Electronic Resource Collection Development In Selected Ethiopian Higher Institution Libraries: Evaluative Assessment And Future Direction

Abstract

Technological developments have tremendously impacted on the activities of libraries, causing a major paradigm shift, which challenges libraries and the library profession. Such impact and change in information technologies forced libraries to change the way of collecting information materials or collection development process. As the transfer from paper to electronic resources occurs, especially in the acquisition of resource, it is necessary to examine the process academic libraries practice to select and evaluate electronic resources. The objective of this study was to assess in depth and comprehensive coverage of the work flow for electronic resource collection development process from selection to acquisition in the selected Ethiopia higher institution libraries: Addis Ababa, Jimma and Adama Universities. Along the way it addressed the status of e-resource, process, procedures, issues and challenges in e-resource collection development and shows guiding direction for libraries to learn best practices for collection development of eresource. This study covers various facets of collection development process including selection and evaluation process, licensing agreement, challenges, and criteria and provides future direction for libraries on how to overcome challenges. Cross-sectional descriptive survey research was used to assess current practice of e-resource collection development. A total of 59 librarians were purposively sampled to fill self-administered questionnaire. Finding of the study shows, these libraries have attempted to develop e-resource or they are in the process of developing one. Libraries have made efforts to develop IT infrastructure and associated support mechanisms to manage and deliver e-resources. However, when it comes to collection development such as selecting, evaluating and acquisition of e-resources, a number of related challenges come to the foreground. The finding proved that there is a significant relationship between e-resource collection development policy and e-resource collection development practices. Thus, the dearth of e-resource development from the collection development policy has a negative impact on the status of e-resource collection development. These include lack of selection and evaluation criteria, lack of budget, skilled professional as well as support from the management. Therefore these libraries should formulate a comprehensive e-resource collection development policy, allocate separate budget, and recruit skilled professionals in order to achieve better collection development.