Digital Resources for Research: A Review of Access and Use in African Universities

This paper from the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) discusses the obstacles facing African higher education (HE) to accessing and using digital scholarly information. It suggests that: "Information and communications technologies (ICTs) have, of course, brought substantial changes in the past two decades and, as new communications technology is developed and becomes more widely accessible within Africa, and as communications infrastructure improves, the prospects for digital access to research resources will undoubtedly improve significantly over the coming years."

The author presents background on the limited print resources available to African universities and points out that "while the electronic shift has helped to alleviate some of the problems and costs previously associated with printed material, it has also presented its own obstacles, namely those of ICT infrastructure and internet connectivity." Costs have shifted from print to a need for substantial investment in computers, campus networks, and internet access. "Beyond physical facilities, the move towards digital information has also highlighted areas where the skills of librarians, academics and students alike urgently need to be developed.... With the rapid expansion of HE across the continent, new types of programmes and methods of delivery - such as online and distance learning - being developed to meet demand, and new digital facilities and services required by researchers and students, libraries face many pressures. Their success in responding to these will be dependent in large part on their ability to provide and manage access to a range of electronic information."

The document examines access: African universities have access to broadband, still primarily via the more costly satellite connections, but the large bandwidth that the majority of digital resources require is reported to be coming with the SEACOM cable for Eastern and Southern African coastal states (due for completion in 2009), the EASSy (The Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System), which links Eastern and Southern Africa (due for completion in 2010), and the WACS (West Africa Cable System) project. "The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) has also established the ICT Broadband Infrastructure Network, with a sub-project focused on Eastern and Southern Africa and bringing together submarine and terrestrial segments [including terrestrial work of the UbuntuNet Alliance]." [A map on page 6 of the document illustrates these projects.]

Challenges facing universities seeking to derive full benefit from the cable and networking projects include:

• ICT and networking infrastructure at campus level. "...[P]oor connections and insufficient bandwidth often mean that journal articles cannot be downloaded, even in relatively well-resourced institutions.....With the majority of online scholarly materials hosted outside of individual institutions and outside of Africa, bandwidth is a critical determinant of access to academic information."
• Most ICT improvements on campuses have been donor-funded, challenging sustainability.
• In 2005 only 15% of African university libraries were ICT automated for cataloguing and circulation, while in 2009, 59% are automated and have established on e-library of some kind. However, fee-based computer use may limit student access.
• Awareness of available resources is very limited, in part because computer time per student is limited and often fee-based.
• Difficulty gaining access to relevant sites and an inability to locate relevant, high-quality material are problems exacerbated by the need for subscriptions to access material.
• Users and, particularly, library staff must be given the skills to identify and locate what they need for their work. To this end, time must be invested in training staff, particularly in ICT and web skills. "Having recognised that the basic ICT and information skills of their users are important in determining how able they are to make good use of the resources available to them, many libraries have sought to develop training programmes for students and researchers - 82% of African libraries have embarked on the delivery of information skills sessions for undergraduates, and 62% contribute to research skills training."
• Support from senior management is said to be critical for digital library development. Studies referenced here emphasise the critical importance of leadership and strategic management from head librarians.
  

The document outlines programmes supporting African university libraries (page 17) and schemes to support African libraries' access to academic materials (page 18). In addition to accessing information sources stored outside the continent, the author states that "the ability of African scholars to publish and contribute information is critical to redressing the prevailing imbalance, where Africa is a consumer but not a contributor of information and knowledge.... [A]n important and growing part of African libraries’ work is supporting the development of online publishing facilities for African research. This is an essential role if locally produced research is to be made accessible within and outside of African institutions. Digitising content and establishing institutional research repositories are, therefore, growing concerns for university libraries. 64% of African libraries are developing or have developed an institutional repository, and over half have developed some form of online publishing facility, while at a continental level the Association of African Universities manages the Database of African Theses and Dissertations (DATAD), which is now being expanded to enable full-text documents to be uploaded locally by librarians, either in original digital form or scanned from print. [Footnote removed by the editor.] African Journals Online (AJOL) is another notable initiative which has made a major contribution to the availability of African published material, both within and outside of the continent, through a journal hosting platform and document delivery service."