By JOHN ONAH, Abuja –
Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Professor Suleiman Bogoro has said that the proposed digitalization of libraries in the nation’s tertiary institutions would help checkmate plagiarism in the sector.
Prof. Bogoro, stated this while answering questions from newsmen during a One-day Workshop on Proposed Digitisation of Libraries in the Nation’s Tertiary Institutions.
According to him, the digitalization of the libraries would not only discourage but stop plagiarism by researchers at any level.
The TETFund boss, however, lamented that important materials and thesis have been lost due to incidences of fire outbreak, adding that with the dematerialization of these materials, such lost will be prevented.
“We want to dematerialize and electronise thesis and projects, starting with the thesis at PHDs and Masters levels across our beneficiary institutions. We hope to extend it to private institutions”.
“The world has gone digital. We cannot continue to operate analogue we know that a number of materials from thesis post-graduate and even undergraduates have literary disappeared where there are fire incidences; once the physical papers are burnt, the thesis are gone but if we are able to dematerialize them and they are stored in various forms at different repository and centers, it is easier to access and protection of the material is guaranteed”.
“The other important aspect of the decision to fund the digitalization of thesis is we need people to be able to access outcome and inputs of research and that is possible if you can just press the soft bottom and you access them within seconds or minutes,” he said.
Prof. Bogoro noted that the digitalization will no doubt increase the global presence of Nigerians tertiary institutions and at the same time improve their global ranking.
“The digitalization is one of those things that assist the rating of universities. They are looking at how many of your paper work are electronic. Accessing research outcome, establishing repository that is easy to access is important. They want to see your presence or visibility of your operations either as a faculty member or university, polytechnic or college of education. That visibility can only come if you had documented them and people are able to access them,” he said.
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