Open Sources Library Software Usage and Performance of Higher Education Institutions

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue III, March 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Open Sources Library Software Usage and Performance of Higher Education Institutions

Abdulmalik Bappah Mahmood
Department of Library, Federal College of Education, Yola

Abstract: The introduction of digital technology has accelerated the library’s subscription to online resources including e-journals, e-books, and reference management software in higher education institutions. The open source library software in particular has deepened the availability of electronic resources and extends the boundaries of academic research. The aim of this study is to investigate in impact of open source library software usage on the overall performance of higher education institutions. A cross sectional research design was used and data was collected from 252 respondents. The data was analysed with SPSS carrying out correlation and regression analysis. Result of the study indicates that, high level usage of open source library software has significant impact on the performance of Higher education institutions. This indicates that adoption of open source library software tends to beneficial and impact positively on the performance of both students and faculties in higher education institutions in developing countries as it would help in designing education policies and programmes. It is therefore recommended that more resources should be provided for ICT infrastructure and skilled manpower for the implementation and use of Open Source Library Software among guarantee appropriate Librarians.

Keywords: Library, Open source, Software, Higher education Institutions

I. INTRODUCTION

Higher education plays a significant role in developing a knowledge economy in a country. In the past decades, higher education Institutions were able to achieved academic development and research steadiness, notwithstanding the lack of facilities and management experiences (Bray and Major, 2011). In the past, the lack of recent educational materials and online resources decelerated scholars’ scientific research. However, in the 1990s, technology has rapidly changed the world, with both paid and open source digital library resources to support scientific research in various fields. The advent of digital technology has fast-tracked the library’s subscription to e-journals, e-books, cataloging and reference management. These online database resources deepen the availability of electronic resources and extend the boundaries of academic research. Access to electronic resources has a greater impact on students’ performance in particular and HEIs’ performance in general.
The unrestricted and open library software plays substantial role of most progressive countries of Europe. This is since access and accomplishment of this software are achieved with slight fund via the Open Source Software Initiative. The introduction and development of Open Source Software in the

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