THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL PRESERVATION AND ACCESSIBILITY OF ELECTRONIC DISSERTATIONS ON ACADEMIC LIBRARIES: THE CASE OF IGNATIUS AJURU UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION LIBRARY

Abstract

The study investigated the impact of digital preservation and accessibility of electronic dissertations on
academic libraries with particular emphasis on the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education. Three (3)
research questions were asked and three hypotheses were tested at a significance level of 0.05. The study
adopted a survey research design and data was gathered randomly from the selected university using a
sample size of 397 people, comprising of 294 students and 103 lecturers. Data collected through a selfdesigned
questionnaire was analyzed using mean and standard deviation, while z-test statistics were used
to evaluate the hypothesis. The findings revealed that electronic dissertation is better for IAUE,
considering the speed of accessibility of electronic dissertation. The grand total mean of 2.48 (students)
and 2.44(lecturers) implies that the electronic dissertation preservation in IAUE will increase accessibility
and rapid growth in the university. The most prominent challenges identified associated with the digital
and electronic preservation of dissertations for accessibility are that poor ICT facilities will impact on the
digital preservation of electronic dissertation in the library, hence their availability will be of utmost
importance. Poor Internet network coverage, on the other hand, has an impact on electronic dissertation
access in the library. A lack of ICT knowledge will hinder the use of electronic dissertation facilities and
equipment. From the findings of the study, conclusions and recommendations were made. The study
recommended, among others, that expanding the library's network coverage to include the entire student
body was advised for Ignatius Ajuru University of Education.