Professor Ezra Shiloba Gbaje of the department of library and information service, Federal University Lokoja (FUL) has identified lack of access to information as the bane of research work in Nigeria.
The university don also called for the establishment of Nigerian National Centre for Digital Preservation (NNCDP) for monitoring and conduct of researches on digital preservation in the country.
Prof. Gbaje who stated this while presenting the 13th inaugural lecture series of the Federal University Lokoja (FUL) titled: “Beyond Digitization: Access and Preservation” on Thursday, said access to information is very crucial to the survival of human race.
He added that the core mission of library and information professionals is to ensure timely access to accurate information to solve human problems.
Professor Gbaje called for the empowerment of library and information professionals to facilitate information that would assist researchers perform their functions for the development of Nigeria.
Speaking further, the academia said there was also the need for a “unified national digital preservation policy and implementation strategies” that would address identified lapses.
He however, suggested in his Policy Principle Statement, that the Centre, which is expected to function as a parastatal, would have the mandate and commitment to digital object preservation.
According to him, the center would ensure that digital objects created and preserved at the Nigerian National Information Centres are available accessible for re-use in the short and long-term
Prof. Gbaje also called for the modification and re-designed of the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model for the preservation of digital objects using appropriate computer hardware and Dspace Open Source Software.
