Mary Nassimbeni

Adult education in South African public libraries: A profile of activities

This paper reports on the findings of a research investigation into the role of South African public libraries in adult education. A questionnaire was distributed to 1295 public libraries for the collection of statistical and qualitative information in an attempt to build national and provincial profiles of adult education activities. There was a good response rate of 45.5%. The survey was complemented by site visits to eleven public libraries in order to illuminate the issues facing libraries in this field The results show that most public libraries do not participate at all in any adult education initiatives: 76.9% do not participate while 23.1% do. A profile of activities is presented. A case study of a single anonymous library is presented to provide an opportunity to understand the lived experience of the activities from the perspective of the providers and of the learners. The paper concludes by speculating on the reasons for the low level of engagement in an area that is theoretically espoused by the library community.

From borders and landscape to ecosystem: reconfiguring library services to meet the needs of South African youth

In this article we consider the configuration of the South African library and information services (LIS) sector, and analyse the extent to which its structuring facilitates or hinders optimum service to the children and youth of South Africa. The background to our investigation is the crisis in public schooling and the plight of South African youth who suffer disproportionate rates of poverty and unemployment. In our investigation we examine the planning and practice in two new libraries – one a community library, and one a joint-use library for learners and local residents – in an effort to establish the extent to which libraries may partner with schools to take advantage of new thinking that recommends a whole system approach, encapsulated in the metaphor of LIS as an ecosystem. We conclude that this new approach might generate models of service delivery that transcend boundaries that traditionally delineate and confine sub-sectors in the LIS sector.

Availability of books as a factor in reading, teaching and learning behaviour in twenty disadvantaged primary schools in South Africa

The purpose of the research project was to investigate the effects of the provision of story books in twenty disadvantaged primary schools in rural South Africa. The recipients of the donation were children in deprived areas, growing up in printpoor environments. The programme theory of the donor organisation, Biblionef, is that access to attractive ageappropriate books will have beneficial effects such as improved literacy skills, the promotion of confidence and improvement in learning. A qualitative approach was adopted to collect data before the intervention, and six months after the book donation, which included a comprehensive training programme in the use of the books. During the site visits, observation schedules were used; also focus groups of both teachers and children. We were able to chart impact in a number of areas such as improved availability and use of books in fifteen of the schools, with respect to both classroom activities and voluntary reading. In five schools there was no appreciable change. We recommend that innovation in teaching approaches associated with the use of books should be accompanied by careful training, and benign monitoring.

Roadmaps for the Highway: the evaluation of an information literacy training programme for South African students

Students from historically disadvantaged educational systems have not been exposed to information technologies and information sources. The School of Librarianship at the University of Cape Town has recognised the need for information literacy training that would be appropriate for students from the developing world. It is therefore offering a single semester course to undergraduates in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, with the specific aim of providing students with transferable learning and information skills. This paper presents an overview and an evaluation of the course.

Training for access to Global Information

Contributes to the Global Information Virtual Conference by examining training needs in the higher education sector which will be engendered by the information revolution in the developing world. Focuses on the situation in South Africa, and considers a number of social processes that are driving developments in higher education.

Towards measuring the performance of public libraries in South Africa

Following the publication of the report of the Public and Community Libraries Inventory of South Africa (Paclisa), an issue for further investigation was raised given the difficulties that many libraries had experienced in completing the questionnaire. A Working Group on Public Library Statistics (WGPLS) was established to work on the drafting of a simpler data collection instrument. Our paper describes the process of arriving at joint understanding of the aims and objectives of measuring performance in the South African public library system. A brief discussion of the purpose and rationale of collecting statistical data, and their role as performance measures and indicators for public libraries in South Africa follows. The proposed statistical form and the indicators that could be derived are presented. The paper concludes with suggestions of future steps to be taken, including a consideration by libraries of outcomes, and the difference made by libraries to peoples lives.

Libraries and a “Better Life for All”: The politics, processes, and promises of the South African LIS Transformation Charter

Abstract:The rhetoric of public librarianship includes many ringing claims for the role of libraries in democracy; and, on the twenty-first anniversary of democracy in South Africa, it is an opportune moment to examine the rather confusing fortunes of libraries since 1994. The library and information services (LIS) profession portrays libraries as agents of development and social transformation; yet, since 2009, more than twenty South African libraries have been destroyed in social protests. This paper reports on the work of the authors of the LIS Transformation Charter, which after a start-stop-start process of two phases over six years was delivered to the government in 2014. The paper analyzes the political and professional forces that influenced the charter-writing processes. The two fundamental arguments of the charter are that access to information, and thus to libraries, is a fundamental justiciable human right, both as a so-called freedom right and as an instrument of other economic, social, and cultural rights; and that transformation will depend on “ecosystems” thinking whereby the various subsectors collaborate to ensure seamless services and the equity of provision. The paper argues that the final LIS Transformation Charter maps a path for a transformed and integrated library system that has meaning for all sectors of South African society.

Aspirations and contradictions The role of public libraries in the fight against HIV/AIDS in developing countries, with special reference to Swaziland

This paper presents findings from a study conducted in Swaziland on the role of the public library in the provision of HIV and AIDS information. Its findings resonate with the findings of other studies carried out in a number of public libraries in African countries, viz. the disappointingly low visibility of the efforts to intervene, and the failure of the librarians to leverage greater impact through partnerships with related agencies. It suggests that public libraries need to change their behaviour in order to resolve the disparity between espoused positions and actual impact. The paper concludes by giving an account of how an information centre was established in a rural area in response to the findings of the investigation which pointed out the disadvantages experienced by rural people as a result of the inefficacy of the information flows between the centre and the margins.

Even We Can Read: Evaluating the Impact of a Project to Expand Library Services to Visually Impaired Users in Rural South Africa

Abstract The project “We are all on the same page” was launched by the South African Library for the Blind (SALB) in April 2010 to create access to libraries and reading material for the visually impaired in impoverished rural areas of the Eastern Cape in South Africa. A decentralised approach was adopted, by locating new services in established public libraries in rural communities and by specifically promoting new services to visually impaired potential users. This approach was based on the knowledge that the many disadvantaged people dwelling in rural areas, who were not taking up library services, did not recognise that libraries and library services could be intended for them as well as for sighted readers. The new approach to delivery required inter-governmental collaboration among three spheres of government: national, provincial and local authority. Library staff had to be trained in serving blind and visually impaired people by providing assistive technologies and reading material, and to provide information literacy tuition to these new library users. The services were to be located in seven public libraries in the rural Eastern Cape. This paper will attempt to provide both objective and qualitative evidence of the impact of the project and to show how it has been expanding to other sites and also to other provinces.

The use of academic libraries in turbulent times: student library behaviour and academic performance at the University of Cape Town

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how an innovation in the University Management Information System was leveraged to incorporate library data by an initially sceptical strategic management team. The rationale was to extract evidence of correlations between library use and student achievement. This kind of information is of particular interest to the institution, which is at present dealing with crises popularly summarised in the slogan “#FeesMustFall” among students who suffer from the effects of poverty and exclusion in higher education. Comment is offered on some of the relationships between student library behaviour before, during and after the nationwide disruptions that destabilised universities and threatened their survival at the end of 2016, just before the final examination period. Design/methodology/approach Data were extracted from the data warehouse from the comparative demographic perspectives of students’ degrees of disadvantage in an effort to uncover any hitherto hidden patterns of library use. Findings The use of the library as expressed by footfall and loans was mapped against students’ pass rates and their collective GPA, indicating that increased library use correlates positively with better academic performance. Some of the initial correlations between student library behaviour before, during and after the nationwide disruptions that destabilised universities and threatened their survival at the end of 2016 just before the final examination period are explored. The effects that library closures (under threat of damage) at a critical time in the academic year might have had on library use and on student performance are interrogated. Practical implications Students on financial aid, which was used as an indicator of disadvantage, come from schools and environments where access to information technology and libraries is very limited, so that library habits are either poorly established or not at all. At the University of Cape Town (UCT), considerable support is in place for students to encourage the development of library habits. An analysis of available data indicates that students who have acquired library habits regardless of unfavourable financial circumstances do not exhibit behaviour and academic outcomes markedly different from that of their more privileged peers. Originality/value Combining library data with data from the university data warehouse is a new approach in South Africa. It is an approach that is of value both to the library and the institution at large and has brought meaningful insights into the role the academic library might be seen to play in promoting student academic achievement.