Usage of Sokoine University of Agriculture Institutional Repository among academic staff at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science in Tanzania
| Date | 05 November 2018 |
| Pages | 510-522 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-04-2018-0033 |
| Published date | 05 November 2018 |
| Author | Ester Ernest Mnzava,Mussa Ndambile Chirwa |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information in society,Information literacy,Library & information services |
Usage of Sokoine University of
Agriculture Institutional
Repository among academic staff
at the College of Veterinary
Medicine and Biomedical Science
in Tanzania
Ester Ernest Mnzava and Mussa Ndambile Chirwa
Sokoine University of Agriculture, Sokoine National Agricultural Library,
Morogoro, Tanzania
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to investigate the use of Sokoine University of Agriculture Institutional
Repository (SUAIR) among academic staff at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science
(CVBMS). Specifically,the study looked at awareness of, attitude, self-archivingand challenges the academic
staff face when usingSUAIR.
Design/methodology/approach –The study used survey method.The data were collected using self-
administeredquestionnaire with the results analysed using descriptivestatistics.
Findings –The study foundthat although there was more than one source of raisingawareness on SUAIR,
the university’s library,the internet and meetings were the major sources. Majorityof the respondents were
not aware of how to deposit their scholarly outputin the institutional repository. As a result, the majority of
academic staff had neverdeposited their scholarly work in SUAIR. Generally, the respondentshad a positive
attitude towards usingSUAIR. Apart from lack of skills and knowledge on how to depositresearch outputs,
the study established that lack of time,fear of plagiarism and lack of awareness of existence of the SUAIR
were significantbarriers to the effective utilisation of SUAIR.
Originality/value –This is the first time such a study has been undertaken focussing on the use,
awareness and attitudeof SUAIR in Tanzania. As such, the study findings can be usedto assess the attitude
of academic staff at Sokoine Universityof Agriculture and other universities in Tanzania and Sub-Saharan
Africa withsimilar operational characteristics.
Keywords Academic libraries, Tanzania, Information services, Academic staff,
Institutional repositories, Open access resources
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
An institutional repository (IR) is a digital collection of an institution’s intellectual output
created by the institutionand its community members (Halder and Chandra, 2012).The IR is
one of the new scholarly communication platforms in the twenty-first century (Bamigbola,
2014), which was recommended by the Budapest Open Access (OA) Initiative as one of the
two routes to OA; the other one is OA journals (Cullen and Chawner, 2009). In developing
countries including Tanzania, IRs and other OA platforms were launched among other
reasons in to overcome the problem of accessing scholarly output often hindered by high
subscription costs to scientific journals (Chan, 2004;Jain, 2012;Islam and Akter, 2013).
GKMC
67,8/9
510
Received18 April 2018
Revised17 July 2018
Accepted23 September 2018
GlobalKnowledge, Memory and
Communication
Vol.67 No. 8/9, 2018
pp. 510-522
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2514-9342
DOI 10.1108/GKMC-04-2018-0033
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