Institutional Digital Repository

1. Enabling Institutional Digital Repository for Scholarly
Communication in Nigeria
By
Abubakar Mohammed
MSC/EDUC/2437/11-12
Seminar I
Thesis Title: Adoption of Institutional Digital Repository for
the Management of Electronic Local Content in University
Libraries in Northeastern Nigeria
Supervisors:
Prof. Umar Ibrahim & Dr. E. S. Gbaje

2. Content/Outline of the Paper
Introduction
Concept of Intuitional Repository
Benefits of Enabling Intuitional Repository
State of Intuitional Repository in Nigeria
Role of Intuitional Repository in Scholarly Communication
Impediments to Enabling Intuitional Repository in Nigeria
Conclusion and the Way Forward

3. Introduction
The “commercialisation” of scholarly journal publishing
Libraries need to pay increasingly large sums to
subscribe to the printed copies of the journal or to
acquire license for access to electronic versions
Nigeria with an estimated population of 150 million
people has 129 universities, 75 polytechnics, 63 colleges
of education and 100 research and allied institutions

4. Concept of Institutional Repository
IR is a digital archive of the intellectual product
created by the faculty, research staff, and students of
an institution and accessible to end-users both
within and outside of the institution with few if any
barriers to access - Johnson (2002)
In the simplest sense, the term institutional digital
repository is an electronic archive of the scholarly
output of an institution, stored in a digital format,
where search and recovery are allowed for its
national or international scholarship.

5. Contents of IR

6. Benefits of Enabling IR
Create global visibility for an institution’s scholarly
research
Collect content in a single location
Provide access to institutional research output
Store and preserve institutional digital assets
Increased citations

7. State of IR in Nigeria
S/N Universities URL Content Software
1 Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria http://kubanni.abu.edu.ng:8080/jspui
Conferences,Theses Dspace
2 Covenant
University, Otta http://eprints.covenantuniversity.edu.ng/
Articles Eprints
3 Federal Uni.Tech.,
Akure
http://dspace.futa.edu.ng:8080/jspui/ Articles; References;
Theses
Dspace
4 University of Jos,
Jos
http://dspace.unijos.edu.ng/ References; Conferences;
Learning Objects;
Multimedia
Dspace
5 University of
Nigeria, Nsukka
http://unn.edu.ng/chart/repo Articles;Theses Open
Registry

8. Role of IR in Scholarly
Communication
Quick retrieval of scholarly publications
Access to distant scholarly publications
Free access to scholarly publications
Increase author/researcher global visibility
It brings about economic relief to libraries
It also reduces the monopoly of power of journals

9. Impediments to Enabling IR in
Nigeria
Lack of awareness of its potential roles
Absence of ICT infrastructures
Insufficient bandwidth
Epileptic power supply
Inadequate funding
Lack technological skills

10. The Way Forward
Workshops, seminars, conference should be organise on
frequent bases
Massive investment on ICT infrastructure in libraries
Provision of adequate Internet bandwidth
Increased funding
Library schools should include ICT courses

11. Conclusion
The revolution in scholarly
communications means that traditional
forms are not meeting the yearnings of
modern day scholars. However it is
concluded that institutional digital
repository remains the single most
popular and indispensible vehicle for
effective scholarly communication across
the globe.