FEASIBILITY STUDY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF A VIRTUAL LIBRARY BY INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN NIGERIA Prepared with Funds from Japan Funds in Trust with UNESCO Publisher United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) ISBN 978 – 062 – 798 - 7 August/ September 2003 Designed & printed by: Consultancy Support Services Ltd., Abuja, Nigeria. [email protected] Virtual Library Feasibility Study/ Needs Assessment Page ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Prepared with Funds from Japan Funds in Trust with UNESCO EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Executive Summary Overview The Government of Nigeria has continued to considerably improve the funding of over 500 Higher Education Institutions, centres and agencies of higher learning, research and development, but little is left for the improvement of institutional services and operations after payment of staff salaries and allowances. Accordingly, the poor availability and obsolescence of books, journals and other learning materials has continued to impair the ability of Higher Education Institutions to adequately achieve their purpose of teaching, research and community service for their expanding population of students. In any event, most Higher Education Institutions have long exceeded their carrying capacities while demand for higher education continues to increase. The challenge for Nigeria is therefore, to expand access to education and current learning materials without most of the required funds disappearing into physical expansion of libraries and related structures. At the instance of the President, His Excellency, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, UNESCO has facilitated the development of an actionable, technically feasible, cost-effective, future-proofed and sustainable plan that sets out a road map to efficiently deliver local and international content to all Nigerian Higher Education Institutions, staff and students, in the context of their peculiar environments, by means of a Virtual Library that augments the existing library system. In conducting this Feasibility Study/ Needs Assessment for Higher Education Institutions, UNESCO, with support from the Government of Japan’s Fund- in-Trust, has consulted and interacted intensively with a wide spectrum of stakeholder institutions and experts. The report considered various issues, contexts and relevant options, related to Content; Infrastructure and Delivery Methods; Legal, Copyright and Payment issues; Administration and Management; Human Resources Management; Funding and Sustainability; Implementation Strategies and Budget Recommendations Given the limited funding available to academic libraries in Nigeria, it is obvious that scholars and students can only access a small portion of the information available in their disciplines. Thus, with the escalating costs of information materials and dwindling allocation of funds to academic institutions, a judicious balance must be made to ensure that users of academic libraries in Nigeria have access to relevant, appropriate information in their fields of interest. It is in light of this that this report Virtual Library Feasibility Study/ Needs Assessment Page iv recommends that there is a compelling need for the development of a Virtual Library for Higher Education Institutions in Nigeria. The report puts forward actionable plans for a Virtual Library that would be owned by Nigerian Higher Education Institutions, each according to its reality, and in line with the vision and objectives set forth by Mr. President. 1 The Virtual Library is expected to have two aspects: A The subscription to full text databases in all major fields of study relevant to Higher Education institutions. B The development of indigenous content. This activity is envisaged to be crucial to the survival of our heritage, dialects, languages, cultures, value systems, and collective memory/ history which will otherwise be subsumed by the more dominant languages or cultures of the world. 2 The Virtual Library is to have a distributed Node management structure with a coordinating body, called the Virtual Library Consortium, and the participating institutions which will implement the Node VLCCentre Node Virtual Library as self accounting nodes. 3 The Virtual Library should be a cornerstone of Government strategy to rejuvenate Nigeria’s educational system and the Node realization of many national, regional and international development goals including: A Education For All (EFA) B Information For All Program (IFAP) C National Action Plan for Information for All D New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) E Millennium Development Goals (MDG) F Raison d'être spelt out by the President, His Excellency, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo when he stated in his letter to UNESCO requesting that this feasibility study be undertaken that “it has become necessary... to bridge the digital divide.” 4 The implementation plan has built in mechanisms for transparency and accountability for all activities through the regular publishing and dissemination of annual reports and audited accounts of the nodes and the consortium. These reports will be rendered public, in addition to the Virtual Library Consortium annual general meeting. 5 The Federal Government is to provide the start-up funds which should be supplemented and supported by donor agencies, civil society and the private sector. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6 Even, though some information and communication technology infrastructure may be lacking, it is still possible to initiate development of a Virtual Library with the existing facilities. 7 Significant complementary income is expected from fees, charges and public/ private partnerships. Justifications The purpose of a Virtual Library is to enhance the quality of life by providing access to, and improving the quality of, learning, teaching and research, and thereby providing a more solid base for education. 1 A Virtual Library provides remote, on-line or CD-ROM-based, access to a variety of national and international content including curricula, learning materials, books, journals, magazines and newspapers, services traditionally offered by libraries, and new services and online information sources. 2 Virtual Libraries thus combine on-site collections of materials in electronic format with an electronic network which ensures access to and delivery of those materials. 3 For the Virtual Library to Government owned Higher Education Institutions, centres and agencies of higher learning, research and be useful, appropriate development and relevant to, and S/n Description # in Average User Total User sustainable by Higher category population population 1 VLC Office 1 15 15 Education Institutions, 2 Level 6 20 20,000 400,000 emerging from decades 3 Level 5 35 12,000 420,000 of authoritarian, 4 Level 4 50 9,000 450,000 5 Level 3 200 5,000 1,000,000 arbitrary and over- 6 Level 2 135 500 67,500 centralized governance 7 Level 1 59 50 2,950 and administration, The projected institutional and 2,340,465 Nigeria requires to re- user populations empower its Higher Education Institutions to build capacity, innovate and cultivate a sense of ownership for problems and solutions that affect their fundamental functions and operations. 4 By enriching the Higher Education Institutions, the Virtual Library will improve the quality of their teaching, learning and research and thereby the quality of all other levels of education. Virtual Library Feasibility Study/ Needs Assessment Page vi 5 Sufficient indigenous Private Sector owned Higher Education Institutions, centres and agencies of higher learning, research and materials exist to development warrant a special S/n Description # in Average User Total User category population population program to make such 1 Very Large 10 5,000 50,000 content available on the 2 Large 25 1,000 25,000 Virtual Library. 3 Medium 100 500 50,000 4 Small 200 50 10,000 The projected institutional and 135,000 6 By making public records user populations and information available, the Virtual Library will preserve and enhance the democratic process, good governance, accountability and transparency. 7 The Virtual Library can be used as a vehicle to project our culture, values and capabilities while preserving our heritage and collective memory. It is a case of “survival of the fittest” through adaptation to the use of modern tools to preserve and promote our diverse languages, culture and heritage. 8 The Virtual Library provides Nigerian users access to the same materials at the same time as their counterparts anywhere in the world. We look forward to UNESCO facilitating arrangements for Nigerian Virtual Library users to access large information repositories such as the Harvard University on-line library when it completes the digitisation of the 10 million books contained in that Library. This implies that Nigerian users may soon have access to the same materials, at the same moment that students and staff of Harvard University have access to. 9 International Publishers and donor agencies have continued to offer subsidies and free donations of vast quantities of content which most Nigerian students and staff are unfortunately not able to access or utilise. For example, the SOROS Foundation USA, provides free access to the EBSCO (Elton B. Stephens Company) database which provides access to several tens of thousands of full text journals, magazines and other source titles. The International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Italy, International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publication in the UK as well as the World Health Organisation