DIGITAL LIBRARY RESEARCH THEMES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstract

The digital era has given scholars opportunities to explore salient areas of research in digital library (DL). Professionals have carried out a number of researches on DL. However, the absence of review on digital library research (DLR) has made it not prominently conceptualised, the emerging roles anchored by this ever-evolving and dynamic topic. The aim of this study is to explore DLR themes and document it as evidenced in the literature. This review was conducted using guidelines for writing an systematic literature review (SLR) in information systems research by Okoli and Schabram (2010) and, Kitchenham and Brereton (2013). The databases searched are Web of Science, digital library, LISA, Google Scholar and prominent out of the 75 articles were eligible for review after the performance of exclusion exercise. Findings show the themes that emerged are collaboration, users' satisfaction, users’ awareness, quality services, needs of special group, amongst others. The generated themes were via thematic analysis by means of coding, selecting, synthesising and interpreting. These act as a guide in digital library study. This paper serves as an index to the librarians and policy decision-makers on the types of software and technologies adopted in a digital library project (DLP). This review covered only research/empirical articles written in English, supposedly, a review should target all relevant literature irrespective of publication, prestige, origin and language to shy away from bias.