The Feasibility of the Introduction of Digital Libraries in Zambian Higher Institutions of Learning in the Wake of the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of the University of Zambia

Abstract

The term "digital library" has been thrown about a lot to cover everything from electronic services to digitized holdings. Zambia, like the rest of the globe, made a paradigm shift in the learning environment by switching from traditional physical libraries to digital (online) libraries in order to battle the fatal pandemic's spread. The epidemic of COVID-19 has highlighted the necessity for library digital transformation plans and activities. The study's overall goal was to assess the viability of introducing digital libraries in Zambian higher education institutions in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was accomplished through the application of a quantitative technique. There were 130 respondents that took part in the study, and all of the questionnaires were gathered and used during the analysis. SPSS version 22 was used to evaluate the data that was discovered as a result of the research findings. Under theme 1, the results revealed that 61.54% of respondents believed they had University community knowledge levels on digital libraries, accounting for 80 participants, while only 38.46% believed they had no community knowledge levels on digital libraries, accounting for 50 respondents. Under theme 2, the results showed that 34.61% of the respondents answered that the digital library services during this COVID-19 pandemic were always available. Another 34.62 of the respondents revealed that the digital library services during this COVID-19 pandemic were often available and 30.77% of the respondents revealed that they were rarely available. Lastly, under theme 3, the findings of the study showed, a majority of 46.15% cited Non availability of up to date online materials as the number one challenge. The next most significant challenge was Inability to use E- resources (30.76%). This was followed by Lack of orientation on use of digital library resources at implementation stage (15.38%), and not being familiar with digital library use (7.71%). In was evident that the study found that while the use of digital library for personal purposes was not high, the application of these platforms to facilitate service delivery was also nonexistent. Challenges such Non availability of up to date online materials, Inability to use E- resources, Lack of orientation on use of digital library resources and Not familiar with digital library use as well as poor technological infrastructure, lack of internet connectivity, lack of data bundles to access the digital collections were critical success factors that need to be addressed for the introduction v of digital libraries to be feasible in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic in higher institutions of learning particularly the University of Zambia.