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TopIntroduction
Information and communication technology (ICT) has revolutionized the modern society; it has become prevalent as a source of computerisation for information systems in the 21st century. These ICT facilities (internet connections, computers, scanners, photocopy machines laptops, various handheld devices, application software, online databases etc) are however, unevenly distributed as a result of several factors. One of such factors is the fact that certain people have more access to technology than others and this has resulted in a technological gap referred to as digital divide. Debates and arguments abound on the effect of digital divide between industrialized and emerging countries. While industrialised countries enjoy the returns of Information Technologies in almost all spheres of life, evolving nations have not tapped into the numerous benefits of these technologies.
As a result of developments in information communication technologies, the information gaps between the ‘information-rich’ and the ‘information-poor’ have expanded over time and this has caused exclusion of some countries of the world from maximising the benefits of ICT and belonging to the international community (Iskandarani, 2008).
Kennedy and Davis (2006) pointed out that the rapid expansions of the use of digital technologies have had a positive significant influence on many aspects of daily life. ICT facilities have intensely altered the cultures and the economies of the world. As it is in other fields of human endeavour, there is no facet of library and information undertakings that digital handling and ICT facilities are not applicable to.
Digital proficiency is of particular importance when information is to be collected, stored, salvaged, disseminated and appraised. ICT has transformed contemporary societies; the growth has brought the world closer thus, posing many tasks for international assimilation, among which is the digital gap phenomenon. Hargittai (2003) stressed that with the rise of ICT in all spheres of life, there is an enlarged concern regarding the form of its differences across populations, leading to digital inequalities in access and use of ICT facilities either by sex, race, ethnic minorities, income differences, place of residence, educational level and so on.
TopMeaning Of Digital Divide
The word digital gap explains the fact that the world can be distributed into countries who have and countries who do not have access to, and the competence to use current information technology. In Nigeria, the inequitable access to the computer network is attributable to the poor state of ICT infrastructure and lack of adequate investment in the society to support the new communication technology. Issa & Daura (2010) explained that there is a inequality in the level of accessibility to ICT between developed and developing countries. This disparity in access and use of information technology is called digital divide.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (2001) defined Digital divide as the gap between different persons, homes, industries and topographical areas at different social-economic ranks with regard to their prospects to access Information Technology (IT) and use of the Internet.
Wilson (2004) defined digital divide as a disparity in access, circulation and use of ICT between populations. According to Wilson, there are eight facets of the digital gap: physical access, fiscal access, intellectual access, project access, content access, production access, institutional access and political access. Digital divide is the disparities in ICT use between people living in different parts of the world; the divide between the developed and developing countries and the information poor may become further marginalized in the society, (Norris 2001 cited by Ismail, Ahmad and Affandy, 2013, Oladokun and Aina, 2011, Hargittai, 2003). Bracey (2010) reported that many people ignore the digital divide; they say it is the black versus white and or rural versus distant. Some say it is marginal versus rich or the United States of America as opposed to the rest of the world and that it will progressively filter down to those who have and the have not. Some see the technology as male with some women involvement.