An information storage and retrieval system for National Housing and Construction Company library
Abstract
The aim of this project was to design an information storage and retrieval system to manage information resources for National Housing and Construction Company (NHCC) so as to enable easy access and retrieval of information for improved service delivery. The objectives of the study were to; identify the information needs of NHCC Library users, examine the current information storage and retrieval system at NHCC, establish the challenges in storing and retrieving Information resources at NHCC, and design an information storage and retrieval system for NHCC.
The study used a case study research design while adopting a qualitative research approach in data collection. Interviews, questionnaires and observation methods of data collection were used. Purposive sampling method was used to select 24 respondents who participated in the study.
The study found out that majority of the library users at NHCC were the workers who access the information resources such as the company publications, policies, plans, instructional instruments, documents and many others. The current information storage and retrieval system is manual and highly depends on paper based documents. Users visit the library counter, use internet and intranet in order to retrieve the information.
The study found out that the different challenges in the current retrieval system at the National housing and Construction Company like; slow retrieval of the information, poor data storage, lack of security for the users information, misplacement of the information resources, tiresomeness and time consuming. The requirements for an information storage and retrieval system were; a user friendly interface, a facility that provide online help to the users, able to give authority to librarians to manage its operations, ability to allow data searching and display of search results, downloading of full text documents, and display search history.
The study concluded that implementation of the designed information storage and retrieval system for NHCC would improve the storage and retrieval of information for users in the library. The study recommended that NHCC should digitise all the documents in the library, provision of more ICTs in the library, training of both Library users and the staff, provision of full time power supply, engaging users in decision making, increasing the budget for the library and proper maintenance of ICTs in the library.