This document presents a study assessing the effectiveness of open source tools to promote sustainable academic libraries in Africa from the Ghanaian perspective. It provides background on open source systems for research and how the Ghanaian government supports their use. The study distributed surveys to 300 faculty members at Akenten Appiah- Menka University of Skill Training and Entrepreneurial Development to understand open source use and satisfaction. Results showed faculty widely use open source and are satisfied with it. The conclusion is that open source effectively promotes sustainable academic libraries in Africa, specifically in Ghana. Further work should consider perceptions of open source in other African academic libraries.

1. AKENTEN APPIAH- MENKAH UNIVERSITY OF SKILL TRAINING AND
ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT
ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF OPEN SOURCE TO RESEARCH
IN PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN AFRICA:
THE PERSPECTIVE OF GHANA
Prince Duah Mensah
Department of Information Technology, AAMUSTED
Email: successprinceduahmensah@gmail.com
Contact: +233533577389
Donald Yeboah
Department of Information Technology, AAMUSTED
Email: donaldyeboah@gmail.com
Contact: +233242637542
Prof. D. A. Yarhands
Dean, Faculty of Applied Sciences and Mathematics Education, AMMUSTED
Email: ydarthur@aamusted.edu.gh
Contact: +233244071973
Dr. George Asante (PhD)
Head, Department of Information Technology, AAMUSTED
Email: gasante@aamusted.edu.gh
Contact: +233242927029
Dr. Kwabena Osei Kuffour Adjei (PhD)
University Librarian, Kumasi Technical University, GHANA
Email: osei.kadjei@kstu.edu.gh
Contact: +233242065767

2. ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF OPEN SOURCE TO RESEARCH
IN PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN AFRICA:
THE PERSPECTIVE OF GHANA
Prince Duah Mensah, Donald Yeboah, Yarhands Arthur Dissou, George Asante
Department of Information Technology, Akenten Appiah- Menka University of Skill Training
and Entrepreneurial Development, Kumasi 1277, Ashanti, Ghana.
Email address: successprinceduahmensah@gmail.com Phone No.: +233 (0) 533577389
Kwabena Osei Kuffour Adjei
Department of Information Science, Kumasi Technical University, Post Office Box 854 Kumasi,
Ashanti, Ghana.
Abstract
In today’s fast- paced digitized world economy, access to authentic information in any field,
including education should be made readily available to the public. Open Source then becomes an
important platform in providing the necessary nuance and context in filling the gap in research.
Here, students, faculty members and institutions have the liberty to collaborate, share, reuse and
exchange scholarly works. Some recent empirical studies have shown that most academic libraries
in the world have started integrating open source into their system in order to widely explore,
circulate and access scholarly articles and also enhance research works in Institutions of Higher
Education. Open Source Systems in research such as RStudio, Koha, Destiny, NewGenLib,
Fedora, OpenSesame, LabJS builder, Jamovi, JASP and Zotero are designed to be compatible and
interoperable with other systems and therefore speed up innovation. In Ghana, the Government
through the Ministry of Education (MoE) in consultation with both public and private agencies
such as the Ghana Centre for Free and Open Source Software (GCFOSS) are pioneering the use
of open source for socio- economic development in the country. Conversely, some researchers
have associated open source with the risk of operational deficiencies, intellectual property issues,
lack of warranty and poor developer practices. In the light of this, the paper aims to assess the
effectiveness of open source to research in promoting sustainable academic libraries in Africa from
the perspective of Ghana. A survey questionnaire was distributed randomly to a total of 300 faculty
members and lecturers at the Akenten Appiah- Menka University of Skill Training and Entrepreneurial
Development (AAMUSTED) in Kumasi. The data for this mixed research method were analysed
quantitatively using IBM SPSS software (version 23) and qualitatively using the responses from
respondents. The result shows that a lot of faculty members use open source and are satisfied with it.
The outcomes indicate that open source in research has a great effectiveness in promoting sustainable

3. academic libraries in Africa, specifically Ghana. For further studies, there is the need to consider the
perceptions of open source in academic libraries in Africa.
Keywords: Open Source, Research, Academic Library, Sustainable Development