Abstract
This study aims to explore the barriers when developing information societies and to suggest possible actions for rural libraries to participate in information societies, tailored to the needs of Malaysian rural libraries. This study employed a three-round Delphi technique; including a face-to- face interview in the first round, followed by two rounds of close-ended survey questions presented in a Likert-type scale format distributed to a selected group of leaders with experience in rural library planning and strategies. It reveals how funding, library infrastructures, information communication technology, local content resources, and human resources adversely affected rural libraries in the development of an information society. Based on the recommendation elicited for the five categories, this study suggests possible actions that provide practical guidance on the actions to be taken by the rural libraries in developing an information society.
Keywords
Introduction
For many years, a considerable amount of literature has been published on how rural libraries contributed to the information society (IS) development. For example, Galvin (1979) reported that libraries were recognized as a significant national resource for citizens through which information was gathered, organized, and made available to make them informed citizenry. He pointed on how libraries assisted the IS through the literacy program, providing new information technology, developing library resources, and establishing a network. Likewise, the International Federation of Library Association (IFLA) holds the same view that libraries should continuously be at the heart of the IS. Libraries should provide open, equitable, and affordable access to information and improving information communication and technology (ICT) literacy and community connectivity, specifically to the underserved communities. In Malaysia, for instance, the government has decided to increase the number of rural libraries and improve the rural library infrastructures (NLM, 2010a). The marked increase in rural libraries since the government has recognized rural libraries as community development agents in areas such as foundation skills, family learning, and education to the young. Given all that the arena so far, one may understand that rural libraries play a significant role in contributing to the development of an IS. Since rural library in the IS is significant, there is a need to understand the rural library issues. The term IS has been used with varying meanings in both popular scholars and works of literature. For example, the earliest theory of IS discussed by Machlup (1967) and Porat (1976) described the importance of information activities in economic growth. Meanwhile, Castell (2000) focused on the roles of technology when described IS. However, the phrase “information society” will be used in this study to refer to the society that makes extensive use of information and knowledge through the availability of information infrastructures, including ICTs, the Internet, and libraries.
Although many previous studies have discussed the importance of rural libraries in IS development, less research has focused on Malaysian rural libraries, especially in the IS development context. There are constraints on developing IS in the rural libraries, including limited infrastructures and the lack of skilled rural library staff. Since every country has varying degrees of problems, the policymakers and stakeholders should focus on their country’s problems, as they should understand the reality perspectives. The policymakers and stakeholders should also make their efforts to ensure the inclusion of rural libraries in societal developments. Against these backdrops, while rural libraries seem very important to IS development, many factors also should be considered. Thus, this study addresses the following two questions.
Research questions
Research question 1. How do the library practitioners understand the rural libraries’ barriers in the development of IS?
Research question 2. What are the possible actions that are appropriate for Malaysian rural libraries’ in the development of IS?
Significance of the study
This study is important because it expands the current understanding of the barriers of Malaysian rural libraries in the development of IS. The study provides information that assists librarians and information practitioners to highlight those areas that should encourage rural libraries to play their roles in supporting the development of an IS. Finally, this study adds to the body of knowledge of libraries, with emphasis on rural libraries and IS.
Scope and limitation of the study
This article only focuses on the Malaysian context. Thus, the opinions and inputs from the Delphi study were limited to the Malaysian context and should not be generalized as different countries may have their policy and legislation toward information. Furthermore, this study provides a rich, contextualized understanding of human experience through the intensive study of particular cases.
Literature review
In any developmental process, one may need to understand the issues that impede it. This is because, in the developmental process, problem identification helps the policymakers to decide the strategies for development. This section, therefore, provides a review of some of the literature in the field of rural libraries and IS which have led to the understanding of the problems of a rural library in the IS.
IS
The earliest theory of the IS was concerned primarily with economics. A well-known example of this is Machlup’s theory of the IS. In his discussion of the concept of an IS, Machlup emphasized that knowledge production had a significant impact on the nation’s economy. He observed that, in 1959, 29% of the gross national product (GNP) in the United States of America (USA) represented by the knowledge industries. Machlup (1967) also categorized five broad sectors of knowledge, namely, education; research and development; communication and media; information technologies, and information services; which could measure economic values.
While the classical theories of the IS emphasized the reflection of the information into the economy, the modern concepts expanded the significant role of technology in the IS. One good example to show the technology roles is Bell’s theory of Post-Industrialism Society (PI-S). Bell (1974) asserts that:
Post-Industrial society is dominated by the service sectors and professional and technical occupations. It is marked by the centrality of human relationship and “intellectual technology,” based on information and information and communication technology (ICT), in which rises alongside machine technology. (pp. 116, 117)
In another discourse of the IS, the World Summit Information Society (WSIS) document has reported the recognition of ICT in the IS development. Related to the outcomes of the WSIS to consider ICT within the IS development, Souter (2004), through his analysis of the WSIS document, offers another avenue for the working group to emphasize ICT development. He suggests that the documents should include the research evidence on the impact of ICTs on the development of society from the positive and negatives aspects.
Since the current study will explore the IS development within a rural library context, some definitions of the IS from library perspectives are meaningful. Alex Byrne, the former President of the IFLA in 2005–2007 provided the meaning of the IS on two considerations: freedom of access to information and the digital divide (Byrne, 2006). Meanwhile, a more inclusive definition to consider the library at the heart of the IS is described by the World leaders at the World Summit on Information Society in Geneva and Tunis (International Telecommunication Union, 2012):
Information society, is a society that uses digital revolution in ICTs for free flow of information, ideas and knowledge through the internet, wireless technologies and libraries in order to “build a people-centered, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge, enable individuals, communities and peoples to achieve his or her full potential in promoting his or her sustainable development and improving their quality of life.” Given all that has been mentioned so far, one may conclude that libraries also play a vital role in an information society and as a means of shaping an information society.
Rural library
The term “rural library” seems simple and straightforward, but can be difficult to define (Kernicky, 2006; Swan et al., 2013). Other terms also refer to the “rural library” are community library, village library, and village reading room. In a broad sense, a rural library can be described as a place that collects, stores, and disseminates informational materials for the needs and the use of the community (Correa et al., 1997). Others define a rural library as a place located in geographically isolated, predominantly agricultural areas, specifically serving farmers in their life needs (Xu, 2001). On the contrary, Swan et al. (2013) define the term rural library based on the geographic boundary and population threshold. A further definition by Hoq (2015) describes a rural library as an information center that provides services like a reading room and circulation, reference, photocopying, newspaper clipping, and so on, to cater to the information needs of the people located in a village or suburban area. Considering all of this evidence, it seems that various meanings described the rural library. Dent et al. (2018) claims that the distinction between these libraries is often based on governance and affiliation (local, national, NGO) and funding (local tax, local philanthropy, local government, etc.). The aim is to provide a variety of services and information resources to meet the various needs of the local communities. In Malaysia, the term rural library or Perpustakaan Desa in the Malay Language referred to the libraries that serve fewer than 10,000 people in villages or small localities and live either in clusters, parallel, or distributed areas. These areas are referred to as the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA), the Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (FELCRA), the Orang Asli villages, and the new localities or villages (NLM, 2010). In 2018, the most recent year data were available, 1100 rural libraries existed across the country. These rural libraries are governed either by federal, state, and local government authorities.
The barriers that impede the development of an IS
In any developmental process, one may need to understand the issues or the barriers that impede the developmental process. Several works of literature indicated that the IS brought some new challenges to the library and information professionals required to address them strategically (Hoq, 2014; Lopatina, 2014). A recent study by Yila and Azeez (2018) involved women’s participation in the IS in the rural area found that women faced enormous challenges in ICT. In their study, they emphasized that the Internet could lead to the development of the IS. However, the study discovered some barriers such as poor infrastructures; poor education and skills include literacy, language, computer skills, and information literacy, and sociocultural and financial problems for women to participate in IS.
Meanwhile, McIver (2003) is interested in the issues and priorities from the global perspectives at the early stage of IS development. In his thematic analysis, the themes such as digital divide, developing framework, a knowledge society perspective, defining rights and governance; infrastructure development, development and employment, tools, services, and application; citizens and communities and gender perspective were often embodied issues of the IS. In the broader field of library and information professionals, there is also a strong line of literature, which seeks to understand the barriers for a library to participate in the IS development. One may argue that the transition to the IS presents society as a whole and information professionals in particular with several challenges. The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP, 2002), the UK’s leading professional body for librarians and information managers states:
participation in the information society requires the citizen to be information literate. Failure to appraise information will result in exclusion. (p. 39)
This view supported by Khan and Bhatti (2012) demonstrated that the ability of librarians to function effectively in the IS, particularly in a digital environment that required a high degree of literacy and complexity of the skill. These skills include technical skills, managerial skills, and communication skills. Concerning this, he suggested that information professionals would need continual retraining. The training is essential for librarians as this will develop the technical competencies and informed the staff about the range of information resources, which will be accessible by electronic means. In the same vein, Rabiu and Obaje (2012) identified some relevant issues of libraries and librarians in information societies, including the deployment of ICT for information resource sharing. As a result, they recommended libraries and librarians provide comprehensive training for the library staff and library users and provide expert and professional support to facilitate thorough and accurate use of all library resources.
Regarding the IS development, many researchers have identified the problems. For instance, Amonoo and Azubuike (2005) drew attention to the issues of IS development in Africa, which were associated with the low technology base of most user communities, inadequate local content, and limited use of local languages in Internet operations. Meanwhile, in the context of rural libraries’ participation in the IS development, Ocholla (2009) had listed several challenges of libraries. These were inequalities of information access, lack of appropriate content, infrastructure, bridging the “knowledge divide”; the technology provision, sustainability, use and impact, the creation of the learning society, and lack of local and indigenous knowledge. In recent studies, Nwokocha and Chimah (2017) had also identified problems in the library and information services in rural areas were related to the scarcity of learning facilities and insufficient relevant information. Also, the information provided to the rural communities mainly in a colonial language, more specifically in the English language. As a result, the rural communities received irrelevant information as they did not understand the language. Together, these studies indicated that rural libraries in developing countries facing various problems that hinder the IS development.
In another major study of rural libraries in the Malaysia context, Omar et al. (2015) found that rural library has a great potential to become one of the favorite centers for rural communities, especially rural youths to take advantage in the pursuit of becoming a knowledge society. Although the rural library functioned as a vehicle for IS development, the study discovered that the problems such as poor library infrastructures, accessibility to the libraries, and finances contribute to the push factor of rural communities not to visit the rural libraries. In another discussion, Hoq (2017) found the challenges of IS were related to several issues such as the rising cost of services when the budget for libraries is cutting down, the changing demand of users, the proliferation of new technologies, and to prove the libraries’ worth in a changing society.
The characteristics of being rural, especially those who lived in the underserved areas, made it hard for them to access information and translate that information into meaningful knowledge. People who reside in these areas were having difficulties accessing information in printed or online materials. This is due to the lack of appropriate reading materials, the low density and scatter of rural population combined with poor communication and transportation infrastructures (Hoq, 2015). Similarly, Omar et al. (2018) found that sources and access to rural libraries among the challenges in rural libraries. Therefore, they suggested that rural libraries must update their reading sources. These resources must fulfill the users’ information needs. Besides information sources, the basic infrastructures such as transportation, road, and electricity also need to be improved, thus provide better access to the rural library will enhance rural communities to visit the libraries.
Methods
Research methods
The research method used for the study was the Delphi technique. The Delphi technique is a method for structuring a group communication process so that the process is effective in allowing a group of individuals, as a whole, to deal with a complex problem (Linestone and Turoff, 1975). The design was appropriate as this technique captured the experts’ experienced, allowed anonymous responses, addressed complex concepts, and soliciting opinions and open views in the field of being studied. Ziglio (1996) suggested using the Delphi when the problem investigated involves multiple issues and the judgment of expert panelists. In this study, the Delphi technique refers to a consensus of the group of experts’ opinions on the barriers of the rural libraries in developing IS in Malaysia context. Their opinion would be the most helpful in exploring the barriers of rural libraries in developing IS, thus suggesting some possible actions for libraries to participate in the IS.
Selection of participants
About the participants of a Delphi study, identifying the appropriate participants is the crucial part (Hsu and Sandford, 2007) as it directly relates to the quality of the results generated. The population of this study consists of professional librarians from all Malaysian state public libraries. The number of professional librarians is 123 personnels which comprises the directors of public libraries and library professionals as of 2019 (NLM, 2019). As mentioned above, this study employed a purposive sampling method where the sample of this study was not to represent the general population, rather their experts’ ability to answer the research questions (Fink and Kosecoff, 1985). The participants selected through a careful selection based on participants’ knowledge and work experience. More specifically, participants must possess one of the following criteria; have been working as a professional staff member for at least 10 years, have been involved in library planning and strategies, and have been assigned as decision-making authorities. Other criteria of eligible participants were their capability in contributing helpful inputs and willingness to revise their initial or previous judgments to reach a consensus (Oh, 1974; Pill, 1971). Therefore, this study decided to select 15 participants consisting of 13 state public library directors (excluded federal territory), 1 from the National Library of Malaysia, and one former General Director of the National Library of Malaysia. Of the 15 participants invited in this study, only 13 kindly agreed. They were selected for this study because they have worked in a library for more than 10 years. The majority of them had an educational background in librarianship. Most of them hold a position as public library directors, while one participant was a former Director-General of the National Library of Malaysia. Because of the academic background and work experience, this study assumed that the participants had considerable knowledge and experienced in managing and administering staff and rural libraries. In addition, some of them are involved in the policy-making related to the IS. All of the criteria mentioned above met the study.
Data collection
This study employed a three-round Delphi technique. It began with a face-to-face interview, followed by two rounds of close-ended survey questions presented in a Likert-type scale format distributed to a preselected group of leaders with experience in rural library planning and strategies. Interviews were held one-on-one, face-to-face and, conducted in the participants’ offices. The interview sessions have lasted from 45 to 120 minutes. Most of the respondents willing to continue well beyond the time allotted and indicating enthusiasm for their involvement in what they found to be an important, thought-provoking, and enjoyable process. In total, 13 interviews conducted have produced a rich body of thoughtful commentary on the issues. The role of the first round is to identify issues to be addressed in the later round. The first round approach is unstructured and open response (face-to-face interview). The answers of Round 1 provide a basis to construct the second and third-round questionnaire.
The second and third rounds of the Delphi used a survey method to validate and obtain a consensus of earlier findings. For this reason, a questionnaire seeking quantification from previous results, usually Likert-type rating scales developed. A structured closed-ended questionnaire based on the R1 results was a survey instrument in R2 and R3. The purpose of this close-ended survey method is to narrow the thoughts, ideas, or recommendations of participants from the previous rounds by allowing them to revise their answers if the answers are outside the collective responses.
During the R2 survey, which has involved analyses of the second round data in a Likert-type scale format, a space for comments has enabled participants to provide final thoughts about the issues of the study. The same questionnaire used in the R2 becomes part of the R3 Delphi instrument survey in the third round, where the items also consist of the rejected items, shown with a line drawn across them included in the third round. The statistical aggregated also reported in the R3. The consensus occurs when the items reach 80% or higher, so this was the final set refined by this group of experts. The study stops at Round 3 when the panel has verified the consensus achieved on all items.
Data analysis procedure
The analysis process begins by assembling the open-ended answers in Round 1. For analysis data in Round 1 (qualitative analysis), this study conducted the content analysis to generate code statements. Codes that emerged from the open-ended responses of the first round of data analysis carried over to the development of the Likert-type closed-ended questionnaire items for the second and third rounds (quantitative analysis). The purpose of R2 and R3 is to determine the consensus. The frequency of distribution, mean, and standard deviation of each item calculated using SPSS to determine which responses reached consensus. The analysis developed themes and patterns through distributions and scores of each answer in Round 2. More data collection and analysis are needed in Round 3 to narrow down the thoughts, ideas, or recommendations from the first and second rounds. After listing all code statements that achieved consensus, the researcher looks for similar categories. These categories were further refined and reduced by grouping them until the whole picture emerges, with consensus at the end of the third round.
As indicated earlier, the Delphi study focused on determining the level of consensus reached on each item. Those items with the highest mean and the lowest standard deviation considered to have a high level of agreement. Survey items not rated within the two most favorable categories by at least 80% of the participants are not considered on the Delphi III instrument but shown with a text strikethrough. Three types of consensus used in this study:
Respondent Agreement = 100%—complete consensus
Respondent Agreement > 80%—high consensus
Respondents Agreement < 80%—no consensus
Data presentation, analysis, results, and discussions
Analysis of Round 1
After analyzing the interview transcripts, participants have provided 63 responses regarding the barriers that impede the development of an information-based society. After similar responses grouped and irrelevant responses eliminated, a total of 27 items which were then categorized into 8 areas have emerged from the analysis. These include community perception and awareness, library funding, library governance, human resources, information communication technologies, rural library infrastructures, local content resources, and social issues.
Community perception and awareness
In describing how they feel about the challenge of a rural library in developing IS, the participants reported that they had a problem with the communities, especially in creating their awareness toward the importance of the rural library. One of the participants’ response as follows:
. . . the challenges are to enlighten the public about the benefits of using the library, reading interests, and also the importance of information, how the information can be used to help people every day and also to participate and contribute to the development of information sources on the rural industry and so on . . .
2. Library funding
Another significant barrier of the rural library in the IS development is the library fund. Most comments refer to inadequate funds. One of the comments related to this issue was,
. . . I see the biggest challenge is, of course, the budget. This is because it can affect the overall administrative budget in terms of buying the collection and so on. Regarding the rural libraries’ collection, most libraries facing problems to meet consumer demand, especially purchasing of new materials . . .
3. Library governance
Rural libraries have several issues regarding their governing. Rural libraries were hard to get support from the government. As one participant noted, “. . . the challenge here is that we have a leader who does not favor the library, as well as the management, did not want to understand the problem . . .” Other problems associated with the library governance also lack of awareness among the policymakers of the importance of rural libraries and a low salary of rural library operators.
4. Human resources
The participants also have highlighted the issues of human resources as a challenge in the IS development. These issues highlighted by the participants were varying such as lack of staff, lack of skills, and short of training. For example, one participant stated the following:
. . . there is some staff who are not competent to administer the library. So I suggest that a skilled and knowledgeable person is important. For me, if you want to work in the library, you need to have knowledge and proficiency in library administration.
5. ICT
ICT were some of the issues highlighted in rural libraries. The issues highlighted by the participants were related to inadequate ICT infrastructures and also slow pace development of broadband and wireless technologies. For instance, one of the participants commented: “. . . information technology infrastructure has to be improved; the rural communities cannot afford to buy netbooks or computers, and they expect us to provide for them . . .”
6. Rural library infrastructure
Rural library infrastructures and resources have arisen as a barrier in the responses of some of the participants. The issues related to rural library infrastructures were poor facilities and premises ownership rights. “. . . some of the library building does not belong to us, and therefore it is difficult for us to renovate the building as I have to get permission from the owner . . .” Several participants have also mentioned the challenges to develop information societies associated with poor basic infrastructures such as water supply and electricity. This problem was summarized by one participant as follows:
. . . there are technical challenges in developing a new building. Since the government does not give priority to the library, it is difficult to find land to build a library. Furthermore, the poor infrastructures such as electricity and water will affect the development of a new library building . . .
7. Local content resources
The participants reported that content creation in the indigenous language was a challenge of resource development in a rural library. One of the participants commented that the collection in the rural library must be in the local language, especially in the Malay language. However, most of the books in the market are in the English language. He also emphasized that the content should include information about local needs, as this would ensure that the contents correspond to the interests of the local people.
8. Social issues
Another barrier discussed by the participants was a low reading culture among rural communities. Both participants agreed that this problem would make them difficult to shift the rural communities’ mindset toward reading. They further suggested encouraging rural library staff to instill the reading habit among rural communities to be part of their life routine. One of the participants commented: “. . . most rural libraries located in Malay communities. We understand that the reading habit among Malays remains low. It is difficult to change the mindset of rural communities and instill a culture of reading among them . . .” Besides, several participants mentioned the rural communities faced problems like economic pressure and poverty. That is the reason for the low number of visitors to the library. As one participant said: “. . . in many places, economic pressure/ poverty forced rural populace to give more priority to working to feed their family than attending library activities which were not giving immediate return . . .”
Analysis of R2 and R3
On R2 and R3 of the Delphi study, the instrument was developed based on the results of the R1 interview. The 27 items identified in R1 were designed with a 5-point Likert-type scale survey in R2 and R3 for panelists to agree or disagree with each statement. The response rate was 92.3% for the R2 instrument. The panels considered reaching a consensus when at least 80% of each item in the two highest values on the scale. Only 6 (23.1%) of the identified items met the 80% level or high consensus in the final round.
Then, the compiled responses in R2 formed the R3 instrument where the same panelists reviewed and re-rate each item with a percentage of 80% or greater, taking into consideration the responses from other panel members on each item. The participants were asked to re-rate each item if their answers dissented from the group consensus. What was an interesting result in the R3 was that one item: “inadequate ICT resources” reached the 100% consensus. Table 1 shows the results of R2 and R3.
Change of consensus items from R2 to R3.
SD: standard deviation; ICT: information communication and technology.
The participants reached one complete consensus and five high consensuses of the items relating to the rural library barriers in an IS development. These selected items focus on areas that the researcher considers to have strong implications for rural libraries to operate efficiently. The emergent themes are presented in Table 2.
Emergent themes.
ICT: information communication and technology.
Discussion
As a result of analyzing the data from R1, R2, and R3i with 13 experts, five categories that hinder the Malaysia rural libraries in IS were found: library funding, ICT, rural library infrastructures, local content resources, and human resources.
Library funding
The participants in this study agreed that one of the challenges to develop an IS is a library fund. It is important to note that the library funding may be of importance to a library to operate and sustain; however, the library funding appears to be an issue for rural libraries; thus, indicating that the library funding could affect rural libraries in the development of an IS. The results were supported by a previous study by Samsuddin et al. (2019), where the challenge of library funding in rural libraries has also been reported widely in rural library studies. In the current research, during the first round (R1), the participants’ responses to the barriers of rural library funding were related to the library collections, rural library development, library maintenance, and technology fund. However, only the technology fund remained the challenge of a rural library with participants’ responses indicating consistency throughout R3. The evidence from this research and elsewhere suggest that the has the potential to develop an IS. While rural libraries played a significant role in public computing and technologies, the library fund for technology has received high responses as a challenge in developing an IS. Due to limited funds for technology, providing public access to technology services and resources in rural libraries could not be feasible. In agreement with the statements, Bosire (2015), Ayub (2015), and Real et al. (2014) had the same findings. If the financial is insufficient, the libraries will be shutting down like a case in Great Britain, whereby 423 libraries closed down or slated for closure (International Herald Tribune, 2012). Lack of funding is the most prominent problem libraries faced and will cause the delay of the development of libraries in all aspects.
2. ICT
The results showed the ICT as a challenge of a rural library in an IS development. A possible explanation for this might be that the ICTs become common features in an IS. The participants have identified two main challenges facing ICT as the “information society” emerges: inadequate ICT resources and slow pace development of technology infrastructures. Regarding the technology infrastructures, the findings showed that the development of technology in rural areas was slow: this includes broadband, wireless, and the Internet. The results revealed that those areas provide challenges for ICT implementation in rural libraries. The participants’ agreement in those areas was consistent for all three rounds of a Delphi study. The findings were supported by Meng et al. (2013), who found that the ICT infrastructures and services in the underserved and rural areas in Malaysia are not well-established compared to the urban areas. Although public Internet access in libraries is a priority set down in the original WSIS agenda, there is still a challenge to improve access at the rural libraries. These findings may help us understand that the rural areas remained unconnected and, hence this will be difficult to promote and build IS in rural areas. Most of the previous studies found users unsatisfied with the ICT infrastructure in their libraries (Akanwa et al., 2018) due to several problems such as limited/restricted access to users, poor maintenance, poor networking, lack of trained personnel, computer illiteracy, lack of adequate infrastructures, poverty (cost), erratic power supply, policy structure of the government, political factors, economic factors, cultural factors, and technological factors (Oghenetega et al., 2014).
3. Rural library infrastructures
In R1, the findings indicated that the two areas affected the rural library infrastructures: inadequate rural library infrastructures and lack of budget to upgrade the rural library infrastructures. These two areas have received a consensus from the participants in R1. However, during R2 and R3, only inadequate infrastructures remained to provide a challenge to rural library infrastructures. A possible explanation for this might be that the participants agreed that the budget had affected the technology infrastructures, such as described in the “Library Funding” section.
In the present study, the participants highlighted the rural library building and the technology infrastructures as poor. Since the technology infrastructures were discussed in the above section, this section will focus on the library building. Concerning this issue, Omar et al. (2016) report participants had commented that there was a need to renovate the building. The findings were supported by the earlier studies conducted by Islam and Ahmed (2012), who identified that the small library is the major constraint by the users to use library services. Omar et al. (2018) also emphasize that the library building must consider more space and be more attractive to ensure user satisfaction. This finding has caused rural public libraries difficulty in attracting people to come to the library. According to Apendi (2020), the library building will attract more users to visit the library and to use the library services. The top management needs to address the poor rural library infrastructure issues for its usage.
4. Local content resources
During the R1, the participants identified two items related to the local content resources; the creation of content in the local language and the information about the interest of the local people. However, the participants’ consensus has changed in R2 and remained in R3 on the item of “the content creation in the local language.” The findings on the barriers to creating a local content resource in the local language are consistent with the findings of earlier studies. Salawu (2010) identifies the challenge to promote local content in the Nigerian context related to the materials in the indigenous languages. He suggests that libraries should emphasize the creation of local content in the notable Nigerian languages. At the same time, the same findings in Malaysia also indicate the lack of local content resources, more specifically, the lack of Malay resources in the library collections (Mazuki et al., 2014). According to Salawu (2010), the well-functioning of library services requires the use of mother-tongue languages. Besides, the library collection resources need to translate into the national language. This translation also needs to be extended to Internet resources because there is a lot of Internet resources useful for the local population. Regarding this issue, Anie (2014) proposed to have a written information policy so that more actions can be taken to enhance the local content resources within the information policy.
5. Human resource
In R1, the participants listed six challenges related to the human resources; lack of rural library staff, lack of skilled staff, staff welfare and work safety environment, lack of training, and staff from the local communities. However, during R2 and R3, only one item met consensus by the participants, which is “lack of rural library staffs.” Mazuki et al. (2014) support the finding stating many rural libraries in Malaysia faced problems resulting from a staff shortage. Currently, the Malaysian rural libraries govern by the state governments are managed by one or two library staff which makes the staffs stress at work due to the heavy workload. This finding is consistent with other countries such as Ladan and Rajendran (2020), who found that the number of staff in the rural public libraries in Nigeria was not reasonable. An implication of the staff shortage in library affects its development and relevancy to the number of peoples since librarian plays a vital role in the provision of library services and turn administration of the library. In response to this issue, he suggests that libraries need a radical restructuring to produce librarians who can serve a knowledge-based society.
The proposed actions for rural library actions toward IS development
While five major obstacles have been found to impede the development of IS, libraries need to continue their roles to support the IS development. Based on the finding analysis of the data from R1 to R3 with the 13 participants, this study discussed the possible actions that rural library can take to develop information societies. The explanation for the rural library to take part in IS development are as follows:
1. Funding strategies
The solutions for library funding in this study should focus on the issues raised by the participants. In the context of Malaysian rural libraries, the libraries were funded by the government, either by the federal or the local state government. However, the libraries funded were not enough to support rural libraries in the development of IS, hence the libraries’ expenditure should increase to support library activities, infrastructures, and human resource development such as highlighted by the participants. Considering issues such as budget, libraries need to think about various ways of increasing library funding, for instance, library crowdfunding.
2. ICT strategies
While ICT seems to be the main enabler of the IS, rural libraries found it difficult to provide ICT infrastructures to the local community. These issues are solved if the library includes the ICT budget in its plan. Hence, ICT-based services in the rural libraries can be provided to support the IS development. Furthermore, the rural libraries need to upgrade the technology infrastructures by installing advanced information technologies and provide free Internet services. This study also suggested a lot more ICT programs and activities than simply installing PCs in libraries. For instance, ICT awareness to local communities, concentrating on the benefits of ICT and not just availability.
3. Infrastructure strategies
Third, as clearly described library infrastructures impinge the development of the IS. There appears to be a problem with the poor rural library infrastructures. In this respect, it is crucial to upgrade the infrastructures such as attractive physical buildings to attract a wide range of users through its door. The design of the space and furniture suggested for the pleasant ambiance drawn from the interview will be considered in the rural library planning. More importantly, the basic infrastructures such as roads and electric supplies also need to be upgraded as this will improve library accessibility. The data from this study also suggested that the library location should be convenient for the community.
4. Local content strategies
As shown in the results, the experts discussed local content resources challenges in the IS development. Indeed, local content resources are one of the main issues for developing information societies. In this article, the term local content borrowed from the definition used by Abdul Waheed Khan (n.d.) refers to the expression and communication of a community’s locally generated owned and adapted knowledge and experienced relevant to the community’s situation.
The data from this study suggested that libraries need to conduct users’ information needs studies to identify the appropriate resources for rural library collections. Furthermore, the local content resources like acquiring new titles for library collections and the resources in the local language spoken might be one of the crucial factors to be taken into account. These issues, however, can be solved by selecting, retrieving, repackaging, preserving, and disseminating the local language spoken resources. More specifically, in Malay language resources since the majority of Malays live in rural areas (Abdul Mutalib et al., 2020). Rural libraries should capture the knowledge and experience of the local communities. As of today, there is an initiative carried out by the National Library of Malaysia focused on the preservation of the local content, emphasized the Malay manuscript. Based on the statistic available in 2017, about 1628 titles of Malay manuscripts in its collection and some of the digitized collections can be accessed via the NLM OPAC system (NLM, 2017). For rural communities to have access to these digital collections, necessary and appropriate ICT infrastructures must also be available in the rural libraries.
5. Human resource strategies
Finally, rural libraries should look at the issues of limited staff at the very beginning. More importantly, the staff development programs should be designed based on the current needs and situation, especially ICT-related training. As the expert stated, the serious problems are that rural library staffs are not enough. Therefore, rural libraries must have a radical staff restructuring to ensure the library staff provides efficient services in an information-based society.
Finally, based on the recommendation above, possible actions are proposed that provide practical guidance on the criteria appropriate for the rural library to participate in the IS development, as shown in Figure 1.
Proposed possible actions that provide practical guidance on the criteria appropriate for the rural library to participate in the IS development.
Conclusion
This study aimed to explore the barriers of a rural library and suggested a list of possible actions for IS development. Accordingly, a three-round Delphi study was carried out to describe various problems that impeded the IS development in a rural library context into five groups: funding, ICT, rural library infrastructures, local content, and human resource. The findings could benefit rural library practitioners by providing a broader view and a better understanding of what action they could take to overcome the barriers dealing with the IS development in a rural library context. Based on the issues elicited from the five categories, this study suggested a list of possible actions for policymakers to identify the strategies dealing with the challenges faced by a rural library in supporting the development of an IS. This study then offers the Malaysian rural libraries several actions to overcome the issues of IS development. It can be used as a guideline to develop an IS for Malaysian rural libraries and the stakeholders, more specifically the top management, the policymakers, and the local leaders.
Nonetheless, there are some limitations to be treated in future research. First, since this study has explored managerial views and opinions about the barriers of a rural library in a developing IS, the outcomes are expected to be practically implemented in their perspectives. Indeed, this study helped explore the possible actions of the rural libraries in the IS from their perspectives. This study would also recommend examining the issues from the users’ perspectives. Therefore, a rural library could implement a better plan for effectiveness. It is also recommended in the future to evaluate in real contexts from a practical perspective.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
