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Is Lilongwe Technical College ready to manage an Electronic Library?

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University of Nebraska - Lincoln
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal) Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Summer 11-26-2018

Is Lilongwe Technical College ready to manage an

Electronic Library?
Symon C Lubanga
symonlubanga@gmail.com

Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac

Lubanga, Symon C, "Is Lilongwe Technical College ready to manage an Electronic Library?" (2018). Library Philosophy and Practice (e-
journal). 2146.
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/2146
 IS LILONGWE TECHNICAL COLLEGE READY TO MANAGE AN E-
LIBRARY?
Symon C. Lubanga
College Librarian, Department of Library Services, Lilongwe Technical College, Malawi
Email: symonlubanga@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
E-library is a relatively new concept in technical colleges in Malawi. Over the past three
decades, Technical College libraries have been traditional in nature despite the world of
information and communication is going through a period of supreme and accelerating
transformations. To stay abreast with the latest changes in technologies, the Malawi’s technical
educational institutes have now started adopting agile services such as e-libraries to utilize on the
internet technology to provide a variety of information resources and services to the scholarly
community. The e-library initiative at Lilongwe Technical College was championed by African
Development Bank (AfDB) under Higher Education and Science Technology (HEST) Project
with an overall goal of fusing Information Communication Technologies (ICTS) in information
service delivery, as a basic ingredient for information availability, accessibility and
dissemination. Being a new development at the college, a quantitative survey was instituted with
the aim of exploring the readiness of Lilongwe Technical College (LTC) in managing such a
digital archive as the e-library. Among other aspects, the study closely looked at what are the
contents of an e-library, benefits of e-library initiatives in technical colleges, anticipated
challenges and suggested solutions in managing the electronic library at LTC. A questionnaire
with closed ended questions was used to elicit responses from purposively selected 9 participants
(Library staff and ICT instructors/Technicians). The data collected were later analyzed using the
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. The frequencies (f) and
percentages (%) which were created using SPSS were then exported to MS Excel to produce
charts and MS. Word to produce tables. Our findings revealed that library staff and ICT
instructors/Technicians had little knowledge on the contents of an electronic library as they only
indicated e-books as the major contents of an e-library. Saving storage space and 24/7 access to
the library resources among others were the perceived benefits of an e-library initiative at the
college. Finally, managing an electronic library at LTC will be associated with the following
major challenges: inadequate government funding, poor state of ICT infrastructural development
at the college, lack of laws, policies and strategies to guide the selection and acquisitions of e-
resources, problems with long term preservation and access to e-resources; and copyright and
licensing issues are of a great concern in a virtual environment. The study has set out strategies
to counter deal with these challenges in order to answer the question: “is Lilongwe Technical
College ready to manage an e-library?”
Keywords: Electronic Library, Managing e-libraries, Technical Colleges, Lilongwe, Malawi
Introduction
In institutions of higher learning, the presence of a library forms a base on which the functions of
teaching and learning process, including general research and enquiry processes rests upon. Libraries
have always played a vibrant role as a social establishment and it serves as a physical structure where
books, journals, magazines and the various kinds of information resources and services are made
available to end users. Much of interest in 21st century librarianship is the upsurge of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) which have led the birth of information explosion era. The old
ways of library transactions cannot stand the intense pressure in managing tremendous amount of
information that is being produced and conveyed in every corner of the world in form of printed
resources, research articles, lectures, presentations, video conferencing, technical reports, standards
and patents among others (Esther, 2014).
The understanding is that before the birth of digital technologies, libraries consequently faced
challenges, on how best to meet users’ needs just in time beyond the walls of a physical library. With
the development and application of ICTs, college libraries have shifted from being traditional to
being hybrid libraries in nature to make information service delivery more effective. New concepts
such as “electronic libraries”, virtual library” or “digital libraries” which are used interchangeably
were later coined in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). An “electronic library”,
according to Daniel (2012), is a “collection of networked digital information resources and associated
technical and managerial infrastructure” (p.1). Like a traditional library, an electronic library also
acquires, processes, stores, evaluates and disseminates information via electronic means to the
audience in need of information, that is both the students, academic staff and researchers at any
educational institute.
The development of Electronic library (EL) in institutions of higher is accelerated with the advent of
high-tech software and hardware systems, communication channels and expert application software,
in short ICTs. As indicated by Anyim (2018), the of e-library concept cuts across various disciplines
and branches of computer science including data management, information retrieval, library
science, document management, information systems, the web, image processing, and artificial
intelligence. Novel forms of ICTs as a matter of fact have come with an agile approach in managing
scholarly information in colleges through such initiatives as digital archives, in particular e-libraries.
The information users of 21st century times prefer to use the electronic library via internet as primary
sources of information, often relying on paper as the last resort due to the issue of distance and time.
At the same time, Ramos (2007) as cited in Shonhe (2017) clearly states that some of the principles
guiding 21st century libraries are: library services access everywhere and anytime, library has no
barriers, library invites participation- more active then passive, library uses flexible, best of breed
systems
In Africa, particularly in Malawi, the e-library initiatives have only been vibrant in public
universities, not in Technical Colleges, as such a bell of uncertainty rings on what constitutes the
contents, users, services and benefits of e-libraries in a college setup. Despite this dire situation in
technical colleges in Malawi, it is important to note that philosophy and rationale behind academic
librarianship remains unchanged, that is to provide information resources in both print and electronic
or online resources for staff and students in order to enhance educational development and provide
educational resources for effective teaching, learning and research activities. As such to fulfil this
library mandate, Salanje (2011) resonates that it is the responsibility of academic institutions in
Malawi to be agile in the delivery of information services to the scholarly community by adopt
modern ways in library and information resources management; and resolve all management issues in
relation to inadequacies of funding, unskilled9 librarians, poor ICT infrastructure and lack of proper
policies to guide the selection and management of information resources. In quintessence, Igun
(2010) cited Zhou (2005) explains that managing electronic libraries in colleges need librarians or
information professions who are capable of:
• Selecting, acquiring, preserving, organizing and managing ICT/digital collection;
• Designing the technical architecture of ICT/digital library;
• Planning, implementing, and supporting ICT/digital services such as information
navigation, consultation and transmit services;
• Establishing friendly user interface over network;
• Setting up relative standards and policies for the ICT/digital archives;
• Designing, maintaining and transmitting added-value information products;
• Protecting digital intellectual property in network environment; and
• Ensuring information security.

Context of the study

The establishment of Lilongwe Technical College (LTC) dates back in the colonial days of 1963 and
it is located in the capital city Lilongwe, in a Southern African country of Malawi. The college is run
under the Ministry of Labour, Youth and Manpower Development with the overall goal of training
and supplying craftsmen and women to meet the never-ending industrial demands in Malawi. To
meet this goal, LTC offers both commercial and technical or vocational courses with the view of
making a productive civil and public service, fostering self-employment and enriching entrepreneurial
mindset among the youthful populace in the country. The commercial courses at LTC include
secretarial studies, book-keeping, business management, marketing, and accounting, while the
technical or vocational courses include CISCO networking, bricklaying, carpentry and joinery,
painting and decorating, plumbing, auto electrics, general fitting, electrical installation, vehicle body
repairing, motor vehicle mechanics, and welding and fabrication. The college is only a teaching
institution, as such it is affiliated to many examining bodies such as National Trade Test (NTT),
Malawi Examination Board (MANEB), Association of Business Administrators and Managers
(ABMA), Association of Business Executives (ABE), CISCO Networking Academy, Institute of
Chartered Accountants in Malawi (ICAM), Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and
Training Authority (TEVETA), City and Guilds and many others.
To support the teaching and learning processes, including general research and enquiry, LTC has a
library which serves the academic community with information resources such as books, journals,
magazines and newspapers. The library has more than 10 thousands volumes of books and is serving
a community of almost 2000 thousands users. Despite new technological revolutions, the library has
been operating in a manual driven environment, until this year when the college management
restructured most of the library services to incorporate ICTs in service delivery. Many
technologically driven services have been lined up including the establishment of a modern e-library
labs and computer labs to facilitate the library automation processes. An electronic library at LTC
aims at providing information resources in an electronic format via the internet technology in
supporting the teaching and learning processes, and research activities. The e-library initiative among
its proposed benefits is expected to save the problem of storage space in a library through its digital
collections, and provide access to information resources in the library at the convenience of the users,
anytime, to connect users to world libraries, websites and electronic databases for full texts e-journals
access.

The Need for a Study

Libraries in academic institutions have always been dependable in making information resources and
services of various types available to academic staff and students in order to support the core
functions of teaching, learning and research activities. With the presence of e-libraries in institutions
of higher learning, it is easy for librarians to deliver information services within the college and
globally, that is making information accessible to multiple users, anywhere, anytime and at just a
mouse click with the aid of computer and communication technologies. Issues of physical library
space are no longer roadblocks to developing the library collection as libraries are now continually
opting for electronic resources collection development to increase access, discovery and meet the
users’ needs just in time, everywhere around the world. Despite the enormous benefits presented by
e-libraries in colleges, there are potential threats to sound management of e-libraries to ensure its
sustainability in Malawian Technical Colleges since they are new initiatives. The life span of an
electronic library can be doomed short at LTC, if issues of management such as lack of skilled
librarians, poor state of ICT infrastructure, limited access to internet, lack of policies guiding the
management of e-libraries, lack of strategies to ensure long-term preservation and access to e-
resources, copyright and licensing issues, among other aspects are not taken into consideration. It is
in light of these facts that the study seeks address key issues as regards to effective management of e-
libraries in institutions of higher learning to ensure its sustainable use. To achieve this, the study is
guided by following research objectives:
• To find out the contents of e-library accessible to users at Lilongwe Technical College
• To ascertain the benefits of having an electronic library at Lilongwe Technical College
• To identify anticipated challenges associated with managing an electronic library at Lilongwe
Technical College
• To identify strategies for dealing electronic library management challenges and ensure its
sustainable use at Lilongwe Technical College

LITERATURE REVIEW
E-library Contents, Benefits and Challenges
The essence of having an electronic library in institutions of higher learning is to make some or all of
the library holdings available in electronic format, and also to make the services of the library
remotely and frequently accessed via the Internet technology and across the large spectrum of users
(Anyim, 2018; Onwuchekwa & Jegede, 2011). Generally, Hirsch (2014) informs that e-libraries in
college or university settings serve the mission of providing both information services and resources
that are capable of meeting the traditional functions of research, teaching and learning needs of the
faculty and students.
As such, the contents of e-libraries include all electronic resources but not only limited to web sites,
e-journals, e-books, theses/dissertations, electronic integrating resources, online databases, WIFI;
search engines; online indexes, online Library catalogue; portals and physical carriers in all
formats, whether free or fee-based, required to support research in the subject covered, and
may be audio, visual, and/or text files (Asogwa and Eke, 2009; Ekere, Omekwu and Nwoha,
2016; Ugwu and Onyegiri, 2013). More significantly, Anyim (2018) stresses that the contents of e-
libraries includes all electronic data accessed with the aid of computer or communication
technologies in contemporary libraries.
An electronic library, serves the similar functions of a conventional library, as it also acquires,
processes, stores, evaluates and disseminates information though via electronic means to the
audience in need of information. Suffice to say, operating in a virtual environment brings more
value addition and agility in the delivery of library services to users in the modern times librarianship.
Elsevier Science Direct (2017) explains that today’s watchwords for libraries are efficiency,
discovery and access. Now, to accommodate changing scholarly habits, as well as new roles for the
physical library space itself, librarians are exploring — or already undertaking — the transition from
print resources to electronic. In the digital age, the greatest factor influencing the decision for
universities or colleges to move to an electronic library, is “reducing or eliminating library space.” As
Said Peter Kupersmith, Library Director at Delaware Valley College in Pennsylvania, “Space saving
is one of the major benefits of transitioning to an electronic library.” He also cited convenience and
off-campus access as additional advantages. In addition to this, various scholars agree that in
institutions of higher learning, e-libraries provide 24/7 around the clock access to library contents,
meet users’ needs just in time, multiple or concurrent access to contents (Elsevier ScienceDirect,
2017; Gani and Magoi, 2014; Trivedi, 2010, ), and more to say, Akçayol et.al (2005) states that e-
libraries does not need a number of workers and tools necessary for a traditional library and this
decreases the cost of managing e-libraries.
While the benefits of e-libraries are overwhelming, managing these libraries in institutions of higher
learning is an area of a great concern. Colleges or universities face a lot of challenges when it comes
to the sound management of digital archives such as e-libraries. Some of these challenges relates to
poor ICT infrastructure development, inadequacies of government funding, lack of policies guiding
the selection of electronic resources, poor ICT skills among librarians, intermittent power supply,
limited access to internet services, poor and insufficient bandwidth, etc. (Abdulsalami, 2012; Baro,
Eze and Nkanu, 2011; Fabunmi, 2009; Igun, 2006). In Malawi, Salanje (2011) and Mapulanga (2013)
similarly reported that managing digital archives such as electronic libraries is equally hampered by
lack of technical skills among librarians, lack of strategies to ensure long-term preservation and
access to e-resources, copyright and licensing issues, including all issues that relates directly to the
poor state of ICT sector in the country.

Research design and methodology

Data for this research were collected from library personnel and ICT Instructors/Technicians at
Lilongwe Technical College. Non-probability sampling methods, particularly purposive sampling
was used to recruit participants based on the researchers’ judgments (Shkedi, 2003). The study
adopted a quantitative research approach, with a questionnaire only containing closed ended
questions as a tool for data collection. The researchers, administered a total of 9 questionnaires to
library staff and ICT personnel. The data collected were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the
Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. The frequencies (f) and percentages (%) which were created
using SPSS were later exported to MS Excel to produce charts and MS Word to produce tables. The
study was aimed at exploring the readiness of Lilongwe Technical College in managing the e-library
in the face of adversity.

Results and Discussion

The researchers distributed a total of 9 questionnaires to both the library staff and ICT personnel at
LTC. Of the 9 questionnaires distributed, only 7 questionnaires were returned, denoting a response
rate of 77%. Out of seven respondents, 4 (57%) were library staff and 3 (43%) were ICT
instructors/Technicians. Among the library staff, two (28%) were holders of a bachelor’s degree in
Library and Information Science (LIS) working as Librarians while the other two (28%) had a
Malawi School Certificate of Education (M.S.C.E) working as library attendants. All the three (43%)
ICT instructors/Technicians had advanced certificates in Information Technology (IT). The study
registered 3 (43%) females and 4 (57%) males. The study only targeted the library staff and ICT
personnel because they are key participants in the facilitating the use of an electronic library at
Lilongwe Technical College. Discussions of the findings of this study is guided by the following
research questions:
• What contents of e-libraries are available at Lilongwe Technical College?
• What are the perceived benefits of an e-library initiative at Lilongwe Technical
College?
• What are anticipated challenges in managing an e-library at Lilongwe Technical
College?
• What strategies are put in place to enhance E-library Management challenges and
ensure its sustainable use at Lilongwe Technical College?

Contents available in an electronic library at Lilongwe Technical College.

An e-library is just a replica of a traditional library, the only difference noticeable is that the former
has the contents that are accessible to users with the aid of ICT tools, electronically via the internet
technology. While the latter, traditional library has its contents that require the physical presence of
the user in the library building to access them. Various scholars have indicated that in digital archives
such as e-libraries, the contents includes but not only limited to e-books, e-journals,
theses/dissertations, search engines, online library catalogues, online databases, websites, CD-ROMs,
DVDs, audio cassettes among others (Ekere, Omekwu and Nwoha, 2016; Ugwu and Onyegiri,
2013). When asked what contents do you want you users to access in Lilongwe Technical College e-
library, respondents indicated on the many options that provided to them by the researchers. The
findings are illustrated in Table 1 below:

Table 1: Available contents in an electronic Library (N=7)

___________________________________________________________________
S/N Contents of an e-library Frequency %
1 e-books 7 100
2 Search engines i.e. Google 5 71.4
3 Websites 4 57.1
4 CD-ROMs, DVDs, and audio cassettes 2 28.5
4 e-journals 1 14.2
6 Online databases 1 14.2
7 Online Library Catalogue 1 14.2
8 Theses/dissertations 0 0
____________________________________________________________________

From Table 1 above, all respondents (100%) agrees that it is a must to have e-books in electronic
libraries, as so it is the case at LTC e-library. Further findings from respondents reveal that the
contents of electronic libraries includes search engines as indicated by 5 (71.4%), websites selected
by 4 (57.1%) respondents, CD-ROMs, DVDs and Audio Cassettes were indicated by 2 (28.5%)
respondents, while e-journals, online databases and online library are only seen as the contents of an
e-library to one respondent (14.2%) each. From the findings of the study, it can be said that Lilongwe
Technical College e-library mainly hosts e-books, search engines and websites for user to access
while in the library. These findings are somehow a mismatch to what are the contents of an e-library
at an institution of higher learning. While it is universally accepted that all e-libraries must have e-
books (Anyim, 2018), it has to be noted that an electronic library houses all those materials available
in electronic format (Aina, 2004) and the contents a well-established electronic library includes the
following electronic Journals, online databases, Online Public Access Catalogue, wireless
network, search engines, electronic books, Local Area Network (LAN), the World Wide Web (www)
and online newspapers CD-ROMs and online indexes and abstracts (Bhattacharjee & Gautam, 2016;
Dhanavandan &Tamizhchelvan, 2012). The results of the current study depicts that most of the
library staff and ICT personnel at Lilongwe Technical College lack knowledge about the contents of
an e-library, to them what it means to be the most likely contents of an e-library are e-books only
overlooking all other e-resources. This can be attributed to the fact that e-library concept is a
relatively new phenomenon in Technical College libraries in Malawi. However, the above findings
agree with a study conducted by Anonubi and Okoye (2008) in Nigeria that despite the availability of
ICTs in Nigerian libraries, to enhance the access to e-library resources; some librarians are not sure of
the existence of some e-resources.

Perceived benefits of electronic libraries in Technical Colleges

As earlier put, a library at any education institute be it a conventional one or an e-library serves to
provide information resources to students, academic staff and researchers that facilitates the core
functions of teaching and learning process, including supporting the general research process.
Librarians and ICT Technicians were asked to indicate whether the e-library initiative at LTC will be
of a great deal in the provision of information resources and services to the world of academia. The
key findings are as presented in Figure 1 below:
 Percieved benefits of e-libraries in colleges
Saves the storage space in a library
Benefits of E-libraries

24/7 access to the contents of the library

Enable access to global sites and libraries
Meet the needs of users just in time
Multiple access to the contents of a library
Access to the library anywhere, anytime
Timely provides reliable information
Easy and cheap to maintain
Timely provides reliable information

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Percentages (%)

Figure 1: Perceived benefits of an electronic library at Lilongwe Technical

College

All respondents agreed that e-libraries in colleges save the storage space in the physical library
building. Some respondents 87.5% indicated that an e-library enables users to have access to the
contents of the library 24/7 around the clock access to the library. While 71% of the total
respondents said an e-library helps library patrons to have access to the global sites and libraries,
with 57% of these key informants indicating on meeting the needs of users just in time to be the
benefit of e-libraries. These findings of the study tally well with those of Elsevier Science Direct
(2017) in Tec validate survey of 146 users of Science Direct Books, where it was also
highlighted that e-libraries are associated with the benefits of space saving. Convenience and off-
campus access were also cited as additional advantages. From the survey, many echoed the same
benefits to be gained from the transition to an electronic library: easy multi-user and remote
access, reduced space requirements, the ability to do full-text searching, 24x7 content
availability, expanded range of topics and more current contents similarly purported by
Bhattacharjee & Gautam (2016) and Gansi & Magoi (2014).

Anticipated challenges in managing an electronic library at Lilongwe

Technical College
An electronic library if properly managed can offer many advantages to libraries as well as their
users. They are capable of handling and overcoming deficiencies and challenges faced by the
conventional libraries such as issues of storage space among others. Gani (2016) explains that
managing the e-library in institutions of higher learning can be seen as a new role for librarians
in the developing world, as such they are expected to meet a lot of obstacles relating directly to
managing digital archives. At Lilongwe Technical College, the study reveals that 6 (85.7%)
respondents highlighting on inadequate government funding, poor ICT skills among librarians,
poor internet connectivity and insufficient bandwidth and intermittent power supply, as the
challenges that LTC library management may likely face in managing and e-library. These
findings are not surprising in as far as managing e-libraries is concerned in Africa. Many authors
have previously recorded similar challenges, for instance, it is clear to say that managing e-
libraries introduces the challenges of inadequate funding, fluctuating of network, power failure,
poor ICT infrastructure and lack of skilled librarians to manage digital collections (Abdulsalami,
2012;Baro, Eze and Nkanu, 2011; Emwanta ,2012; Fabunmi, 2009; Gani, 2014). Again five
respondents (71%) indicated that Lilongwe Technical College may likely face the challenges due
to lack of laws and policies guiding the selection of electronic resources, lack of strategies to
ensure long term preservation and access to e-resources and copyright and licensing issues
especially in a virtual environment. Generally, these findings somehow differ from the
recommendations of Aina (2008) who mentioned that the best way to manage an e-library is to
have accommodative laws, policies and procedures that guides on selection, storage and long
term accessibility of e-library resources and enabling copyright and licensing policies that allows
libraries work in a virtual environment.

Strategies of enhancing E-library Management challenges to ensure its

sustainable use at Lilongwe Technical College
Across the globe, e-libraries offer new ways and dimensions of efficiently acquiring, organizing,
storing and disseminating of information resources and services in institutions of higher learning
to support teaching and learning processes, including general scholarship activities. To counter
deal with e-library management challenges at LTC, 85% of respondents indicated that there
should be funds available within the library budget to resolve financial constraints in managing
e-libraries, generators for power backups in case of power outages and should have a well-
established ICT infrastructure to deal with problems that reflects on poor state of ICT
infrastructure development at the college. Others scored on the need for the college to train
librarians to acquaint themselves with ICT skills and develop digital competencies for managing
e-libraries, and should also have an e-library collection development policy, strategies for
dealing with copyrights and licensing in virtual environment should also be put in place. In case
of poor ICTs skills among managers of e-libraries, the respondents recommend formal training
or training through such initiatives as Continuing Professional Development (CPD) at the
College. The findings of the current study collaborates well with those of Batool and Ameen
(2010), King and Montgomery (2002) and Umaru, Aghadiumo and Mamo (2018) who said that
strategies of dealing with e-library management challenges include:

• Managing an electronic library at an academic institution requires all season availability

of funds to ease the problems of buying online materials and also in running the day to
day activities of the library. Therefore, library administrators should collaborate with
 their parent institutions or establishing authorities to gain some sort of financial
assistance and any other form of assistance to help them in running the e-library. This
might as well include reducing overdependence on government funding, instead library
managers should be soliciting grants from financial institutions like banks, NGOs and
other foundations.
• Librarians working in an electronic library must be computer literate, and must also
employ well learned and trained individuals that are grounded in ICT application,
to ensure easy running of the library. Human capacity determines the effectiveness of the
e-libraries hence, is the need to train and re-train system librarians and analysts who
are the main staff working in the e-libraries understudy so as to meet up with
current trends in information services delivery in the e-library environment.
• Formulating an e-library collection development policy, laws that will handle issues in
relation to copyrights and licensing in a virtual environment, and devising strategies for
long term preservation and access to digital collections.
• Electronic libraries demands the use of steady power of supply, so constant power
supply should be made available. Institutions should have a standby generator in the case
where power fails, and also the use of (uninterrupted power supply) UPS, to
maintain power in case of power outage
• Heavy investments in ICT infrastructure is a prerequisite in institutions of higher learning
for sound management of an electronic library. Good ICT infrastructure development
takes away the problems of limited internet access, poor internet connectivity and
insufficient bandwidth.

Conclusion and Suggestions

In Malawian technical colleges, electronic libraries will have an enormous impact to both the
librarians and scholarly community as it resolves problems of space, meeting the information
needs of the user just in time, and at a mouse click anywhere on the campus in supporting the
general research, teaching and learning services. The value of an electronic library is worth
exploring because the benefits of such libraries are numerous and far reaching across the
academia world. And for a librarian of the 21st century, it is an obligation to move with the sea
change of technology by adopting and incorporating ICT driven services to meet the modern
practice of librarianship. In particular, the study surveyed on readiness of Lilongwe Technical
College in managing the e-library initiative. In as much as the library personnel are aware of the
benefits of e-libraries in technical colleges, they have little knowledge of the electronic resources
commonly available in libraries. Many are the anticipated challenges which can reduce the
posterity of an e-library initiative at LTC. These challenges include: inadequate government
funding, poor ICT development infrastructure, lack of digital skills and competencies among
librarians, absence of laws, policies and strategies that guides the selection of e-resources,
storage, long term preservation and access to the contents of an e-library. A lot needs to be done
at LTC to address these challenges and provide a ready answer to the question “Is Lilongwe
Technical College ready to manage an e-library?” However, in light of these findings, and for
the sake of sound management of an e-library initiative at Lilongwe Technical College, the
researchers suggests that:
• Librarians should go for formal training to acquire more ICT skills and digital
competencies in managing e-libraries and accrue more knowledge and expertise in areas
 such as database searching, using different search engines, skills in using social media,
knowledge of relevant websites, and the use of e-resources among other aspects.
• The library management should develop laws and policies that will guide the selection of
e-resources, long term preservation and access to e-resources and laws that will deal
directly with copyrights and licensing issues in a virtual environment.
• Since an electronic library operates in a virtual environment, it is suggested that the
college should heavily invest in ICT infrastructural development to address issues of poor
internet connections and power failure, in case with the latter there should be a backup
generator
• The study also calls for managers of an electronic library at Lilongwe Technical College
look for other sources of funding including soliciting grants from financial institutions
like banks, NGOs and other foundations of a similar cause, instead of only depending on
government funding for buying and subscribing to online information resources and
websites.

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