Introduction
Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) have transformed Library and Information
services globally. The Internet has provided universal access to information.
Technological innovation has dramatically increased the rate of conversion of
knowledge, information and data into electronic format. Developments in the
software arena has generated powerful knowledge management software which has
transformed the way knowledge is organized, stored, accessed and retrieved (Tam
& Robertson, 2002:2).
Libraries have
always been repositories of learning resources. From earliest time, they have
provided access to information for scholars and researchers. The constantly
increasing amount of information been generated and published, the expanding
formats of information storage and retrieval, and ever changing education and
research needs of library users make it difficult for any library to be an
effective learning resources.
The primary role
of the library is to provide information service to support the educational,
recreation, cultural, economic and technological endeavors of members in their
respective communities. The National Policy on Education (2004) identified the
library as one of the most important aspect of educational support services, although
not visible, technical services is considered the central department to the
library, its operations and services are so crucial that it is safe to say that
a library without technical services department is dead.
Technical
services department activities require not only special training to accomplish
but also a good understanding is needed to use most of its services. Each of the functions of the technical
services department plays a major role in the effective and smooth running of
the library, this call for taking to cognizance the difference between library
routines and technical services.
Literature Review
Technical
services in libraries have been identified as “service involving the operations
and techniques for acquiring, recording and preserving materials (Tauber,
1954). Tauber goes on to define
“service” as all the work connected with some activity such as acquisitions.
Technical services are those services
that provide access to information existing in some published form (Horny,
1980). She divides access into two
components:
a.
Physical: This is created through the process of
acquiring, organizing and labeling information packages.
b.
Bibliographic
Access: This requires the creation of
the descriptive and subject tags that allow the eventual users to select the
information package needed.
According to (J. Barkett, S. Ritchie
& A. Standley, 1978), technical services in the academic library include:
-Acquisition of library resources
-Cataloguing and Classification
-Serials
-Preservation of materials
-Authority Control:
-Bibliographic Control
Rana (2009)
opines that ICT holds the key to the success of modernizing information
services. Applications of ICT are numerous but mainly it is used in converting
the existing paper-print records in the entire process of storage, retrieval
and dissemination.
UNESCO defines
Information Technology as
“The scientific,
technological and engineering disciplines and the managerial techniques used in
Information
handling and processing; their applications; computers and their interaction
with men and machines and associated social, economic and cultural matters” (Peltu,1982)1.
In short
ICT on LIS means
as the application of computers and communication technologies to the acquisition,
organization, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information process.
Convergence of
computer and communication technologies and their subsequent application to
library and information activities has changed the philosophy of information
from unitary to universal access.
Cockrane (1992) identified the
following reasons for the introduction of ICT in libraries:
i The failure of the existing traditional
methods to cope effectively with ever increasing volume in the library.
ii To allow for easy integration
of various activities in the library .
iii Increase in
library activities, that is organization and services .
Concept of Technical Services
Technical
services can be considered as one of the oldest aspects of librarianship. Services involving the operations and
techniques for acquiring, recording and preserving materials are among the
oldest aspects of librarianship (Tauber, 1954).
The term
“technical services” is comparatively recent in origin as (Turtle, 1976) traces
the history of technical services in academic and research libraries from 1876
to 1976. The concept of technical
services including acquisition and processing functions was first proposed in
published form in paper by (Coney, 1939) at the University of Chicago.
Major technical
services functions given by (J. Barkett, S. Ritchie & A. Standley, 1978)
include:
-Acquisition of
library resources: The technical service offered in the library
begins with acquisition of library resources i.e. acquisition is the starting
point for technical services. “Stock” in this context includes all kinds of
resources both print and non-print used for satisfaction of information needs.
Stock
acquisition is usually exclusive to professional librarians Acquisition of library stock usually
involves an acquisition policy. The
acquisition policy is a stated course of action used in selection of materials
to be acquired; this is usually agreed upon (J. Barkett, S. Ritchie & A.
Standley 1978).
-Cataloguing and
Classification: The cataloguing
and classification services are the major organization functions that are
performed in the technical services. The
important factor here is
“Making available” (J. Barkett, S. Ritchie
& A. Standley, 1978).
After
acquisition, materials become unorganized and patrons will definitely find it
difficult to retrieve the material.
Cataloguing and classification through its techniques make it possible
for information retrieval, as the aim of every library is to obtain preserve
and make available the resources (J. Barkett, S. Ritchie & A. Standley,
1978).
-Serials: A serial is defined in AACR2 as “a
publication in any medium issued in successive parts bearing numerical or
chronological designators and intended to be continued indefinitely.
Serials in technical services department
include journals, articles, government periodicals, memoirs. Technical services also deal in the
acquisition, cataloguing (using kardex cards).
-Preservation of
materials: Preservation of
materials is seen as the activities involved in keeping library materials. Morrow (1979) provides and an excellent
outline. Although not specifically a
formula for developing policy, Darling and Webster (1987), provides a step by
step review of typical preservation needs within a library:
-Care
and handling of materials
-Guidelines
for binding and preservation
-Need
for disaster planning
-A
cautionary statement about acquiring material in need for repair
-The
need for staff education
-Desirable
environmental conditions.
A
major part of preservation of materials is Bindery. In some libraries, bindery consists of a unit
under the technical services department.
A large proportion of a university library intake is of foreign or old
materials, this often involves binding or resources (Thompson, 1932). According to Morrow (1979), there is no
standard organization for binding operations in libraries.
-Authority
Control: Library
authority files are a record of the authorized or established form of heading
or access points used in the catalogue.
Authority record contains the established form of the heading, cross
references made in relation to the heading, sources searched for verification
of the heading (J. Barkett, S. Ritchie & A. Standley, 1978).
-Bibliographic
Control: As we enter the 1990s bibliographic control is
in a state of transition in most academic library as many are involved in
implementing online system and rapidly moving from card catalog to the online
catalogue. Bibliographic control is one
of the major functions of the technical services department as they are in
charge of preparation of catalogues which contain bibliographic information (J.
Barkett, S. Ritchie & A. Standley, 1978).
Concept of
Information and Communication Technology
Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) is an umbrella term that includes all technologies for the
manipulation and communication of information. The term is sometimes used in
preference to Information Technology (IT).
Information
and communication technology (ICT) has been defined by various scholars from
different perspectives. Ayodele (2002) defined ICT as electronic based
technology generally used to retrieve store, process and package information as
well as provide access to knowledge. Aluko (2004) also described ICT as
enabling technologies (both hardware and software) necessary for delivery of
voice/audio, data (high speed and low speed) video, fax and internet services
from point A to point B (or possibly to multiply B C etc) using wired and
wireless media protocol (IP) and non IP networks.
To Nwachukwu (2004) information and
communication technologies (ICTs) is the application of computers and other
technologies to the acquisition, organization, storage, retrieval and
dissemination of information. However, in this context, information and
communication technology is the use of electronic devices such as computers,
telephones, internet, satellite system, to store, retrieve and disseminate
information in the form of data, text image and others.
Information and
Communication Technology Facilities in the Library
The development and availability
of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in libraries have today
not only increased and broadened the impact of information resources at their
doorsteps, but also placed more emphasis on effective and efficient services.
Their applications in libraries, commonly known as library automation, have
indeed continued to ease and promote quick and timely access to and transfer of
information resources that are found dispensed round the globe.
ICT enables one:
a. To capture, store, manipulate,
and distribute information;
b. To introduce and provide new
services, revitalize the existing services by providing faster access to the
resources, by overcoming the space and time barriers;
c. To provide need-based, (tailor
made), browsing and retrospective search services to the users; to have large
number of databases in CDs;
e. To utilize the staff for
providing better information services;
f. To develop/upgrade the
abilities of professionals;
g. To encourage networking and
resource sharing at local level;
h. To have access to a number of
national and international journals which are being published only in machine
readable form;
i. To digitize the documents for
preservation and for space saving;
j. To support library functions
such as circulation, serials control, acquisition control, stock
maintenance and other routine
office works and developing in-house database;
k. To retrieve and disseminate
the information in user-defined format;
l. To access library catalogues
databases of other libraries through library networks;
m. To improve the efficiency of
library functions; and
n. To improve the cost effectiveness
of library operations.
Impact
of ICT on Technical Services
Nwankwo (2006), opines that ICTs
application to library works and services could be seen as the best way that
could be used to assist researchers to adequately solve their literature need
for effective research activities. This, according to the writer, is because
the application of ICT to library operations greatly helps in the provision of
efficient reference and information services, the utilization of network
operations such as cataloguing, authority control, inter library loans and
co-operation and in the participation of international bibliographic project.
The use of ICT has impacted on
technical services according to Igbeka (2008), Adebisi (2009) and Uwaifo (2010)
in the following ways:
1.
Online
Public Access Catalogue (OPAC): It is the computer form of library catalogue to
access
materials in the library.
2.
Storage
Capacity: Digital libraries have the potential to store much more information,
since it
requires very little space to
contain it.
3.
Preservation
and Conservation: An exact copy of the original can be made any number of
times
without any degradation in quality.
Cataloguing
and Catalogs
Online Public Access Catalogue
(OPAC) is a great relief to users of the library catalogue in the sense that,
different users can search for the same information at the same time using
different terminals which is impossible through the traditional card catalogue.
Also, users can search the online library catalogue through ISSN, ISBN, and
combination of title and author etc. Overdue notices are generated and sent to
users through their e-mails.
The card catalog
which was replaced in the early 1990s has itself been replaced with a Web-based
interface. This means that the maintenance of the information, typically
handled by library support staff, has to be accurate and the level of
sophistication and technical expertise to handle the amount of information added
to the library’s own knowledge base increases yearly as the capacity to store
and access information has increased. Also important to note, the online
catalog is accessible from anywhere as it is a web-based catalog.
Acquisition of library resources
With the help of web, acquisition
work has become very much simplified. Order placing, duplication checking,
price checking etc are done very effectively using ICT technique. Online
bookshops and publisher’s websites save the time of the librarians. For the
procurement of journals, order is placed in the prescribed format to the
publishers through Internet. Invoices can be downloaded from the websites that
makes service faster and avoids postal delay. E-mail helps in sending reminders
to the publishers, vendors and even to the borrowers of the books. IT also
helps in the process of the serial control in the university library. It helps
in preparing union list of serials and helps in circulating via e-mail to the
branch libraries.
New Addition
Alert Service
Provides alert service to the
users including the staff. List of new additions in the library is compiled and
E-mailed to user community regularly. This service is the major impact of ICT
in technical section.
Collection
Development
Collection
development can be defined as the selection and acquisition of library
materials based on current and potential user needs. Collection management goes
beyond this. It is concerned with managing the utilization, storage and
accessibility of a collection. Collection development can thus be seen as a
subdivision of collection management (Singh, 2004:1).
Although, ICT in its
capacity aids collection development by providing a wider range of information
resources to choose from, it also impacts the collection development process of
library negatively.
Academic librarians
find themselves in an era of unparalleled access to information. The latest
edition of Uhlrich’s has indicated the availability of more than 172 000
journal titles. Although this appears to be a most ideal situation it is not
because the financial resources available in acquisitions departments have not
necessarily increased. The sheer volume of information available also makes
selection of the most suitable information a complex task (Fisher, 2003:463).
The impact of
electronic resources has made collection management a very complex and
challenging task. There are budgetary constraints, numerous formats, ever
changing user needs. Collection management implies involvement in tasks such as
analysis of needs, negotiation of contracts and evaluation of resources (Singh,
2004:4).
Digital
preservation of data
One of the major
costs facing the academic library is the cost related to the conversion and
preservation of information in digital format. This does not include the cost
relating to the annotation for indexing purposes and the cost of conversion of
audio-visual material. One of the problems with converting records into digital
image is the fact that the technology used to store these pages as a digital
photograph results in large files which have storage implications and place
demands on band-with (Wood & Walther, 2000:175).
Funding allocated to
preservation of digital material is generally inadequate. This has to do with expectations
that the costs of digital preservation over length of time might be very high.
It is also difficult to forecast cost in terms of how long to retain digital
material in an archive and computer architectures needed to access material
(Lavoie & Dempsey, 2004:5). Preservation of digital materials poses many
challenges. It is further complicated by the fact that computer technology
changes at an unprecedented rate.
Bibliographic Service
Compilation of
bibliographies, reading lists and state-of-art reports are very parts of LIS
work, particularly in research and academic libraries. Browsing through the
manual indexes and abstracts is a tedious and time consuming work, and does not
always produce up to date result. Availability of databases in electronic form
on CDROM or online, offers convenient, efficient and cost effective information
retrieval. Electronic databases also provide unique search features such as
searching on multiple criteria (key-word, subject, author, source,
classification code, year of publication, language etc.), and variety of
display formats & styles.
Advance features
like natural language query ranking the search results in also available in
many databases. Web based services facilitate full text searches and link to
full text of the documents. Dialog, STN
and Silver Platter are some of the
popular database companies that offer bibliographic and reference databases on
CDROM and Online platforms.
Possible
Solution to aiding ICT Integration in Technical Services
1. Government should endeavour to
vote huge amount of money for ICT infrastructural development
in libraries.
2. There should be training and
retraining for library staff at all level in respect of use of ICT.
3. The concept of e-library
should be revitalized in Nigeria libraries.
4. All taxes on ICT resources
should be removed. Also where possible there prices should be subsielized.
5. ICT equipment should be
service regularly by expert, fault should be promptly connected.
Conclusion
Despite the challenges facing the
availability and usability of ICTs in Nigerian libraries, librarians and
Authorities in various
institutions must find means of making the facilities and resources discussed
in this paper available to their users. It may be noted that if the libraries
are provided with the various ICT facilities by the various authorizes with
adequate funds cum power supply, users and staff of the libraries will utilize
the resources. Staffs that are not ICT complaint may be shown the way out if
they refused to change for better.
Technical services although
coming with its challenges, has impacted technical services in positive
ways. The 21st century
library undoubtedly cannot do without ICT and its components.
References
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