Preservation of digital research content in academic institutions: A case study of Moi University, Kenya

Abstract

The digital age has presented the academic society with new opportunities. Academic institutions are increasingly moving towards digital presentation of corporate Information, such as web sites that contain prospectuses, course guides and corporate policies. Most of the intellectual assets of academic institutions, including research content, are also increasingly being produced and held in digital form, thus demanding new approaches to their preservation to ensure long-term value for teaching, research and development. This highlights the importance of an appropriate and effectively implemented digital preservation framework to ensure that these digital resources are properly maintained if their potential value is to be realized. This study endeavors to assess the current state of preservation of academic research content at Moi University (MU); the extent to which these materials have been digitized, with a view to proposing an appropriate strategy for their successful preservation. The specific objectives of the study are to: identify and classify the types of research content produced in MU; establish the different forms and categories in which these materials are stored; assess the existing digital preservation practices used to preserve these research assets; establish the challenges faced in the preservation of these materials; propose an appropriate preservation strategy to digitize and preserve these research content. This study has highlighted the need and importance of digitization and preservation of research content. It has also propose an applicable digital preservation strategy for MU.