an electronic information retrieval system for the ministry of education, science, technology and sports (moests) library

Description

The study aimed at designing an electronic information retrieval system for the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Sports (MoESTS) Library. The objectives of the study were to; examine the current system used in retrieving information at MoESTS Library, identify the challenges associated with the retrieval system used in MoESTS Library, identify the requirements for designing an electronic information retrieval system for the MoESTS Library and design an electronic information retrieval system for Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Sports (MoESTS) Library. The study employed a case study while adopting a qualitative research approach to collect data from the respondents. Interviews and observation methods were used to collect the data from the respondents. The researcher purposively selected 18 library users (workers) and 4 library staff at MoESTS who participated in the study. The current system used at MoESTs is manual and highly dependent on paper based documents. The challenges of the system were; limited physical storage space, limited access, rampant misplacement and loss of some resources, over handling of fragile originals, difficult preservation mechanisms and not easily searchable collection. The requirements that were needed for to design an electronic information retrieval system included; a user friendly interface, a facility that provide online help to the users, able to give authority to librarians to manage its operations, compatible with different operating systems, ability to allow data searching and display of search results, facilitates browsing, downloading of full text documents, and display search history, a facility for preservation of the information objects for a long period of time to ensure continued data integrity and availability, ensure security of the collections. The study recommended that an electronic information retrieval should be designed to enable easy access and retrieval of information for improved service delivery in the library. The other recommendations were; digitization of all the documents in the library, provision of more ICTs in the library, training of both Library users and the staff, provision of full time power supply, engaging users in decision, increasing the budget for the library and proper maintenance of ICTs in the library.