1.1 Introduction
Web Based Services, Digital Library Services, Internet Library Services and Electronic Library Services are terms with similar meanings. Technological developments have affected not only the formats and sources of the information, but also how and where to provide library services. Libraries and their resources have partially moved to the virtual world of the Internet. As a result, library users can access the resources from outside the physical library. In an effort to reach users accessing the library via their computers, many libraries and library consortia are extending their services to include virtual reference. Technology now allows users to submit their queries to the library at any time from any place in the world.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Information communication technology (ICT) has taken place in every part of human life, through the previous twenty years including in business and government. Education and social are two close environments, in traditional education there is a close relationship within the teacher and students. The education has become a learning-centred system due to the use of ICT with the frequent improvement of technology, ICT is playing a major role in the 21st century education (Noor-Ul-Amin, 2013). The facts that are enforcing the pedagogy and the society into wanting to be at the same level with ICT are including quick access to information, reliable communication methods, a convenient way of learning, cost-effective and the amelioration of learning and teaching approaches (Chewe & Chitumbo, 2012).
The current life style is branded by the rapid spread and the improvement of information technology in many senses. The society is eager to keep pace with technology from general use, individual usage and for working purpose (Rendulić, 2011). The uprising of computing and communications in the previous few decades have validated that the evolution of the technological and the usage of information technology will keep progressing at a fast rate. The effect of reduction of communication cost is due to regular improvement of technology invention and increasing in usage by users (Lee, 2002).
Kolaric and Rendulic define information technology as a combination of any technology that is used process, collect, protect and store information. The term information and communication technology (ICT) encompass any practical method used for management information and enabling communication, including computers, network hardware, communication lines and all the necessary software. This means information technology, telephony, electronic media, and any kind of method that allows the handling and the conveying of audio and video signals, and also including any function that regulate and deal with the transmission of communication over the network of the technologies (Kolaric & Rendulic, 2011).
Many organisations at the moment, are using the web-based information services for their everyday business activities, including mail systems, file systems as well as network devices such as firewall and routers (Dong, 2008). The increased of development of different external aspects have influence on how universities run their courses (Cobcroft, 2006). Use of web-based environment has introduced new and useful roles to librarians and information professionals. Before the uprising of technology informationworker roles was mostly to look after books, but now they provide more like students’ supporters. New roles for Librarians and information professionals is included explaining to students how to use online resources, arranging workshop, book talks, debates as well as providing web-based services to web users (bhardwaj & Walia, 2012).
Learning Management System (LMS) is a software application that is used in education to organise, create and evaluate learning activities (Firoz, 2014). Learning Management System is more in use now than it used to be in the last 30 years of the uprising of technology. LMSs are being used in education as a bridge between the modern educations with the actual improvement of technology (Phillipo & Krongard, 2012). Moodle is an online LMS, which allow teachers to create and post class materials such as assignment, notes, quizzes and discussions (Romain, 2015). With 49, 600 listed sites and 38 million users worldwide, Moodle is considered to be the most used open source LMS, which is being used at the moment. Moodle is more used in organisations such as schools, non-profitable organisations, small businesses, and local government agencies, dues to its effective usability (Monarch, 2010).
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Challenges and Opportunities in Migrating To Web-based Information Services.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Considering the firms are beginning to move from the existing legacy information systems toward Web-based information systems. The small and large firms began to investigate migration feasibility. Change, especially in technology or in a paradigm, is extremely costly. It requires a large investment in planning, training, designing, development, new maintenance and administration and carries high software and hardware costs. The author realized at the time when doing the migration required integration but also a methodology and technology transfer (Ron, 2000).
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to investigate the Challenges and Opportunities in Migrating To Web-based Information Services. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To examine firms need in migrating to the existing legacy applications to web-based applications
- To identify new opportunities in the facilities provided by the Internet.
- To examine the opportunity in migrating from manual Information Services to Web-based Information Services
- To assess the challenges to be faced while migrating
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Do firms need to migrate to the existing legacy applications to web-based applications?
- Does migration of existing information brings about company’s critical Success?
- What are the likely challenges to be faced while migrating?
- What kind of benefits could the firms obtain in migrating?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
H0: There is no significant impact Challenges and Opportunities while Migrating to Web-based Information Services
H1: There is significant impact Challenges and Opportunities while Migrating to Web-based Information Services
1.7 Significance of Study
This study will be of immense benefit to librarians and researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.8 Scope of Study
The study focuses on the Challenges and Opportunities in Migrating To Web-based Information Services in Nigeria.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
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