A systematic review of digital curation services in academic libraries: navigating policies, skills and challenges

Purpose-Digital curation is a relatively new field that has acquired a lot of attention in recent years. This new area needs a wide range of resources to develop technological infrastructure, train librarians to overcome challenges and develop policies regarding digital curation services (DCS). The purpose of this review is to provide a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of DCS in academic libraries in developing countries. Design/methodology/approach-The study used the research approach of "Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses." An extensive search was used to utilize the world's five leading e-databases and digital tools to find the most relevant primary studies, including Web of Science and Scopus. Finally, 25 peer-reviewed research papers were included to perform a systematic literature review. Findings-The study revealed the lack of digital curation policies in the academic libraries of developing countries. Librarians need to enhance their occupational and personal skills to implement DCS. Librarians faced several challenges, such as the absence of policy, a lack of skilled staff, a shortage of financial resources and inadequate technological infrastructure to implement DCS in academic libraries. Originality/value-The study provides theoretical implications by contributing significant literature to the current body of knowledge. It exerts a societal influence by providing suggestions and research gap for the effective implementation of DCS in academic libraries. The study is of paramount importance for librarians, university administration, decision-makers and other stakeholders to implement DCS in academic libraries for lifecycle preservation of digital content to enable library users to access and reuse digital information.