Adoption of Institutional Repositories Towards Realization of Digital Libraries: The Southern African Perspective

Introduction

Dissemination of research literature is a crucial element in scholarly communication for the literature to meaningfully contribute to socio-economic development of nations. Socio-economic development relies on increased distribution and access to knowledge and information to a wider audience to promote active participation of researchers in scholarly communication discourse as they share ideas, opinions, and discoveries. Concern has been raised over the low visibility of intellectuals and scholars from Africa (Abrahams et al., 2010). The reasons for their global absence include, that many of them are not able to publish their works in international journals and monographs produced by the world’s leading commercial publishers (Molteno, 2016; Chan, Kirsop & Arunachalam, 2011; Kotecha & Perold, 2010), works published in journals and books from developing countries are largely not indexed in major international databases such as the Arts and Humanities Citation Index. These challenges are amplified by the failure of academic libraries to sustain journal subscriptions and purchase of monographs to support research efforts of intellectuals and researchers in their institutions due to constrained budgets (Tapfuma & Hoskins, 2021). As a result, annual cancellations of journal and monograph subscriptions and purchases have become common practice (Siler, 2017). Moahi (2009) opines that the African continent’s major weakness has been its failure to acquire and apply knowledge for development. Commercial publishers impose subscription and copyright restrictions which curtail knowledge sharing and wider dissemination of scholarship. As a result, critical and relevant information and knowledge generated by researchers from the African continent published in international journals oftentimes is inaccessible to the intended beneficiaries who should generate solutions for problems bedeviling the region. Johnson et al., (2018) confirm that deterrents to information access potentially result in substantial non-productive activity by researchers and knowledge workers and missed opportunities. Documented barriers to access include, pricing and cost of journals, journal articles and books, lack of awareness of available resources, and cumbersome purchasing procedures.