A Case of Redeemer’s University Adoption of Institutional Repository Using the Principles of Electronic Information Management Systems

Abstract

This case is about the influence of the Internet on scholarly communication and the emergence of various access-to-knowledge initiatives. Major emphasis was placed on Institutional Repositories (IRs) using a practical example of its evolution at the Redeemer’s University (RUN), Nigeria. RUN was established in 2005 by the Redeemed Christian Church of God with the mission to develop into a global university that is able to contribute to the amelioration of the problems facing Nigeria, Africa, and the world. To achieve its mission, RUN created a development hexagon, which resulted in the need to deploy its RUN Institutional Repository (RUNIR). Consequently, RUNIR deployment, which began in 2008, formed the major theme of the case reported in this chapter. As a result of the advantages provided by the institutional repository, Redeemer’s University is in a strong position to meet its mission goals and objectives.

Understanding the influence of librarians cognitive frames on institutional repository innovation and implementation

“…It also suggests that lack of attention to social issues constitute a real problem for universities in developing countries trying to deploy IR inventions to improve access to information and visibility of their research scientists. The research also extends the insights gained from IR studies that detail the role of academic librarians in IR innovation (Ukwoma & Mole, ; Utulu & Akadri, ; Abrizah, ) and IS studies that endeavored to explain how their cognitions influence IS innovation (Wirtz, Piehler, Thomas, & Daiser, ). Figure illustrates the dynamics of interactions between the librarians' beliefs and scripts and resistance routines and their influences on interdepartmental collaboration and how they constitute barriers to IR innovation and the achievement of IR benefits.…”

“…Other studies report that university publication policies, copyright considerations, and the nature of IR resources also constitute barriers to IR innovation (Cullen & Chawner, 2011;Kim, 2011;Okoroma & Abioye, 2017). More recently, researchers suggest that diversity of stakeholders' worldviews and interests in scientific knowledge production and management are sensitive issues impacting IR implementation (Holley, 2013;Utulu & Akadri, 2014). IR adoption and implementation in university libraries involve a broad 2 of 12 UTULU AND NGWENYAMA set of internal stakeholders, academics, university management, and specialists (computer programmers, network experts, analysts, librarians, etc) with very different interests in the IR adoption, which must be addressed (Covey, 2011;Cragin et al, 2010;Holley, 2013).…”

“…Positivist research on IR takes a functionalist view of libraries and sees librarians as the authority figures who dictate the design of the libraries, their formal structures, policies and rules for curating, managing, and accessing the scientific knowledge to be stored in the IR (Pinfield, ; Palmer et al, ;Shearer, ; Westell, ). However, there is an alternative conception of academic libraries as contested social realities and divergent views of their role in academic knowledge curation, management, and user access (Budd, ; Cox & Verbaan, ; Utulu & Akadri, ). In positivist research, IR awareness, perception, acceptance, use, and adherence to old scholarly publication models are seen as events and not as social processes that have histories.…”

“…However, academic librarians have very different worldviews and professional frames concerning the management of scientific knowledge than the users (academics, student researchers, etc) they support (Alam, ; Bolarinwa & Utulu, ; Ugwanyi, Eze, Obi, & El, ). As such, IR innovation and implementation must involve investigation of the various stakeholders' worldviews to determine how best to configure the IR to achieve the goals of open access of all stakeholders (Utulu & Akadri, ). To clarify, while both professional frames and scripts are mental models, scripts are mental models of routines for enacting specific work activities within an organizational context (Schank & Abelson, ; Sims & Gioia, ).…”

Multilevel analysis of factors affecting open-access institutional repository implementation in Nigerian universities

“…The scholars assume that OAIR implementation barriers only emanate due to actions taken by consociates. Arguments put forward by Okoroma and Abioye (2017), Utulu and Akadri (2014), Shearer (2013), Abrizah (2010), Bui and Baruch (2010), Weill (2009) and Palmer et al (2008), among others, confirm that researchers that study OAIR implementation continuously propagate this notion. The implication of this is that many researchers who study OAIR fail to appreciate the fact that OAIR implementation barriers encountered at the individual and organisational levels may be determined by (1) individuals and groups within a university (consociates), (2) individuals and groups outside a university (contemporaries), (3) individuals and groups that have been involved with a university in the past (predecessors) and (4) individuals and groups that will be involved with a university in the future (successors).…”