ESTABLISHMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF UNIVERSITY ELECTRONIC LIBRARIES IN THE NORTHWEST ZONE OF NIGERIA

 The study sets out to investigate the process of establishing and managing e–libraries in universities in Northwest zone of Nigerian. Issues of e-library management such as where the elibrary should be established, access to the e-library, computer usage, registration of users, staff structure and training were investigated. In addition, various services available in the university e-libraries ranging from virtual to reprography were discussed, staff competency in managing e-libraries in Northwest Nigerian universities were studied. Objectives of this study include among others identifying the policy used in the establishing of e-libraries and their development. Five research questions were raised, among which are; what are the policies for establishing e-libraries and how are e-libraries managed in universities in Northwest zone of Nigerian are raised.

 Qualitative research method was adopted. Focus group method, eight (8) University Librarians (40) System librarians and System analysts from eight (8) universities in the Northwest of Nigeria were used as sample size of the study. Questionnaire and interview constituted the instrument for data collection, while descriptive method was used to analyze the collected data. The findings of the study showed that the universities in Northwest zone of Nigeria do not have policies for establishing and managing their e-libraries. Some universities established their e-libraries within the conventional libraries while some were established outside their conventional library. Another finding revealed that all the e-libraries in the Northwest zone had undergone expansion through merger of additional sections. The major challenges faced by the e-libraries under study were; finance, technology and infrastructure among others. The study concluded that policies form the basis for standard and uniformity in establishing and managing of e-libraries which were not available. Based on the foregoing, the major way to overcome the lack of uniformity in the e-libraries is to design policy for a unified way for e-libraries that all universities will comply with.