning resources and the ability to access library and research materials from remote locations created dramatic changes in the functionality of university libraries.

The term “digital library” according to Lynch is simply “an electronic information access system that offers users coherent view of an organised, selected and managed body of information”. Sharifabadi (2006) suggested the following working definition of the digital library:

Based on this working definition, Sharifabadi (2006) asserted that a digital library is not merely equivalent to a digitised collection with information management tools. It is also a series of activities that brings together collections, services, and people in support of the full life circle of creation, dissemination, use, and preservation of data, information and knowledge.

The booming of new learning methods built on an underlying foundation of computer and Information Technology (IT) over the past decades has offered various “solutions” to educational and training activities. Most of the early “solutions” were adaptations of text-based training delivered electronically. Today, the ‘solutions” are more than duplicating non-electronic learning materials and transmitting them online – they are mainly embodied in the internet environment, containing variant elements, such as virtual learning environments, online mutual interaction, and managed learning environments. Among the numerous present applications of e-learninig are online training, distance learning, learning with threaded discussions or interactive bulletin boards, website-based curriculum, courses that post assignments online, correspondence course-style read-and-test programmes, etc (McLester, 2001).

It is important to note here that not all professional librarians concur to these changes in educational methods and environment due to the concern of the possible dehumanisation of the learning process (Self, 1996) and the volatility of computers (Oppenheimer, 1997). However, many proponents argued that e-learning is able to offer more choices that suit learners’ flexibility, provide stimulus, reinforcement and instant feedbacks, foster interactions, and stimulate understanding and the recall of information. These claimed advantages have made e-learning very appealing. This technological change is posing a particular challenge to librarians in developing countries. Librarians in developed countries moved quickly to learn and adopt new information technologies (Ramzan, 2004). Digital library was introduced to perform library functions and provide innovative user services. Librarians gained knowledge of new technologies through continuing education programmes, professional training, and revisions to university curricula. University libraries in Nigeria, though not all, became equipped with appropriate hardware and software to enhance digitisation.