Challenges and Strategies to the Use of Institutional Repository among Academics Staff in Universities Libraries in South-West, Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the major challenges and strategies to using institutional repositories (IRs) among academic staff in university  libraries in South-West Nigeria. A descriptive survey was employed in the study. The research population consist of 420 academic staff from six federal  universities. A questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. The questionnaire was designed based on the objectives of the study. The  results indicate that the major challenges to using IRs include poor ICT skills, unwillingness to deposit research materials, epileptic power supply, absence  of IRs policy hindering the submission of content to the IRs, fear of copyrights infringement, financial constraints, lack of awareness of  publishers policy as regards depositing published works in IR, fear of plagiarism, and low bandwidth. The results further revealed strategies to surmount  the factors facing the IRs in universities are alternative power supply should be provided, management should endeavour to increase Internet bandwidth  to enhance the effective utilization of the IRs, having an IRs policy will encourage the acquisition of content, availability of plagiarism  software, specifying copyright and intellectual property right in respect of IRs content, creating more awareness of the importance and content of the IRs  among others.