Digitisation of Theses and Dissertations in Academic Libraries in Tanzania: Lessons Learned from the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences Library

Abstract

Digitisation projects are becoming increasingly popular in academic, public and special libraries. Libraries are either digitising previously acquired hard copies or building digital libraries or institutional repositories by submitting electronic copies to the repositories. Thus, digitisation of library materials is critical to increasing material visibility and accessibility. Digitisation has received attention with the goal of allowing greater access. Nevertheless, it is sometimes hampered or limited by a number of factors; they include existing policies, structures, skills and financial capability. The goal of this paper was to gain a better understanding of the strategies, challenges and issues involved in the digitisation of theses and dissertations through lessons learned from the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) library. This study sought to determine the successes as well as the difficulties encountered during the digitisation of theses and dissertations at MUHAS library and to recommend possible way-forward strategies. This paper used a mixed-methods approach, including participatory observation and in-depth interviews to highlight the challenges and successes of the MUHAS digitisation project. Purposive sampling was used to identify key informants who were previously and currently involved in MUHAS digitisation activities. In this study, six former project employees and eight current project employees were interviewed. The MUHAS Institutional Repository (IR) has 2,590 publications, 1,492 of which were theses and dissertations, accounting for 58% of all publications uploaded to the IR. On the other hand, hard-bound theses and dissertations converted to digital form accounted for 55% of all theses and dissertations. The project was the first in Tanzania to establish an institutional repository and the first to develop and implement an institutional digitisation policy. Nonetheless, the project significantly aided in raising the university’s research profile, as MUHAS was ranked first in the country in 2016. The lack of skilled personnel, slow internet connectivity, negative perceptions of library staff and insufficient equipment and facilities hampered the project. Nearly 85% of the institutional collection of theses and dissertations were successfully digitised by the MUHAS digitisation project. Regardless of the difficulties encountered, the project gained valuable experience on how to mitigate the ideal difficulties and issues