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Masters Degrees (Information Studies)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10413/7228

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Information Studies) by Subject "Academic librarians."

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    An investigation into the possibility of mainstreaming library user education into the curriculum of the Engineering Faculty of the M.L. Sultan Technikon.
    (2000) Webster, Lucille Elizabeth.; Bell, Fiona Ruth.; Leach, Athol Brian.
    This study investigated whether it is possible to include user education in the curriculum of the Engineering Faculty at the M.L. Sultan Technikon. Although the user education programme is offered to all students at the Technikon, it is based on an informal arrangement between the lecturer and the librarian. The programme is not time-tabled or credit-bearing, and many students regard it as a course outside the curriculum which has little, if any, impact on their studies. In a bid to assess the feasibility of including user education in the curriculum, the study sets out to establish the views of the academic 1 staff of the Engineering Faculty and the librarians from the Library as well as those the Department of Library and Information Studies, regarding the inclusion of user education. A further objective of the study is to determine what type of skills both groups of respondents think should be taught in user education and who should be teaching the course. A description of the M.L. Sultan Technikon and the origins of its establishment and the impact of the recent inclusion of outcomes-based education in educational institutions in South Africa provide an introduction to the research. User education and its origins in tertiary institutions are discussed and the literature dealing with the inclusion of user education in international and local institutions is reviewed. The population of this study consisted of ninety-one respondents, eighty from the : lecturing staff of the Engineering Faculty, six librarians from the Library and five from the Library and Information Studies Department. Two population-specific questionnaires were designed and the method and data collection technique used in this study was the survey and the self-administered questionnaire. Thirty-two (40 %) questionnaires were returned from the Engineering Faculty and seven (64 %) from the librarians. Of the 7 responses from the librarians 4 were from the practicing librarians and 3 from the librarians from the Department. The findings of the survey reveal that the majority of both groups of respondents support the possible inclusion of user education into the curriculum of the Engineering Faculty. The ability to use the online public access catalogue (OPAC}, computer literacy and information in electronic format were rated as important skills by-the Engineering Faculty, while the librarians rated the ability to use the OPAC and indexes and the ability to find journals as important skills that should be taught in the user education programme. Conclusions, recommendations and suggestions for further research are made in the light of the results of the survey.
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    Professional development for subject librarians in KwaZulu-Natal.
    (2019) Mchunu, Mbangiseni Eric.; Olasina, Gbolahan.
    Professional development (PD) is an important consideration for academic librarians. The broad purpose of the study was to investigate the PD of subject librarians in four selected academic institutions in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). The four institutions were the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), the University of Zululand (UZ), Durban University of Technology (DUT) and the Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT). The Maintaining Professional Competence Model provided the conceptual theoretical framework for the study. The model highlights the roles of both individual and organisational factors in what it refers to as “updating activities”. In terms of the methodology, the population numbered 50 subject librarians from the four institutions of which 48 responded giving a response rate of 96%. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were applied. The former comprised a questionnaire survey administered by email to all 48 participants while a focus group discussion constituted the qualitative method. Eight subject librarians from the Pietermaritzburg Campus of the UKZN participated in the focus group. In terms of the findings, PD was seen in a positive light by the vast majority of the respondents. Attendance of workshops and conferences and furthering studies were shown to be the leading forms of PD opportunities offered at the institutions and the prominent forms of PD activities. There was evidence of a “mismatch” in certain instances between what subject librarians thought was needed concerning PD and what management thought. Information communication technologies (ICTs) and information management skills emerged as the most sought after by the respondents. As expected, finance was identified as the major challenge and there was overwhelming support for the use of webinars in PD. The study confirmed that there is a strong support for PD taking the form of in-house training and workshops. The subject librarians perceived PD in a positive light being seen as both important and beneficial. Conclusions were made and recommendations put forward. Some of these include the need for management to recognise the importance of PD and ensure that they are supportive of it; to make more use of PD activities which had less financial costs (such as webinars using the Internet); to focus on the skills identified as needed by the subject librarians (including teaching and training skills); and to be sensitive to age and gender of their subject librarian staff with regard to PD. Finally, various suggestions for further research were made.