Question
You will research and write a substantial paper on an ongoing issue in law librarianship. This project should be between 10-15 pages, not including references or endnotes. You should conduct a thorough literature review and find everything published on your topic. Then, analyze it. Synthesize both your findings and analysis in your paper. . The projects will be graded based upon synthesis of existing literature (including the comprehensiveness of your research), clarity in both organization and content, analysis of the legal or library issues, and grammar and style.
Sample paper
Can Academic Law Library go Completely Electronic?
The world experienced great change with birth of information age. Information age refers to the period starting in the 20th century last quarter, when information turned to be easily accessible via publications and via information manipulation using computer networks. Spread of information and communications have been revolutionalized by Technological breakthroughs. This technological advancement has improved instant knowledge access and free information transfer, which was impossible in the past. All these technologies focus on information transmission and storage. This revolution impacted every characteristic of human existence, including legal profession. According to Ifeyinwa, Nkechi, Nwamaka and Aduaka (2013), changes in law librarianship was predicted decades ago, where law librarians were cautioned to expect changes and plan on how to tackle them, rather than fearing or avoiding them. These changes came with the emergence of digital technology and the growing need to digitize libraries. The information and communication technology (ICT) is the trend that is currently pervading the research, teaching and study into law. We are already in an era that is typified by the conversion and processing of information from the recognized conversional formats, to digital and electronic formats, hence, the challenges and consequences are expectedly high. This paper focuses on determining whether it is possible to completely convert the current law academic library into an electronic or digital library based on challenges and enablers of this activity.
Limitation to Total Digitization of Law Academic Library
According to James-Gilboe (2005) there is a growing intolerance for manual searching, increasing interest in basic source material, need to archive and preserve in multiple formats, space savings and the dramatic changing anticipations of a novel researchers generation, accustomed to instant access to electronic sources. These issues are driving the growing need for digital archives for academic materials, especially in law, where older publications and court rulings are highly needed for referencing and creating supportive documents. However, digitization is not easy. Digitization according to James-Gilboe (2005) is complex, harder than ever expected, extra frustrating than anticipated, and with a lot of lessons learnt in the hard manner. In most cases, digitizers establish that they cannot plan enough when engaging in digitization of academic materials that was written and published long time ago. This is actually a challenge in subjects that contain huge volumes of published printed books and journals that may need to be converted into soft-copy to be digitalized. According to Liu (2004), the digitization project Harvard Law School Library digitized 82000 documents and materials from the trials of Nuremberg war crimes, permitting anyone to examine and view the holocaust evidence. According to Liu (2004), a single incident in history resulted to 82000 documents, with different number of pages, and maybe in small font. This can help in projecting the quantity of work that would be involved in digitization of all that may need to be digitized in law academic libraries, in a country or in the world. The tasks involved in digitizing these materials are tedious, since it involves either scanning of all those materials or retyping them, to create soft copy documents that are accessible via a computer. This means, although complete digitization of law academic materials can be attained, it may require a lot of time and work to be completed, which may not be viable.
Unlike in traditional libraries that a librarian only needed normal library services knowledge, modern librarians are required to learn more about digital technology. According to Pandey and Misra (2014), traditional librarians have inadequate information technology skills, resulting to the development of technological phobia. This makes it hard for them to measure up or cope with the digital/ electronic age requirement, which may make majority to quite or resist the change. Inadequate training, inadequate staff and lack of equipment may be another major challenge to total digitization of the law academic library. Given the anticipated volume, the law librarianship is likely to experience a number of challenges in converting printed work into electronic work. This excess work can be a source of stress among librarians who do not have adequate training. According to a research conducted by Omosor (2014), insufficient professional library staff, in a specific workplace, is a major cause of stress. This will definitely affect the general work output. Shortage of technical staffs in law academic libraries is a major source of higher levels of stress. The availability of qualified library personnel, who includes system trouble shooters and specialists, is vital in information services and effect library services delivery, in academic libraries today. This is particularly important in the role of ensuring availability of previously printed and published materials, law case facts, rulings and ruling deduction, objections and other legal documents that would aid in academic work at tertiary level (Moruf & Adeleke, 2018). This view is supported by Olajumoke, Tokunbo and Munirat (2017) who identify engineers as important personnel in library digitization. According to Olajumoke, Tokunbo and Munirat (2017), engineers play a vital role in 21st century libraries by helping in conducting some library functions such as assisting users to update and enhance their skills and knowledge, and to offer information about new theories, views, research and innovations. They are also said to assist in the use of computer equipment and in their repair. This shows the need of extra personnel in library digitization, other than librarians.
The lack of adequate equipment that includes printers, computers, barcode readers and scanners among others, is another challenge that is likely to be experienced by different law schools in the world, while trying to digitize law academic materials. According to Omosor (2014) lack of adequate equipment can be another major cause of stress, since this slows down the work and interfere with provision of efficient library services. This is likely to cause demotivation and frustration in the workforce. Inadequate equipment and personnel is mostly caused by high cost involved in the establishment of a digital library. According to Nnenna and Emenike (2015), digital project are costly. Library digitization and automation needs huge funding as a result for frequent software and hardware upgrades, and increasing subscription cost to electronic databases. Although there are some libraries both public and school libraries with enough professionals and equipment, this is not the situation everywhere. Complete digitization of law academic materials requires that all libraries should have the needed personnel and materials to aid in the conversation of already printed materials, and proper organization of these materials in the library database. This is a big challenge in some countries and libraries in the world, especially in developing nations (Omosor, 2014).
Copyright is another challenge which limits what can be digitized and what cannot be digitized. Digitization of libraries has resulted to a trend of shifting to digital format from print format. However, the process is highly impacted by the copyright law adapted by a country. The restrictive nature of copyright in a country can inhibit or allow the migration to digital media from print media. For instance, according to San, Gee, Azmi and Peng (2017), UK has very strict copyright laws, which limit the migration to digital media. In Olajumoke, Tokunbo and Munirat, (2017) views, the copyright law impact on the library materials digitization practice is extensively acknowledged. This is due to the fact that digitization process that fundamentally converts a copy of the work with copyright to digital format from analogue format, infringes on the copyright owners’ exclusive right. Although many of the challenges and issues posed by the copyright law on digitalization practice are common to libraries in different nations, the unique responses to the challenges and issues might vary from one nation to another based on the copyright law on each nation.
San et al. (2017) reports on a research conducted in Australia regarding copyright issue with regard to digitalization. The research was done with in intention of determining the available options for libraries, to conduct digitization process without copyright infringement. The research established that copyright law impacted the kind of materials that were digitalized and means of their accessibility. The Australia Copyright Act of 1968, which was amended in 2006 and 2000 allows for an extensive scope of acts to be conducted, so as to promote online access to materials collection. In some instances, this was done by permitting specific activities to be conducted under purpose-specific, detailed exceptions in the copyright statute. The study assessed whether the objective of promoting online access had been attained via the amendments (San et al., 2017). It was established that there were specific restrictions and anomalies in the copyright statute that limit the digitization development. The study for instance established that in the huge percentage of public uses, an assignment or license from the copyright owner was need and this put a huge administrative liability on libraries. The study also established that copyright statute in Australia did not effectively address how institutions could get copyright clearance, in a situation involving orphan works; where it was impossible or difficult to locate or identify the copyright owner (San et al., 2017).
In a different research copyright registration office in the US was found to address the association between the existing copyright framework and digital marketplace. It assessed how digitization influenced exclusive rights of the copyright owners, and denoted that libraries have to regard the copyright infringement possibility, when they digitize copyright works or while scanning it, to enhance public accessibility without owners’ permission. The US copyright law was found to contain unique statutory exceptions that include reproductions or fair use by libraries, which may offer a digitization defense. However, these exceptions were only applicable in some restricted instances and were improbable to cover all the digitization projects facets. The study also assessed the ways in which owners of copyright could offer cost-effective and efficient licensing option,s as a way of getting copyright clearance prior to starting on digitization. In a recent popular copyright case of the Authors Guild, Inc v. Google Inc 2013 the District Court in the US held that mass books digitization by Google was allowed under the fair dealing defense in US (San et al., 2017). The Authors Guild in this case, representing non-US and US copyright owners, sued Google for massive digitization of their books in Google Library Project, infringing their copyright. The U.S. District Court ruled that digitization activity by Google was based on the fair use doctrine scope, in US. This according to the court was because books digitization was highly beneficial and transformative to society. The activities of digitization were transformative since they were conducted for a different and new purpose form the initial one. The decision was also upheld by the U.S. court of appeals (San et al., 2017).
The copyright cases in the three countries; UK, Australia and USA demonstrate one of the greatest challenges that librarians and libraries experience, when trying to digitize previously published work with copyright. The law in countries such as UK and Australia limits this process a great deal. Although US law seems to be more flexible, the purpose of digitization may limit the freedom given to digitize old publications. This means, complete digitization of academic law materials can hardly be achieved, since most of the required knowledge is borrowed from materials from different countries, where copyright is protected by different law provisions. Although a country such as US can manage to digitize a substantial percentage of its work, this may not be the same in other countries. This limitation shows that copyright still stand as a significant block to complete digitization of academic materials or libraries in all subjects, including law subjects.
Complete digitization can also be influence by the dynamic nature of technology, cost of hardware technology and reliability of the available hardware technology. According to Nnenna and Emenike (2015), many of storage hardware that was once praised by people have turned to be less valuable, shortly after they turn to be unreadable. Therefore, documents that were digitized and stored in these kinds of hardware turn to be useless. This make the maintenance of digital libraries much more difficult compared to printed libraries. The today used archival for digital media are DVD, CD-ROM disks, and magnetic tape. Magnetic tapes however seem to be disappearing from the scene, due to their short life as a result of oxidation, material decay, and demagnetization. In 1980 CD-ROMs were discovered and they enhanced the longer storage lifespan of 30 to 100 years. This was shortly pushed behind the scene by the development of DVD which contained higher capacity that CD. Today there are external hard disks which seem to hold higher capacity and to store much more data, than the past three technologies. According to Nnenna and Emenike (2015), the improvements and changes of storage medium post serious questions, regarding digitized materials’ future and their alteration.
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Boosters to Total Digitization to Law Academic Library
Electronic information resources as a technology development product play an essential role in offering an authentic networking platform, among legal practitioners and guarantee timely legal information access. One aspect that has highly facilitated this successful sharing of information is globalization. According to Fabunmi, Paris and Fabunmi (2006), majority of school or academic libraries in US concentrate on developing digital libraries which create links with web resources and other electronic libraries, rather than fresh digitization of such collections. This is said to be as a result of huge digitization cost and time factor. This implies that other than working on converting all materials accessible in an academic library, a library can collaborate with other libraries to share materials. This implies that, libraries can consider doing work division, where each library will convert a certain type of materials and link it to other libraries with different materials for sharing. Formation of a number of such links result to provision of huge volumes of materials that covers more than one library could have managed by converting what it had in hard copy. This is one of the main strategies that law academic libraries can use to enhance maximum digitization of legal materials, in a county and world in general. Creating own database and linking it with other law academic material electronic databases in the world is likely to create a network, that will successfully maximize legal material digitization in the world. The law schools can also consider linking not just with school, but other private libraries with legal information. This will widen the access scope of the students, lecturers and other researchers in school, making it possible to access huge legal academic resources, even when the library has a low operational potential. This creates a great possibility of attaining total digitization.
Cloud computing is another technology that is likely to enhance the success of academic library digitization. Cloud computing is highly popular for remote access and storage technologies. Using cloud technology in library digitization helps in cutting cost to a very minimal level, since a library can be operated without software or hardware, and without need for personnel training, as the cloud technology providers cater for all operations that would require extra training. The school will just be requires to pay a fee-per-use, which is much less than the cost incurred managing a physically established digital library. In addition, cloud provider offer backup and all other security measures, giving a higher guarantee of preserving all the library materials, without any losses due to hardware or software issues (Wada, 2018). Cloud computing creates a cooperation bedrock. It acts as an engine which permits various institutions to invest in information resource infrastructure, application, and consortium that benefit all. Libraries can thus exploit these resources through cooperation in the cloud computing. Cloud computing also provides unlimited storage of data, and hence, it can act as the best solution to huge volumes of academic materials found in law schools. With unlimited storage, universities can easily manage to digitize all their academic materials without complications (Wada, 2018). This increases chances for complete digitization of legal academic libraries.
Conclusion
The analysis demonstrates both challenges and enablers of academic libraries digitization. Although there are many challenges denoted in this analysis, there two main established enablers seems to address multiple problems, making it easier to enhance digitization. Development of library network seems to address the volume issue, experienced specifically in digitization of law academic libraries. It also partly addresses the issue of copyright such that, each library can establish its own digital library, following copyright laws in their own country, and extend a digital link to those in other countries or regions. However, the copyright issues still seems considerably complex to be completely addressed, unless there will be change of laws in some countries. The computer cloud technology seems to address the storage issue, workers skills and knowledge in computer technology, cost of establishing both hardware and software and maintenance cost. This implies that, there are high chances for total digitization of law academic libraries, especially if the copyright conflict would be effectively solved, particulaly in countries where strong restriction is imposed.
References
Fabunmi, B. A., Paris, M., & Fabunmi, M. (2006). Digitization of library resources: challenges and implications for policy and planning. International Journal of Africa & African American Studies, 5(2), 23-36.
Ifeyinwa, A. M., Nkechi, O-E. R., Nwamaka, A. U., & Aduaka, A. C. E. (2013). Law libraries in information age: the role of academic law librarians. Information and Knowledge Management, 3(12), 112-118.
James-Gilboe, L. (2005). The challenge of digitization: libraries are finding that newspaper projects are not for the faint heart. The Serials Librarian: From the Printed Page to the Digital Age, 49(1-2), 155-163.
Liu, Y. Q. (2004). Best practices, standards and techniques for digitizing library materials: a snapshot of library digitization practices in the USA. Online Information Review, 28(5), 338-345.
Moruf, H. A., & Adeleke, L. A. (2018). Electronic information resources and the legal profession: the case of Oyo state high courts, Nigeria. Journal of Information and Knowledge Management, 9(1), 26-34.
Nnenna, O. B., & Emenike, U. L. (2015). Digitization of library resources in academic libraries: challenges and implication. IOSR Journal of Mobile Computing & Application (IOSR-JMCA), 2(2), 35-40.
Olajumoke, W-I., Tokunbo, W-I., & Munirat, L. F. (2017). Copyright law, engineering and impact of technology in an academic library. Journal of Advancements in Library Sciences, 4(2), 29-38.
Omosor, U. A. (2014). Effect of technology on librarians in academic libraries in Nigeria. Journal of Information and Knowledge Management, 5(2), 203-211.
Pandey, P., & Misra, R. (2014). Digitization of library materials in academic libraries: issues and challenges. Journal of Industrial and Intelligent Information, 2(2), 136-141.
San, T. P., Gee, L. H., Gee, L. H., Azmi, I. M. A. G., & Peng, S. C. (2017). The impact of copyright law on the digitization of library collections in academic libraries in Malaysia. Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science, 22(1), 83-97.
Wada, I. (2018). Cloud computing implementation in libraries: A synergy for library services optimization. International Journal for Library and Information Science, 10(2), 17-27.
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