Jaya Raju

The "Core" in Library and/or Information Science Education and Training

The issue of what constitutes or should constitute the ‘core’ in library and/or information science (LIS) education and training is one that is frequently debated. This article reviews literature related to this matter and cites findings from an empirical study conducted in South Africa on library and/or information science education and training. The literature reviewed as well as findings in the study suggest that while it is possible to identify certain knowledge and skill components as being appropriate for the core library and/or information science curriculum for a first-level LIS qualification, it is difficult to be precise about what exactly constitutes or should constitute the core in library and/or information science education and training. This core is continuously evolving, as the information environment to which LIS education and training programmes need to respond is also in a state of flux.

General Education in Library and/or Information Science Education and Training.

The issue of general education is crucial to curriculum development in higher education generally, and to library and/or information science (LIS) education and training, specifically. It is an issue that has been the subject of on-going debate the world over for many years. The purpose of this paper is to, firstly, provide a broad overview of the literature on general education in higher education and then, more specifically, provide a review of the literature on general education in LIS education and training. Against this background the article cites findings from an empirical study conducted in South Africa, relevant to the issue of general education in LIS education and training. Discussion based on the review of the literature on general education and on findings from the empirical study, is intended to inform curriculum development in LIS education and training in both the university and the non-university higher education contexts. It is necessary to explain certain terms as they are used in this article. The library and/or information professional works at the professional level, engages in high level planning, development, design, and evaluation, and therefore needs to be competent in skills such as analysis, evaluation and synthesis [1, p. 7]. Thus professional LIS education and training generally focuses on these competencies. In the library context the professional is often referred to as a librarian. In other information contexts professionals are referred to as documentalists, records managers, archivists, information scientists and museologists. The library and/or information paraprofessional, on the other hand, engages in the application of known techniques and principles, in the organisation and supervision of systems designed by professionals, and therefore

Open Scholarship Practices Reshaping South Africa’s Scholarly Publishing Roadmap

South African higher education institutions are the largest producers of research output on the African continent. Given this status, South African researchers have a moral obligation to share their research output with the rest of the continent via a medium that minimizes challenges of access; open scholarship is that medium. The majority of South African higher education libraries provide an open access publishing service. However, in most of these cases this service is via engagement with the green open access route, that is, institutional repositories (IR). Some of the libraries have piloted and adopted gold open access services such as publishing of “diamond” gold open access journals and supporting article processing charges. The experiment with publishing open monographs is a new venture. This venture must be viewed against the backdrop of the need for open educational resources (OERs). OER is an area that is very much in a fledgling stage and is gaining traction, albeit, at a slow pace. The growth of IRs, the growth in support for gold open access including the library acting as a publisher, the experimentation with open monographs, and OERs are all shaping South Africa’s scholarly publishing roadmap.

LIS Education in the Digital Age for an African Agenda

To provide an exposé of digital-age library and information science (LIS) education for an African agenda, this paper adopts an emergent qualitative research design by drawing on the literature on LIS education in Africa. It also draws on data gleaned from a survey of heads of schools of LIS in South Africa, and from content analyses of LIS school websites in South Africa and selected parts of the continent. The paper locates its narrative within Abbott’s chaos of disciplines theory and concludes that the LIS discipline’s “interstitial nature,” its “fractal distinctions in time,” and the resulting chaos of disciplines should not be seen as a crisis for LIS education in Africa and globally, but as an opportunity for a paradigm shift to broaden the LIS disciplinary domain and to stake an intellectual claim on this extended domain—and so contribute to the growth and development of LIS services in Africa within the context of an African development agenda.

The LIS School in the ICT Age: A Casualty, or a Catalyst for a Paradigm Shift? – The Case of South Africa

Abstract LIS Schools in South Africa, like in many other parts of the world, are part of a triangular relationship involving LIS teaching departments, universities and the library and information services profession. This relationship is profoundly affected by a rapidly evolving information and technology environment as well as higher education restructuring globally. In a context of ‘diffusion and diversity’ arising from this relationship, this paper takes a look at LIS Schools in South Africa to ascertain whether they have succumbed to the pressures and constraints brought about by a technologically driven information environment and the so called efficiency models of universities. Alternatively, have they used these pressures as challenges to catalyse a paradigm shift from a discipline that evolved largely on a pragmatic basis to one grounded in epistemology and research methodologies providing it with the capacity to embrace rapidly evolving trends in the generation, use and transfer of information in the ICT age? A qualitative approach, involving a cursory survey of LIS School Heads in South Africa analysed against conceptual understandings gleaned from relevant literature, frames the inquiry attempting to address these critical questions. The paper outlines the pressures of the triangular relationship that frames the existence and inherent difficulties of the LIS School and points out that the LIS Schools surveyed, each in their own way within their institutional contexts, have managed thus far to survive their challenges - albeit this being no guarantee of continued survival. In terms of whether these LIS Schools have used these pressures as challenges to catalyse a paradigm shift in their conceptualisation of LIS education, the limited data from the cursory survey of LIS School Heads suggests that some LIS Schools may have been engaging more with such a paradigm shift than others. The paper concludes that LIS Schools, in South Africa or elsewhere, need to dig deeply and creatively into their epistemological resources and use the interdisciplinary nature of the LIS discipline to sustain their academic projects in a highly competitive and arduous environment. The paper suggests a followup to the cursory survey of LIS Schools in South Africa to ‘drill down’ into individual institutional dynamics to mine primary data for studies towards addressing LIS School challenges emanating from the changing environments within which they are located.

First-level LIS education and training: A comparison between South Africa and Canada

This paper presents a comparison of first-level LIS education and training between South Africa and Canada, and based on this comparative description, qualitative identification of similarities and differences are made to highlight strengths and weaknesses in each case. The paper concludes that while similarities exist, the differences stem largely from the different social contexts in which this education is located. Notwithstanding this, there are lessons to be learnt from the endeavors of each of these countries.

Descriptive and subject cataloguing

Descriptive and subject cataloguing , Descriptive and subject cataloguing , کتابخانه دیجیتال جندی شاپور اهواز

To teach or not to teach? The question of the academic librarian's pedagogical competencies in the digital age

This paper revisits the issue of ‘librarian as teacher’ in the literature and draws empirical evidence on the question of the pedagogical knowledge and skills requirements of academic librarians. A pragmativist paradigm and both quantitative and qualitative philosophical assumptions are used to address this research problem. The paper reports on the outcome of content analysis of academic library job advertisements for professional library and information services positions in South Africa, supported by findings from websites of South African LIS schools and selected data from a 2015 national online survey of academic librarians in South Africa. Such an analysis, framed by Shank and Bell’s (2011, 105) concept of “disruptive innovations” leading to their framework for blended librarianship, is used to ascertain the pedagogical competency requirements of the academic librarian in South Africa in the current digital age. The findings include a list of pedagogical competency requirements for academic librarians and provide a critical narrative, in the context of international trends and the study’s conceptual framing, on the extent to which academic librarians in South Africa meet these requirements.

An Integrated Framework for Disseminating Health Information to Students in Zimbabwe

Abstract University students in Zimbabwe lack immediate access to accurate health information. There is lack of explicit and integrated structures for disseminating health information to students in Zimbabwe. Informed by the salutogenic theory of health, the study assessed the health information needs of students and evaluated existing health information dissemination methods at National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Zimbabwe, in developing a framework for disseminating health information. A case study strategy was used to gather data within the pragmatic paradigm of grounded constructivism. The findings reveal that students need health information on a wide range of health topics and prefer mobile electronic media, workshops, qualified health professionals and peers for their health needs. There are significant gaps between the strategies that are being used by NUST to disseminate health information and the health information needs of the students. Therefore, this paper proposes a needs-based, integrated information dissemination framework for promoting health amongst students. The proposed framework emphasizes utilization of synchronous information and communication technologies, the need for integration of activities, a viable policy, health information literacy training and the use of a mix of persuasion techniques as an effective health promotion strategy.

Research Support Services in South African Academic Libraries

Abstract Changing pedagogy and rapid growth of commensurate technologies have triggered demand from academic libraries for new research support services such as bibliometrics, data management, digital preservation and curation, open access (OA) and open journal publishing. South African academic libraries have responded, to an extent, to the changing research support needs of their research communities. Some of the mainstream research support services provided by South African academic libraries include bibliometrics, open scholarship services and research data management. There are also some non-typical research support services and/or activities that are provided – these include research landscape analysis, research week and research engagement provision.