Navigating the Digital Shift: The Interplay between Librarian Competence, and Sustainable Digital Preservation in Kwara State Universities

Abstract

The evolution of digital resources has redefined how information resources are available in libraries. This study evaluates librarians’ competencies for digital preservation in university libraries in Kwara State, Nigeria. Four (5) objectives and questions guided this study. Narrative design of qualitative methodology was adopted. The population was 10 digital librarians who were purposively selected from 10 universities in Kwara State, Nigeria. Semi-structured interviews were held with the respondents. The interview guide was validated using content validity, while inter rater percentage agreement was used to ascertain its reliability, which returned 90.7%. The interviews’ responses were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings of this study revealed that the librarians are competent in creating and updating OPAC as well as searching the web, digital resources and library databases. Moreso, findings showed that migration, technology preservation, digital back-up and replication were used for preserving digital resources, while digital resources are secured through access control, network, database and hardware protections. Findings further demonstrated that the respondents possessed basic digital preservation skills including creating and updating OPAC, managing e-mail and library databases, digital resources security and digitization software (Greenstone/Dspace, etc.) software. This study concludes that the digital proficiencies of librarians in university libraries in Kwara State, Nigeria, helped them in the preservation of digital resources. The study recommend that universities should invest more in the continuous training of librarians among others.