Session recordingLinked Data among Academic Libraries in Nigeria: Status and Future Direction, Basiru Adetomiwa (Redeemer's University)
Library Linked Data (LLD) produces an opportunity for libraries to expand the value proposition of describing their assets. It increases the visibility of library resources and interoperability with non-library systems. LLD helps libraries to create an open and global pool of shared data that can be used to describe resources, with a limited amount of redundant effort compared with current cataloguing processes. This presentation describes a study evaluating the status and future direction of Linked Data among Academic Libraries in Nigeria. The study adopted a survey method of research with a self-developed questionnaire as the instrument of data collection. Academic Libraries across all the Government and private institutions in southwestern Nigerian were purposively selected. The simple percentage was used to analyze the respondents' responses. Study results revealed that LLD is not recent practise among Nigerian academic libraries, but there are some barriers to academic libraries deciding to embrace LLD partly due to relative complexity of the technology, institutional factors, system limitations and skill level on the part of librarians were the major barriers to the status of LLD among the survey academic libraries in southwestern Nigeria. For academic Libraries in Nigeria to keep pace with their counterparts in the developing countries in line with the digital trends, the study recommended financial intervention, awareness, motivation for the library staff, and regular attendance at the training/workshops on emerging technologies for librarians as the solutions to the observed problems.
Library services and linked data at Makerere University: prospects of a research-led university, Onan Mulumba (Makerere University)
Makerere University is the oldest and most prestigious university in East Africa. As one of the best universities on the African content, Makerere is aligned to three main activities; Teaching, Research and Community Outreach, and these are inclined to 5 core values; allegiance to the institution, integrity, customer responsiveness, professionalism, and openness to diversity. Makerere University has a library system, hosting both electronic and print resources. The digitization of print resources has created a system, through which delicate material is conserved. The files and their metadata, using Dublin core, are stored into the institutional repository and in the integrated library system (Virtua). The library system further generates library usage data which can be used in making acquisitions decisions. For most research output files, the data is available and would be archived alongside the digital files. Other than the National Biodiversity Data Bank which is transitioning to online, the rest of the data remains stored on authors’ personal computers and other storage tools. With support from government and other development partners Makerere university strives for a shift from a more academic driven to a research-led university. This calls for more support from the university administration and other key units, to provide access points to linked data. This paper aimed at establishing the status of linked data at Makerere university, challenges encountered in data management, and prospect strategies. The researcher used an exploratory research methodology to generate key findings, from existing literature and personal experiences from experts. The findings reveal that Makerere university researchers archive their data in external repositories and that, while the Makerere Institutional Repository has the potential to host linked data, this service has not been exploited basically due to lack of skilled labor force, awareness, financial resources, and policy. However, this service, when incorporated in the institutional research agenda, can be implemented and also enhance data linking in the NBDB. It is anticipated that the results from this study will guide Makerere and other institutions in Uganda to embrace the value of linked data and therefore ignite its implementation.
