This case is about the influence of the Internet on scholarly communication and the emergence of various access-to-knowledge initiatives. Major emphasis was placed on Institutional Repositories (IRs) using a practical example of its evolution at the Redeemer's University (RUN), Nigeria. RUN was established in 2005 by the Redeemed Christian Church of God with the mission to develop into a global university that is able to contribute to the amelioration of the problems facing Nigeria, Africa, and the world. To achieve its mission, RUN created a development hexagon, which resulted in the need to deploy its RUN Institutional Repository (RUNIR). Consequently, RUNIR deployment, which began in 2008, formed the major theme of the case reported in this chapter. As a result of the advantages provided by the institutional repository, Redeemer's University is in a strong position to meet its mission goals and objectives.
TopOrganization Background
The Redeemer’s University (RUN) was established in 2005 as one of the second generations of private universities that was approved as part of the Nigerian university system by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Its owner is the Nigerian-based Pentecostal Mission, Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). The head of the RCCG, the General Overseer Pastor E. A. Adeboye, serves in the capacity of the Visitor to the University. The mission and vision of RUN revolves round moral upbringing, sound teaching and training, and an excellent research culture. RUN’s mission and vision were influenced by the challenges that were eminent in Nigerian society and its university system. This was characterized by declining moral values, a lack of commitment to sound and creative teaching, and a weakening research capacity. Hence, the mission and the vision of RUN were clear. The mission was to first make a difference in Nigerian society. Second, it was to educate and train a new generation of scholars that would be morally upright and able to identify, diagnose, and proffer creative and innovative solutions to societal challenges. As a result, RUN established a viable, contemporary system that is based on open administration, adequate and appropriate deployment, and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The university administration was positioned to support the four academic units that were established as means to the objectives of the University. The academic units are namely the College of Natural Sciences, the College of Management Sciences, the College of Humanities, and the University Library, which serves as the central information management and information literacy centre to the entire University.
Consequently, RUN objectives operate on six tenets: education, research, knowledge, training, creativity, and innovation. These are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. © 2013, Samuel C. Avemaria Utulu and Adebayo A. Akadri, used with permission. It is imperative to note that RUN found it fundamental to invoke the internationalization principle which has become fashionable among contemporary universities as a way of achieving its objectives through the tenets shown in Figure 1. The literature dealing with contemporary university management, such as those produced by Teferra and Knight (2008); Gul, Gul, Kaya and Alican (2010); and Knight (2008), have all tried to provide a working definition for the concept of internationalization. However, it was Knight (2008) that described internationalization of universities as the process of integrating international, intercultural, and global dimensions into the purpose, functions, and the delivery of university education.
This encouraged RUN to develop an internationalization strategy that included Information Technology (IT) procurement and deployment; adoption of a contemporary Information and Communication Technology (ICT) initiative; development of a university education mandate driven by globalization; addressing accreditation requirements; and developing an institutional framework to support the strategies developed to achieve its goals. Each aspect is explained as follows.
At Redeemer’s University, Information Technology is viewed broadly and goes beyond computer hardware and software maintenance. It is defined as the ways information is created, gathered, organized, stored, published, and used, especially as it relates to education, research, knowledge management, training, creativity, and innovation. Hence, the provision of resources for ICT procurement, deployment, and maintenance has been given a high priority in RUN resource allocations.