BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

1.1       INTRODUCTIONThe term portal is known as links page which presents information from diverse sources in a unified way. It may contain services that provide standard search engine feature, e-mail, news, information, databases and entertainment. Portals provide a way for enterprises to provide a consistent look and feel with access control and procedures for multiple applications and databases, which otherwise would have been different entities altogether.

Electronic registration or e-registration, web based registration or even online registration is a secure website that students enter to indicate that they will attend classes in the upcoming (fall or sprint) rain or harmattan semester (Strauss, 2000). Students can access the e-registration site from anywhere with an internet connection. Mostly these sites are portals. Pena-Lopez (2007) describes a web portal as a site that functions as a point of access to information on the World Wide Web and portals present information from diverse sources. The Google directory describes the term portal as where users control the content. There are several terms in library and information science and indeed IT that have their origins borrowed from other disciplines and a portal is one of such (Brakel, 2003). It must be borne in mind that the Web, a resource of the Internet, and a tool to browse the Internet is the first ever innovation that allows anyone to publish to a vast number of users via the Internet. The portal in this context, is more than a gateway, it is a hub from which users can locate all the Web content commonly needed (Nielsen, 1999). The portal is a platform for organizations – universities, colleges, companies to leverage and for efficient communication and other in-house operations. Put more simply a portal collates ― a variety of useful information into a single, one-stop` web-page, helping the user to avoid being overwhelmed by infoglut` or feeling lost on the web‖ (Looney and Lyman 2000 33). However, the Internet (Internet gateways or libraries) are not focused on internal enterprise functions.