The story so far-digital preservation in institutional repositories. The case of academic libraries in Ghana
| Pages | 80-96 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DLP-12-2018-0039 |
| Published date | 13 May 2019 |
| Date | 13 May 2019 |
| Author | Emmanuel Adjei,Monica Mensah,Eric Amponsah Amoaful |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Records management & preservation,Information repositories |
The story so far-digital
preservation in
institutional repositories
The case of academic libraries in Ghana
Emmanuel Adjei
Department of Information Studies, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana, and
Monica Mensah and Eric Amponsah Amoaful
Balme Library, Unversity of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study is to examine the standards, strategies, support and challenges of
digital preservationin institutional repositoriesin academic libraries in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach –The research was qualitative. Data used for analysis were drawn
from interviewswith respondents selected purposivelyfrom eight Ghanaian academic libraries.
Findings –A key finding of the study was that although the academic librarieshad operational directions
for digital preservation activities in the institutional repositories, available standards and practices for
ensuringlong-term preservation seem to be unsuitable.
Research limitations/implications –Recommendations based on findings included development of
comprehensive digital preservation policies to provide mandateand direction to preservation of the libraries
digital collections, development of disaster plans, adequate funding, staff development and support from
management.
Originality/value –The study has demonstrated the need for academic libraries in Ghana to have and develop
good digital preservation standards for sustaining the institutional repositories to help in realizing its benefits.
Keywords Institutional repositories, Universities, Digital preservation, Academic libraries, Ghana,
Educational systems
Paper type Research paper
Introduction/background
Over the past 20 years, significant effortshave been made to provide open access to research
publications, and more recentlyto research data. The emergence of digital technologies has
however brought with it new technological innovations in the information environment,
leading to an alteration in the creation, accessing and distribution of scholarship. Indeed,
with the advances of technology, an increasingnumber of higher education institutions are
implementing various strategies aimed at helping the institutions to develop coherent and
coordinated approaches to capture, identify, store and retrieve intellectual assets such as
datasets, course material and research papers (Moseti, 2016). Academic libraries and the
library profession havenot been left out the drive to deploy such innovations that mirroran
organizations intellectual production, and provide access to scholarly materials in a faster
and easier way. Essentially, with the emergence of digitization and the open access
movement, academic libraries have transformed into digital variants leading to the
establishment and growthof institutional repositories (IRs).
DLP
35,2
80
Received14 December 2018
Revised5 February 2019
2 April2019
Accepted19 April 2019
DigitalLibrary Perspectives
Vol.35 No. 2, 2019
pp. 80-96
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2059-5816
DOI 10.1108/DLP-12-2018-0039
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2059-5816.htm
IRs have become one of the fastest growing elements of the digital academic library
system. This, Rafiq and Ameen, (2013) explainedis because of the potential of IRs to reform
the current system of scholarly communication and their role in advancing the open access
movement. Consequently, since the early 2000s, institutional repositories have become a
common norm in many academic libraries, especially in research universities who have
invested human and technical resources to build a robust technical infrastructure that will
foster access to the intellectual, cultural,and administrative output of their institutions, with
the anticipation to gain enhanced access to faculty research and increased visibility of
research generatedwithin the university (Li and Banach, 2011;Pérez et al.,2016).
Institutional repositories are mainly described as the aggregation of scholarship
reflecting the range and scope of intellectual output generated by a community of scholars
affiliated with any single academic institution (Brown and Abbas, 2010). Essentially, an
institutional repository is a recognition that the intellectual life and scholarship of an
academic institution will increasingly be represented, documented, and shared in digital
form, and that a primary responsibilityof the academic institution is to exercise stewardship
over these riches:both to make them available and to preserve them (Lynch,2003). The main
function of an IR is, therefore, to ensure long-term preservation and availability of digital
materials (Anenene and Oyewole, 2017).Undeniably, one measure of the success of an IR is
its ability to provide long term accessto its holdings. To this end, an IR should clearly state
its intention of acomprehensive preservation strategy for its content.
However, a major challengeto the success of every instructional repository for especially
developing and emerging economies in achievingtheir obligations is the ability to preserve
the content in the repository to provide long term access to its patrons (Emmanuel Baro
et al., 2013;Mensah, 2015). Swanepoel (2013) attest that issues of long term preservation of
IRs have actually tops the list of hurdlesin their development and maintenance. A number
of researchers (Hockx-Yu, 2006;Juan, 2012;Mapulanga, 2013;Lagzian et al.,2015) have
however cautioned that when not addressed, difficulties of long term preservation will in
future erode the credibility and goals of IRs. Unfortunately, the longevity of digital objects
are usually taken for granted by many institutions, and are often perceived as a less
significant task (Baro, 2010;Wiler, 2015;Moulaison Sandy and Corrado, 2018). As such,
issues of digital preservation are usually not accorded much consideration and support in
IRs. Indeed, the focus of manyIR activities in most academic libraries have concentrated on
creating repositories, depositing content, promoting discovery and access and/or
encouraging the necessary cultural change but not on how to preserve the content for long
term accessibility (Francke et al., 2017). Consequently, although the need to have long term
access to information in the IRs is understood, digital preservation management practices
are not considered as priority areas and invariably ignored (Li and Banach, 2011;Amollo,
2011). However, postingintellectual assets into institutional repositoriesrequires that all are
able to trust the ability of the repository to secure the information over the long term. As
such, this study aims to find out digital preservation practices observed in the IRs in
academic librariesin Ghana.
Literature review
Implications/challenges of digital preservation in institutional repositories
In describing the function and mission of institutionalrepositories, several authors (Hockx-
Yu, 2006;Cho, 2014;Stevenson and Zhang,2015;; Novak and Day, 2018) draw on definitions
made by Lynch (2003) which portrays institutional repositories as “a set of services that a
university offers to the membersof its community for the management and dissemination of
digital materials created by the institution and its community members. Inferably, Lynch
Academic
libraries in
Ghana
81
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