Igbeka and Ola, Part 7
Challenges
As desirable, beneficial and important digitization is, it is not without its challenges, especially in developing countries, like Nigeria. These challenges and inhibiting factors include:
Lack of commitment by library managers. It has been observed that most of the older generation and older librarians appear not to be well disposed towards digitization as compared with the younger generation. Furthermore, it is assumed that most of the older generation are still leaders of most libraries. Therefore, the younger generation will require a lot of assuring and strong arguments to convince the older ones to accept the need of digitizing some of their library materials. For any new technology to thrive and succeed, the operators must be convinced of its importance and essence. Computerization suffered drastically from library and institutional heads who never believed in the computerization project. Thus, institutional and library managers must be convinced that digitization is of significant value especially for research and scholarship.
Lack of funds to procure equipment and software. This is of paramount importance. At present, the public–owned Federal University Libraries are allocated a meager ten percent of university overhead cost, which amounts to a very paltry sum that can hardly cover maintenance costs of physical facilities. Digitization projects are not inexpensive, and the library management should be ready to commit significant funding to it. There are organizations and multinationals prepared to support digitization projects. Such organizations can be approached. The choice of appropriate hardware and software among the myriads available in the IT market is essential. Presently, there are different types of scanners and optical character recognition (OCR) devices with varying capabilities. Some cost a lot but are very efficient. Some are suitable for handling certain types of digitizeable materials. For instance, the Book–eye digital machine is capable of handling books but not suitable for fragile documents. Care should be taken in choosing the hardware and software, taking cognizance of available funds and resources.
Deciding on the digitization model. It is also important that appropriate decisions regarding the digitization model be taken. It is necessary for the library management to be knowledgeable about the available items and the digitizeable items. Will it be cost–effective or beneficial to handle digitization? Should it be done in-house or contracted out to an organization with relevant credentials, or even involve a consortium? These questions are of utmost relevance before embarking on a digitization project.
Expertise and IT infrastructure. The implementation and sustainability of digitization require the expertise of relevant IT personnel who will be responsible not only for implementing the project but also for maintaining it. They will also need to train some personnel who will be responsible for teaching how to use the equipment, and how to carry out the process of digitization themselves. Digitization is a process and it has to continue once it is started. The library must be ready to give enough incentives to retain qualified personnel. The necessary infrastructures and utilities such as electricity and energy supply should be put in place. An enabling environment for the devices used for digitization should be created.
Copyrights. Digitizing an item means altering the format of someone else’s intellectual product and, in doing so one must respect the ownership right of the producer. In view of this, libraries should go the extra mile in identifying the owners of such materials. The Copyright Law can be very problematic vis–à–vis digitization because the existing laws in the country do not yet cover this. This is of utmost importance to librarians, and it could slow down the process of digitization, especially when the copyright issue of a material is raised.