Summary of the Paper: Provision of Online Information Services in Nigerian Academic Libraries.

Name: Nwobu, O. E.
Course: Online Information Industry.
Number: MIM/EDUC/00444/2008-09.

Summary of the Paper: Provision of Online Information Services in Nigerian Academic Libraries.
By Ezra Shiloba Gbaje

The paper is about Online Information Services in the Nigerian Academic libraries. The digital age has brought about a completely different way of providing library services resulting to the development of new services. The author used qualitative research method to examine the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of online information services in Nigeria Academic library. It was find out that shortage of web technologies, skilled librarians, and poor information technology infrastructure and high cost of equipment has hindered the Nigerian Academic Libraries from providing online information services.
Librarians has tried as much as possible to mediate between the source mind and clientele mind, but with the provision of online information, it will help or enable them to have access to information they could not readily get before, this has lead many to question the mediating role of the Librarian. The question is, what is the authority and source of the information. It has once again set to play host to thousands of information professionals, information end-users and publishers from around the globe, meeting suppliers of on line content, e-publishing and library management solutions.
The paper also told us according to Aderson (1996) the emerging roles of a librarian in a digital environment which includes:
- Selecting electronic resources and evaluating their quality.
- Developing expeditions and effective locator tools to make the complex web of resources more readily accessible to both sophisticated and naïve users etc.
They use websites /portals to attain to their patrons, in that when some patrons continue to make use of internet, librarians will use websites/portals as a means to facilitate access to specific internet and other digital resources. Academic Libraries should primarily offers a high quality vetted internet search engine links, Open Access databases and journals, user guides/help sheets and Information Literacy instructions on their websites because they are know for accurate information provider.
They provide reference services to their patrons too, where an online information request forms will be on the web and through email too, this enable students to ask questions from their computers though a times it will not provide immediate reply or allow reference interview techniques to be employed easily. But, it was noticed that Librarians were not given a successful answer to their patrons, and that leads to the use of reference application like Web Contact Center Software, to provide online chat where patrons can get an instant response from the reference Librarian and enable users and librarians to look at and work with the same online source simultaneously. Digital reference services using email, web forms or video conferencing has been tested and implemented in a number of academic libraries. On line reservation and renewal of library materials is becoming part and parcel of library automation systems, especially in the new generation of Web-based system that replaced the older traditional standalone proprietary library systems. Online document delivery services requests with credit card payments are potential new services to better serve the needs of academic users.
One can say, that online information services is essential service in Nigeria Academic Libraries, but some factors has made it not to be effective or function very well. The vast majority of people seek free information on the web, but most important sources are not available for free on the web. And because searches on the web cannot be aggregated, finding useful information is difficult and time –consuming. Even the “free” information on the web actually comes at substantial cost to the patrons or those seeking for it in terms of hours spent for information. Another challenging facing academic library in the networked online environment is to exploit all forms of digital and telecommunication technologies and find new ways and means to provide feasible forms of collections, services and access to library materials.
As said earlier, Lack of web technology skilled staff, Lack of funds, Lack of basic Information Infrastructure (Internet Access, Electricity, and Web server), Limits of Network Bandwidth and Slow Transmission are most of the things hindering on line information services in Nigerian Academic Library. According to the author, even when some of these problems were there, it was also observed that some of the Library websites were designed, developed and maintained by people outside the library and by non-professional as well.
The author, has done a thorough research because all most all the Academic libraries in our country is suffering the same plight except in the developed countries where we have constant power supply and all the infrastructure to make the online information services effectively. Already, many Academic libraries provide internet access, and some have uploaded their websites on the internet. How ever, they are yet to move their services online and provide remote access to digital resources.
All the factors mentioned before that militate against libraries providing online services should be addressed, Library schools must review their curriculum to reflect the need in the work field and also Heads of libraries must invest in the retraining of their staff, by providing sponsorships to attend workshops and conferences organized by their professionals. The use of open source, open access databases, journals, and free web based resources should not be neglected as it will go a long way to solve the problems.