Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Date of this Version
2021
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to investigate the struggles of local content resources in gaining global research visibility through institutional repositories in selected Nigerian tertiary institutions in the South-East geo-political zone. Specifically, the study identified the different local content resources acquired and available to be published in the institution’s repository, how institutional repositories are managed or enhanced to improve global visibility, challenges and strategies for enhancing local content resources visibility through the use of institutional repositories. Descriptive survey research design was employed in carrying out the study which had a population comprised of 3 university librarians and 93 other librarians in the institutions. Instruments for data collection used were an observation checklist, interview and structured questionnaire. Data collected were analysed using frequency counts, percentage and Mean scores, and presented in tables for clarity. The findings showed that PhD thesis, Master degree projects, inaugural lecture handbooks, convocation brochure, matriculation brochure, induction programme, oath taking programme, University calendar, academic calendar for sessions, journal publications, etc were the local content resources acquired and available; from the interviews, it was discovered that the institutional repositories are managed by ICT professionals who are also librarians; major challenges include inadequate fund, inadequate resources, no strict law on statutory deposit by authors in the university, lack of cooperation by authors to donate local contents to the library and increased in plagiarized local contents resources. From the above findings, it was recommended that researchers should be encouraged to write more and libraries should operate an open access repository more, local content resources should be adequately acquired in the library, a section should be dedicated to collecting local contents and library should organize sensitization programmes to educate researchers and the general community on how to use and access local content resources through institutional repositories.