Sustaining the Relevance of Institutional Repository in Academic Libraries in Nigeria: A University of Jos Perspective

Abstract

Institutional repositories (IRs) are one of the fastest growing mediums of accessing Electronic information resources in Academic Libraries (ALs) today. They have potentially increased the public value, ranking, prestige, and visibility of researchers, and relevant universities. Despite the important and rapid growth of IRs, few efforts have been made to systematically review and integrate the findings of various research studies to ensure the sustenance of IRs in Nigeria. Hence, this paper carried out a review on the IR of University of Jos to provide a better way of sustaining it in the Institution and Nigeria by extension. The study employed a longitudinal research method and systematic literature review (SLR). Findings showed that the viewers from the local host (Nigeria), is not encouraging as expected. The IR challenges include; limited qualified manpower and network issues. On the way forward, the study provided a roadmap for better efforts in sustaining institutional repositories by highlighting the basic guidelines for the successful viability of IRs in the Nigerian higher academic public institutions.