COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICIES, INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT, TECHNOLOGY USE AND INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE PRESERVATION AMONG CUSTODIANS OF CULTURAL HERITAGE IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Indigenous Knowledge Preservation (IKP) ensures that documents at-risk are kept in good condition for posterity in Cultural Heritage Institutions (CHIs) such as libraries, archives and museums. Reports, however, indicate that IKP in CHIs were ineffective. Studies have addressed IKP from procedural, cultural and social perspectives, without adequate attention to the policies, institutional environment and technology use for IKP, especially across different CHIs in Nigeria. This study, therefore, investigated collection development policies, institutional environment, technology use and IKP in CHIs in southern Nigeria. The Socio-technical and Cultural Historical Activity theories provided the framework, while the survey design of the correlational type was adopted. A two-stage sampling procedure was adopted to choose CHIs, specifically special libraries, federal university libraries, the National Library of Nigeria, the National Archives, and the National Museum branches across southern Nigeria (South-west, South-south and South-east). The CHIs in two states each were selected through balloting, thus, all 27 libraries, six archives and nine museums, made up of 289 librarians, 29 archivists and 36 museum curators were enumerated. The instruments used were Institutional Environment (r=0.94) and Technology Use for Preservation (r=0.93) scales, and observation checklist. Key informant interviews were conducted each with 18 Heads of libraries, three archivists and nine museum curators from the 42 institutions. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation and Multiple regression at 0.05 level of significance, while qualitative data were content-analysed. The respondents’ age was 42.7±8.75, while years of work experience spanned 1-10 years (53.7%), 11-20 years (27.6%), 21-30 years (11.3%), and 31-40 years (7.4%). The regulatory (X ̅= 2.91), organisational (𝑋̅ = 2.80), sociological 𝑋̅ =2.65) and physical environment (𝑋̅ =2.75) for the preservation of IK resources in CHIs was favourable as against the threshold of 2.50. There were positive significant relationships between collection development policies (r=.51), institutional environment (r=.58) and technology use (r=.75) and IKP. There were positive significant relationships between collection development policies and institutional environment (r=.45), and technology use (r=.43) and IKP. The collection development policies and institutional environment jointly predicted IKP (F(2;325) =112.96; Adj R2=0.41), accounting for 41.0% of its variance. The collection development policies did not have guidelines for IKP in written, electronic or other formats in the CHIs. Periodic evaluation of policies was inadequate, the environment was not conducive for electronic preservation, and staff were not sufficiently trained. In addition, there was inadequate funding, poor infrastructure, and shortage of preservation staff. Collection development policies, institutional environment and technology use influenced indigenous knowledge preservation among custodians of cultural heritage in southern Nigeria. There should be proper documentation of collection development policies for indigenous knowledge preservation, while technology use and institutional environment should be monitored. More creative and sustainable sources of funding should be vigorously pursued by different stakeholders.