Awareness of digital rights management in academic libraries: a survey of three selected Malawian university/ college libraries

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to survey awareness of digital rights management at College mof Medicine, St John of God College of Health Sciences and Mzuzu University in Malawi. Specifically, the study aimed at identifying the forms and sources of digital content the library offer, determined the level of knowledge of digital rights management, identifying perceived benefits and perceived negative impacts of rights management on library services, and establish challenges that can affect the effective implementation of digital rights management. A cross-sectional survey was conducted which self-administered 24 questionnaires to all trained library staff in the three selected libraries. The study found that the libraries provide information resources in various forms including electronic thesis and dissertations, digitized and born digital books and manuals, digital audio content, e-mail among several others. The study found that sources of digital content were mostly local databases, online remote databases and DVDs/CDs. Despite identifying many perceived benefits of DRM, the study revealed that many respondents were not aware of digital rights management hence could not even establish properly how it negatively impacts on library services. However, lack of knowledge of DRM and training needs in DRM scored highly as challenges affecting implementation of DRM. The study therefore recommends raising awareness through in-house training and workshops, integrating DRM in educational training in schools of library and information science. It further recommends participation by LIS professionals in local and international discussions of DRM and need for research in DRM which is currently not available.