Exploring the empirical studies of cloud computing adoption in anglophone West African countries’ academic libraries: a review

Abstract

Cloud computing offer an important role in almost all online transactional activities that involve a substantial exchange of information. However, studies have revealed that despite the important roles of cloud computing, most libraries in higher educational institutions in some West African Countries have not adopted the technology. Additionally, existing empirical studies on the adoption of cloud computing in English-speaking countries of West African academic libraries are low and vary from one country to another as well as from one geo-political region to the other. This necessitates the need to explore the existing empirical studies which were carried out on the adoption of cloud computing level and its impact in academic libraries in West Africa such as Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria. Several online academic databases were used as sources of data for this study using relevant keywords. As such, this study reviewed the existing empirical research on cloud computing acceptance within West Africa which revealed varying results concerning cloud computing acceptance in academic libraries. results revealed that the majority of the existing studies of cloud computing in academic libraries were found to be focused in Nigeria, and the findings further revealed that the Southern and Eastern parts of Nigeria have more studies compared to the other parts. Based on this outcome, this study recommends additional empirical study to be conducted on cloud computing adoption among the Anglophone Countries of West African academic libraries, as the factors for technology adoption may likely differ from one area to the other.