DIGITALIZATION OF ARCHIVES AND RECORDS AS A MEANS TO DOWNSIZE RECORD DETERIORATION AND SECURITY HAZARDS

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to investigate the digitalization of archives and records as a means to downsize record deterioration and security hazards in John Harris library, University of Benin. The descriptive survey research technique was adopted for the study and a well-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. All 173 professional, para-professional and non-professional staff of the John Harris library was used as the population for this study. The purpose of the study was aimed at determining the level of adoption of digitalization of archives and records in academic libraries; examining the impact of digitalization in mitigating record deterioration and reducing security hazards in academic libraries; identifying the challenges faced in implementing digitalization as a strategy to downsize record deterioration and security hazards in academic libraries; and identifying potential solutions and strategies to address the challenges associated with the adoption of digitalization in academic libraries.. A total of 120 copies of questionnaires were distributed to the respondents and 87 copies were retrieved and found to be useable, resulting to a 72.5% response rate. Based on the results, it was recommended that the management of universities should consider installations and deployment of necessary ICT infrastructure and the right software configurations, provide regular staff training for proper digitization and digitalization of work processes and procedures in the repositories for efficient results and also encourage continuous digitization and upload of scholarly information sources and resources to the Digital Repositories of their universities as Open Educational Resources.