Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abstract
Library publishing has become an important and alternative function of academic and research libraries in their quest to serve the scholarly community. Adopting a qualitative approach, through interviews and a review of the content of the KNUST Library’s Strategic Plan and website, this paper explores the potential of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Library to engage fully in library publishing. The paper also examines the policy, infrastructure, and assesses the human (skills and capacity of staff) and technical resources at the KNUST Library to determine its capacity to engage in full-scale library publishing. We found that although the KNUST Library engages in library publishing by disseminating and curating scholarship within the university community through its institutional repository (KNUSTSpace); it is yet to explore other aspects of library publishing that entail the creation and validation of the scholarship it disseminates and curates. To fully fulfill its mandate, we recommend a survey to first solicit views from the faculty at KNUST to determine the scope and type of scholarly publishing initiative to engage in. Given the current state of the library, we suggest retraining and a collaboration with the Department of Publishing Studies and other academic and research libraries with expertise to engage in collaborative library publishing.