International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016) Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria November 28 – 30, 2016 The Role of Academic Libraries in Enhancing Workflow in African Universities Fatimah Jibril Abduldayan1, Tihyaunin Luka Dang2, Arthur Karemani3, and Shadrack Buhomoli Obadia4 1 Department of Library and Information Technology, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria 2 Federal University Dutsinma, Katsina, Nigeria 3 Gulu University, Uganda 4 The University of Dodoma, Tanzania 1 fj.dayan@futminna.edu.ng, 2tihyaunindang@yahoo.com, 3karemaniarthur@gmail.com, 4obadia.buhomoli@udom.ac.tz Abstract—An academic library may be beautifully designed A research librarian is expected to have trainings and but with little impact on the research output of its users. This specialized knowledge of his/her patrons‟ fields of practice, study identified these gaps with reference to African libraries. such as where the researchers feel free to conduct their Researchers, irrespective of their area of interest, have a searches (venue), time they prefer to work and other related common research workflow which defines the entire research interest. He should also become familiar with the process. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) researchers‟ interest such as the journals he/she likes to tools can be embedded at every level of the workflow creating publish, the social media platforms he uses, collaborative an enabling research environment to ease research process and efforts amongst others. Research librarians should be better output. Academic librarians, as part of their role in committed to building up a strong research community by supporting teaching, learning and research, are expected to introduce, advocate and create awareness and offer support providing expertise in the organisation and description of services on available relevant products and services that can be information, be engaged in providing knowledge on long- embedded at every level of the research workflow. This study term preservation and expert searching, project inception and identified new products and services and suggested how they grant seeking opportunities. can be embedded through the research process. The study Several definitions by different experts indicate that concluded that embedding these new products and services in research is a systematic approach towards investigating a research workflow will improve the quality of researches particular area of interest undertaken to discover facts and emanating from Africa and ultimately improve our research knowledge towards solving a need. Every researcher‟s need visibility globally. vary in relation to the particular area of interest. However, there is a common ground for most researchers and that is Keywords-academic library; research librarian; research; the research process or what is often referred to as the researchers’ workflow; information needs; products and researcher‟s workflow. services; social media The workflow is the description of the entire research process from identifying the need, to building up ideas I. INTRODUCTION towards solving the need, and disseminating the knowledge Academic staffs of any institution, aside the obligation of gathered. Librarians should be aware of the growing demand teaching and interacting with students and fellow staff for information and must acquire advanced information members, are faced with the obligation of prioritizing literacy skills combined with technological or digital literacy. research. As such an obvious distinction is made between Meeting up with such roles will get the research librarian teaching, research and administration. Research in every familiar with his researcher‟s workflow as he gets involved institution sets a hallmark for development and increasing in each step of their research process. This approach will the visibility of such institution and its global ranking. This mandate the research librarian to constantly find new also has personal benefits to individual staff members in products and services that can be embedded in their areas of career development and contribution to the workflow. community, building a reputation in the field and becoming The research librarian is therefore faced with so many an authority in that field. A researcher‟s place in an responsibilities if he/she wants to remain relevant in the ever institution therefore can be seen as relevant and highly changing technological age. He must strive to go with the important. changing time by constantly introducing new products and Academic libraries have major role to play in providing services that will assist researchers. Not only introducing the valuable assistance to the research community. The librarian new products but must ensure that these products and to keep up with these responsibilities should strive to be part services are embedded in each step of the researchers of the research community in the institution and not only workflow by providing timely and targeted research support with the undergraduates or other users‟ information need, services. thereby making him/her a research librarian. This paper sets out to discover new products or services that can be introduced and embedded in a researcher‟s 158 International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016) workflow while considering its sustainability, advantages reinvented their services with the aim of reaching out to and limitations. many users through modern technologies such as databases and online journals, websites, Facebook and library specific II. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK applications like the mobile library applications. In the academic environment, the researcher identifies A. Products the library as a safe haven where it does not only serve as a Product is anything that can be offered to a market for storehouse of knowledge but also a place where effective sale or consumption and must satisfy the needs of a research can be conducted, services rendered impact on their particular people at a particular period. Product can be scholarly activities, development of curriculum and viewed from different perspectives, different context and intellectual preservation. This is made possible when environment. Krishnan and Ulrich [1] defined products in libraries assist researchers and academia in their research four perspectives. In marketing perspective, product is seen activities through provision of good information services like as a bundle of attributes; it is an artifact resulting from an recent databases and journals, updating the library website organization process in organizational view point, while with relevant information, and adopting new technologies engineering view product as a complex assembly of such as Facebook, Google applications, Twitter, Mendeley, interacting components; product is a sequence of and YouTube. development and/or production process steps from an operational management view. III. RESEARCHERS INFORMATION NEEDS AND WORKFLOW According to [2], products can be core, tangible or Research has greatly evolved due to increasing amount of augmented products. Core products represent the meaning data involved and new capabilities and technology coming and convey its existence which includes the key benefits into the library daily. As this shift is evident, librarians‟ role expected by the customer. Kotler and Keller [3] demonstrated also changes. Libraries in every institution must stay up to that, product has four stages of life cycle which starts from a date with the current technologies and be involved in process of introduction, growth, maturity and decline. continuous personal training and retraining. Emphasis has Products can be introduced to the market through major been placed on the value of research output and wide impact innovations, product improvements, products additions and of research findings, thus the need for information by repositioned products. Products have characteristics which existing researchers and upcoming researchers. Information include features, styling, Quality, brand name and packaging is a resource that is naturally needed in all human endeavors. [2] and [3]. All these definitions give a different Suffice to say that information is indispensable in human representation of what product means to different people and life. Academic libraries are wholly designed for the purpose disciplines. The library however has a different perspective of rendering information services that promote research, from the one mentioned above. learning and innovations. According to [7], services demanded by library users are not static, and user‟s needs are B. Library Products dynamic thus, requiring different services at different times. Librarians view information as a product just like other Therefore, libraries and information scientists require products. According to [4], products also include constant training and evaluation of their skills in order to informational, digital goods and library possessions. Library obtain new capabilities to handle researchers changing needs. products also have initial stage of emergence, growth stage, Researchers‟ need vary in relation to the subject fields or maturity and the decline stage. Products may include all the particular area of interest. However there is a common materials that academic library possess, digital goods and ground for most researchers and that is the research process informational goods. Therefore cataloguing, indexes, or what is often referred to as the researchers‟ workflow. collections, display, Information Technology (IT) services Pienaar and van Deventer [8] developed a research cycle, may be identified as library products. These products presented in Figure 1, and indicated that it was developed on undergo life cycle just like other products do. Some products the grounds of the researchers‟ input on how they are doing like social media in libraries are at introduction stage, others research. This research cycle will be adopted for this study. like library management system, institutional repositories are The cycle will provide an insight into the processes involved at the growth stage, catalogue are at the maturity stage and in a researcher‟s workflow and how the new services and products like card cataloguing are at the decline stage, products can be embedded into it. although this will depend on the specific library [5]. The concept of product life cycle illustrates the need for library IV. UNDERSTANDING THE GENERIC RESEARCH PROCESS products to be reviewed, rearranged, redesigned, repackaged, renamed or even removed from library so as to meet the The workflow of a typical researcher follows the above current needs of library users [2] and [6]. Hence, library cycle irrespective of his/her area of interest or research field. products whether core, tangible or augmented must be constantly evaluated to sustain its relevance in the digital A. Identification of a Research Area age. This often is the starting point and a prerequisite to every researcher. There are vast forms of literature available on C. Library Services information platforms hence making it difficult to know Innovations in the provision of services have greatly which source to consult. Researchers want to make their improved library services to users. A service is a system of searches easier using narrow searches, retrieve the relevant supplying a public need such as communication or utilities. information effectively and timely. Nonetheless, they adopt With vast growth of information platforms, libraries have various styles to identify sources. Several studies suggest 159 International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016) that researchers view Google as the easiest and fastest D. Writing Proposals and Reports platform as such there is heavy dependence on Google. This Reports are written for a variety of reasons. This can be is due to its ease of use while using it with word-searching either informative, persuasion or both. Information reports capability and wider scope of retrieval of data. Searches include employee evaluations while persuasive reports often produce unexpected information in addition to what is usually fall in the categories of problem or solution base. A expected. However, [9] opine that researchers also make use proposal is primarily a sophisticated piece that seeks to of other sources such as informal advice from colleagues to define problems or opportunities that provide strategies. identify information sources. Pienaar and van Deventer [8] Proposal writing needs the knowledge of writing and refers to it as personal networks or face to face interaction. organization skills, i.e. ability of a researcher to organize his Researchers also make a point of staying updated with thoughts in paragraphs and have them concise and straight to the information and reports being published by government the point. Librarians can play a role in helping researchers publications or documents. Through these sources, with this activity by offering new products and services like researchers are able to identify a problem or a need. Microsoft Word, Google documents and other writing and Nowadays the social media also serves as another source of editing software. identifying research problems for instance news on a virus outbreak which goes viral on a social media, a researcher may develop interest in that field and develop a statement of E. Identification of Funding Sources problem. In such ways, researchers find areas to concentrate Researchers work with the hope that their work will and carry out a research and by that providing a solution. reach their desired audience and in process make impact. B. Literature Review and Indexing However the issue of where to publish becomes a factor that will see that their work gets to the right target. As such Reviewing literature is a research activity. This is usually libraries should be involved in finding or identifying funding knowledge-based contribution on a particular subject, sources which may assist in funding publications on high focusing on areas of interest that relates to problems impact journals. discovered, highlighting influential conceptual or empirical studies. It requires effective and comprehensive activities to help reduce on time spent looking for information, maximize F. Project Management and the Research Work Flow the quality and appropriateness of results, clarify the scope of Researchers have a need to manage, manipulate, research topic and assist in identifying experts and influential disseminate and preserve their information. Kroll and researchers in field of interest. Researchers have to be guided Forsman [9] found that researchers find it difficult managing on what literature to consult by using a variety of resources data. This leads to disorganization and loosing important to cover a range of media such as journal titles, books, thesis, data which may be useful to them. Research data gathered, conference papers, e-print and reports. This involves guiding be it through qualitative or quantitative means, is a core on how to search for available materials using keywords, activity in research life cycle and a substantial amount of Boolean operators thus keeping systematic and accurate researcher‟s time is devoted to effectively manage that data records using Endnote, Zotero and Mendeley. and bringing it into structure as findings for presentation and In addition, indexing helps locate information. This dissemination. Therefore, there is need to manage such data. facilitates access to huge amounts of information online that Researchers need to collaborate using platforms that allows is highly cross-referenced, providing variety of documents. for effective data management and supports transparency, Contextual factors such as frequency of access, relevance timely sharing and accurate means of preservation. task of an individual and date of last use have shown to be important in classifying, organizing and accessing information from individual point of view. C. Sharing, Discussion and Collaboration With caution, researchers want to share ideas, discuss and network with colleagues. Although sharing and exchanging information of many kinds is central to the ethos of science and as such, individual researchers wish to choose what to share, with whom and what, nonetheless, collaboration is necessary as the recent tools develop for measuring impact such as altmetrics.com and PLOS article level metrics are developed to capture wider impact of the research lifecycle and activities such as number of downloads, number of readers, discussion and comments in social media like Facebook, tweets, blogs etc. They measure the quantity of attention received i.e. the more people talking about an article, the higher the score and the quality of that attention. Each platform on social media has different weight depending on the use of scholars. This emphasizes the need for familiarizing oneself with these tools and more emphasis on networking and collaboration for all researchers. Figure 1. Research cycle 160 International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016) G. Dissemination and Artifacts Nigeria and Tanzania. Findings of [14]revealed that the The results of a piece of research, be it through writing training of librarians in Nigeria is inadequate, and needs thesis, journal articles, conference paper, report on radical restructuring to produce librarians suited to deliver performance, research report or blog are clearly a major part modern service in digital library in a knowledge-based of research cycle. A chief concern of researchers is where to society. publish as there are factors to consider such as speed, Satpathy and Maharana [15] assessed the ICT skills of audience and peer system. Research assessment processes Library Information Science professionals in Engineering make heavy use of publication counts especially journal institution of Orisa in India. Their findings revealed that articles. These public activities have strong institutional and 43.47 % had knowledge in electronic data bases and professional incentives in building reputations, securing automation software available at their institution but they had promotion, incentives for other kinds of communication and poor searching skills. Academic librarians need to get sharing of research findings. Although several findings expertise in use of the Internet, networking, intranet, suggest low awareness of an institutional repository[10] multimedia, imaging technology, and full text databases. which may serve as a good platform to disseminate research This suggestion aligns with those of [16] who conducted a especially for young researcher such as graduates who may study on core competencies for academic reference librarians consider it a starting point. As such, researchers require in Croatia and professional skill and competencies required assurances that their work will get sufficient audience and be for academic librarians in an electronic environment accessible to many. Libraries role in achieving this is respectively. paramount as they are chiefly the knowledge hub of any institution who may be in charge of the repositories. With VI. IDENTIFICATION OF NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES assurances of large audience, good management and The following are identified new products and services preservation, the institutional repository may improve that can be embedded in researchers‟ workflow: dissemination of research results.  Wiki - allows users to create, add, edit or delete content in collaboration with others. H. Project Closure  Blog - is a discussion or informational site published This is often the most neglected but very important phase on the World Wide Web. of the research process. This phase directly involves the  Facebook - the most dominant personal social research librarian closing the research process through network in the world. describing, formatting, preserving, digitizing and ensuring  Twitter - is an online social networking service that that research data are alive and active whenever and however enables users to send and read short messages. it is required. The research librarian must have embedded  Workflow management system - allows the himself in the entire workflow collating and storing research researcher to customize word processor to fit their data generated at every level of the workflow. This phase is needs e.g. Google docs. informally referred to as the “clean-up process after a  Library mobile website (app) -for increasing the successful operation”. Metadata schema must be used to library presence on the internet and sharing describe, capture and store relevant re-usable research data. information using the mobile version of the library These metadata can be the Dublin core, use of digital object website. identifier (DOI) etc. which is eventually uploaded on the  Altmetrics - stands for „alternative metrics‟ and is a institutional repository or digitized and stored in an archive. way of measuring the impact of a scholarly article. Cloud services like software (SaaS), infrastructure (IaaS) or platform (PaaS), are usually employed at this stage of  Google Scholar - a citation profile created by research workflow. Google for research impact analysis and online visibility.  Mendeley - software that assist researchers to V. LIBRARIANS AND ICT SKILLS organize references. In Africa, generally, there is a case of inadequate  Pinterest - web and mobile application that operates knowledge of technology in most libraries. This is also true a photo-sharing website. for other continents like Asia. In Pakistan for instance,[11]  ORCid - unique researcher identifier designed to findings suggest that library professionals in Karachi have provide a transparent method for linking researchers only word office skills but lack advance knowledge to handle and contributors to their activities and outputs. current technologies which are already settling in academic  LinkedIn - a social media platform for researchers libraries. The author comments that they however have of like minds. expertise in using Web Dewey, OPAC, and MARC records.  Academia.edu - is a social networking website for In the same line of thought, [12] observed that the majority of sharing academic researches. libraries in selected universities in Nigeria did not have  Every post - allows users to post updates on the access to ICT facilities. Computers were utilized basically major social network from one place at one time. for technical activities such as cataloguing and for  Crowd booster - improves online presence by classification. The case is not any different from Tanzania, linking social media, e.g. Facebook and Tweeter. [13] recommended that librarians have a need to acquire knowledge in some practical IT courses such as computer  Hootsuite - this is a platform which manages programming in Visual Basic, JAVA, and networking. The multiple social network. situation in Uganda is not much different from that of  Evernote - advanced note taking application. 161 International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016)  EBSCOHost, Scopus, Science Direct - these are TABLE I. INTEGRATING NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES IN RESEARCH WORKFLOW databases which offer wide and variety of data in full text for researches in different field of study. Stage Stage in Research Process New Product/Services  QR Code - a machine-readable code consisting of No. 1 Identification of research Personal networks; research an array of black and white squares, typically used area groups, face-to-face; for storing URLs or other information for reading by literature; government camera on a smartphone. documents.  Beacons - for guiding and directing users to an item 2 Literature review & Academic databases: or location of an item in the library using the indexing Scopus, Science Direct; institutional repositories. Bluetooth technology. Retrieval: Google Scholar,  Google drive - is a cloud service that allows storage Browser favorites; of files, also provides a platform for sharing, typing, Filing: manual; databases. editing documents including spreadsheets, 3 Identification of Personal networks; presentations. May also serve as a good platform for collaborators VRE: HubZero, Open collaboration between researchers. Science Framework. 4 Proposal writing MS Word; Google Doc  Drop box - file hosting service that store photos, 5 Identification of funding Personal networks (family docs, videos, and other files in cloud. sources and friends); funding  GIMP – a manipulation software for digitized agencies; government objects. agencies; institutional support.  Adobe Acrobat - a text manipulation software for 6 Project management MS Project; Gantt chart. digitized objects. 7 Scientific workflow Free analysis software;  Hub Zero - a Virtual Research Environment for SPSS, Survey Monkey. research and collaboration. 8 Training/mentoring etc. Face-to-face; Wiki; blog.  Open Science Framework - a Virtual Research 9 Real time communication E-mail; face-to-face; Environment for research and collaboration. phone; instant messaging; wiki; web site; meetings.  Alfresco - a Virtual Research Environment for 10 Dissemination & artefacts Google Scholar; blogs; research data management and collaboration. wiki; exhibition; Facebook;  Metadata Schema - Dublin core, Digital Object Twitter; LinkedIn, QR identifier, Datacite, etc. codes. 11. Project Closure Metadata schema- Dublin core, digital object VII. EMBEDDING NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES IN identifier; digitization, RESEARCH WORKFLOW institutional repositories. Table I presents available products/services that can be Adapted from (http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue59/pienaar-vandeventer)[17] embedded into the different stages in the research process. VIII. CONCLUSION A. Advantages of Embedding New Products and Services in Researchers have the opportunity of using a wide range Workflow of Reserchers of emerging technologies which have profound impact on  It creates an easier research working environment for the nature of research and research workflow. However, use researchers. of some of these new technologies may not be as universal as  It saves time of researchers in deciding what product might be envisioned but with regular training and keeping up or service to embed at each level of research process. to date with technologies there may be proper embedment of  It helps identify possible ways of funding and related technologies in the researcher‟s workflow. This is disseminating research output even before the made easy by librarians embedding themselves in the research is completed. research workflow of researchers getting fully involved in  It makes the whole research process interesting and every step of the workflow, keeping real time contact with engaging using various collaborative tools. the researchers. It is however important to note that these newly introduced products and services can actually be B. Limitations of Embedding New Products and Services in sustained and thrived in an environment where not only the Workflow of Researches basic technological capacities are available but also the  The new products and services is relative to the enthusiastic staff who are willing to welcome the new background of the researcher as what is new to a technologies, learn, utilize and teach them. researcher from a developing country might not necessarily be new to those in advanced research IX. RECOMMENDATIONS world. However, it can be a stepping stone and a This study recommends that research librarians should guide for researchers in general. be:  Although these services require a stable internet  Committed to building up a strong research access and power supply, there is however a mobile community by providing expertise in organisation version of most of the products and services which and description of information through training of can be accessed (with limited functionalities) via a researchers and offering support services on latest mobile device. products or services; 162 International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Its Applications (ICTA 2016)  Continuously update their ICT skills by attending Conference Proceedings, 2003, vol. 6,pp. 3005–3020. http://doi.org/10.1109/AERO.2003.1235228 conferences, participating in webinars, as well free online tutorials to keep abreast of latest research [7] M.A. Tiamiyu, and L.O. Aina, ''Information and knowledge management in the digital society:an African perspective,'' 2008, innovations relevant to their researchers‟ areas. Ibadan: Third World Service.  Engaged in providing knowledge on long-term [8] H. Pienaar, and M. van Deventer, ''Conceptual framework for a preservation and expert searching, project inception Malaria VRE in South Africa,''in The Research Information Centre and grant seeking opportunities. Stakeholders Event, 2009.  Committed to providing pleasant and enabling https://www.up.ac.za/dspace/handle/2263/9734 research environment and a sensitive administration [9] S. Kroll and R. Forsman, ''A slice of research life; information support for research in United States,'' Report commissioned by aimed at facilitating research. 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