Conservation of Information Resources in University Libraries in Kenya: A Case Study of Moi University Library

Abstract

This study set out to examine the degree to which conservation was practised in the management of information resources in Moi University Library (MUL) and how this could be improved to meet the various information needs of the university community. In fulfilling this aim, the study sought to achieve a number of specific objectives. These included: establishing the nature of information resources in MUL, their current state of conservation, the prevalent factors contributing to their deterioration, effects of deterioration, as well as the efforts that were being made by the Library to facilitate conservation. The study also examined the future of conservation of library materials meanwhile making suggestions regarding the effective ways of conserving information resources in university libraries in Kenya. The study's framework was based on Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science and Higgibontharri's Contemporary Themes in Conservation. In conducting the study, a purposive sample of eighty respondents comprising sixty users and twenty staff members of Moi University main Library were identified for face-to-face interviews. Random samples of information resources and documentary materials in the Library were also analysed. Besides, observations of conditions prevailing in and around the Library were made with a view to establishing trends in the conservation of its information resources. Various methods were used with regard to data presentation and analysis. Descriptive techniques were used to analyse qualitative data collected from respondents. Tables and graphs were used to give more detailed presentation and analyses, some of which involved such other quantitative techniques as regression and con-elation. Among the findings of the study were that the state of conservation in MUL was unsatisfactory and that financial resources were inadequate to meet the growing needs of the Library, a factor that was contributing to further deterioration of information resources. The study made a number of recommendations to facilitate conservation in the Library, the main one being that the Library adopt a conservational approach in the management of its information resources whereby all the functions of the Library would be carried out with conservation in mind. It is hoped that the findings and recommendations of this study will go a long way in sensitizing and helping information professionals especially in university libraries in Kenya to adopt progressive ways of conserving their information resources and by so doing enhance the sustainability and development of these resources.