This study sought to evaluate the development and use of Institutional Repository by staff and students at the University of Fort Hare (UFH) in Eastern Cape, South Africa. In this study, staff comprised of academic staff (lecturers) and library staff. The aim of this study was to investigate the development and use of Institutional Repository at UFH. To achieve the objectives, both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were employed. Data was collected through questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the participants of the study. Qualitative data was analysed thematically while, quantitative data was analysed statically by help of SPSS software. The results showed that: library staff and management are aware and provide support for the development and use of the Institutional Repository at the UFH; awareness level of IR among lecturers and students is still low; the infrastructure available for the use of IR is not well developed; and lastly, library users which consist of students and academic staff face various barriers in the use and support of IR development. The study recommended for dynamic training, and marketing of IR through seminars and workshops should be started by expert affiliations and universities administration to advance the idea of IR among the University community. Low levels of awareness of the university repository, funding and shortage of library staff remains an issue and could be addressed by further investigating the effectiveness of different communication channels. It is pertinent that the findings of this study would be useful in various tertiary’s institutions of higher learning across the globe in order to embark on IR.

M.A. / Information plays a very significant role in the economic development of the enterprises. It is increasingly used as a corporate resource to improve productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. This means that information in the form of records, is a strategic weapon to gain competitive advantage for the enterprise that creates and receives them. The study explores the problems that are facing terminology in the study of information management and records management. The problems that exist in terms of terminology are so intense that there is yet no universally acceptable definition for records and records management. The basic elements of records management are explored in attempt to position records management as an information management function. It demands records as vital information resources be managed throughout their life cycles, at a strategic level in much the same way as other economic resources such as people, money and land. In managing records effectively, the education and training of records managers is regarded as imperative. In order to test the information management function of records management, a survey is administered within Enterprise ABC to observe the records management practices amongst the records staff. The findings of the survey reveal that the records management practices within Enterprise ABC are chaotic in the sense that there are no standards and procedures that govern the flow of records within the enterprise.

M.Bibl. / The problem discussed in this study, is to determine whether information can be seen as a marketable product. Taking this into consideration, the study provides guidelines how to formulate a price strategy so that information products can be sold. In chapter one, concepts such as product, price and price strategy are described. The characteristics of products and services are used to describe information as a product. The marketing of information products is related to the pricing of information products and in chapter two the role of marketing and pricing of information products are described. Price as part of the marketing mix forms the highlight of this chapter. The methods of determing a pricing strategy are described in chapter three. Different authors' perceptions are taken into consideration with the emphasis on the work of G.H.G Lucas. Three scenarios forms the basis of chapter four. The scenarios are used to illustrate the formulation of different pricing strategies for different information products. The information products used as examples in these scenarios are a CD-ROM database, a training programme and a report on the involvement of mechanical engineers with the RDP project. The overriding purpose of this study is to provide guidelines to library and information services in determing a pricing strategy for information products.

No description available.

Magister Bibliothecologiae - MBibl / Indigenous knowledge systems (IKSs) have made positive contributions in agriculture; health care; medicine; food preparation and preservation; land use; education and a host of other activities in rural communities as well as in urban ones (Warren, 1991:26). Yet hardly a day goes by when an elderly man or woman does not die with all the wealth of knowledge, which is then buried beyond recovery. Therefore, there is a need for institutions, which are in the business of information like libraries and/or information centers to manage (collect, document, organize, store, disseminate) the indigenous knowledge for potential contribution in present and future endeavours. Ngulube (2002: 96) rightly points out that the loss of IK will “impoverish society”.The main aim of the study was to explore the issue if indigenous knowledge within the library and information sector, specifically within the Swaziland National Library Service; investigate if IK is managed; determine how it can best be managed in order to contribute positively to the community; and identify ways to best manage it. This study adopted the qualitative research methodology using the triangulation method, which allows the use of different data collection techniques.The study found that Swaziland National Library Service (SNLS) manages IK, but at a very low level. Lack of funds is one major issue that has been voiced as the biggest hindrance to Indigenous Knowledge Management and that Library and information professionals are not adequately trained to manage IK. The study also discovered that Library and information services in Swaziland are still very much book-based and very much westernized, such that only a select elite is catered for by the current services. Intellectual property rights are not dealt with, with respect to IK.From the findings, this study recommends that Library and information professionals include indigenous knowledge in the existing collection development policies or must design collection development policies that include IK. / South Africa

Most legal expert systems to date have been purely rule-based. Case-based reasoning is a methodology for building legal expert systems whereby profiles of cases contained in a database, rather than specific legal rules, direct the outcomes of the system. Frame-based knowledge representation in legal expert systems involves the use of frames to represent legal knowledge. Case-based reasoning and frame-based knowledge representation offer significant advantages over purely rule-based legal expert systems in case-based law. These advantages are realizable by using the deep structure approach to knowledge representation. This involves searching beneath law at the doctrinal level for underlying fact patterns and structures which explain decisions in cases. This is demonstrated by the Malicious Prosecution Consultant, a legal expert system which operates in the domain of the tort of malicious prosecution. The Malicious Prosecution Consultant confirms the results of earlier research at The University of British Columbia, Faculty of Law that it is possible to build legal expert systems in unstructured areas of case-based law with relatively cheap commercially available expert system shells by using the deep structure approach to knowledge representation. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

An emerging trend in corporate practices today is that of the development of specialized areas within the company which are devoted to studying its management information systems. Stimulated by the impact of the computer and the subsequent blurring of the distinction between specific systems such as those for marketing, finance, etc., this trend has been accompanied by much academic (and corporate) research in an attempt to provide a scientific approach to the analysis and design of these systems. Several such approaches abound in the literature: today, and it would seem that much is still yet to come. The "science" of information systems unfortunately remains scattered throughout the trade and academic journals, papers, and a very few textbooks. This thesis represents an attempt to tie the various areas of research together into a more comprehensive framework, to indicate their validity and limitations, and evaluation of to relate these areas to practical analysis and evaluation of MIS's. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The high speed supernatant of mouse liver is active in the C-20 ketone reduction of a number of various steroids (l). The 20α-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase responsible for the C-20 ketone reduction of corticosterone and 11-dehydrocorticosterone could be purified by calcium phosphate gel and ammonium sulphate fractionation. The activity was absorbed on the gel between the ratios 2:1 and 6:1 (gel/enzyme preparation - w/w) and eluted with .05 M phosphate buffer resulting in a recovery of 49.6% of the original activity. This preparation was then further purified with ammonium sulphate, the enzyme activity being recovered in the 48 -70% fraction. The overall recovery of corticosterone 20α-hydroxy-steroid dehydrogenase was 34.1% with a 5. fold purification. Acetone or acid fractionation and Sephadex G-75 filtration did not lead to further purification. The activity could also be recovered from the crude preparation by fractionation on a Sephadex G-100 column. 87% of the original activity was recovered in one pooled fraction giving a purification of 3.3 fold. The 20a-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase reducing 11β-hydroxy-progesterone could be separated from the corticosterone 20α-hydroxy-steroid by calcium phosphate gel fractionation. The former activity was not eluted by 0.05 M phosphate buffer but came off in phosphate buffers of higher ionic strength. No definite conclusions as to separation on Sephadex G-100 columns were obtained due to the in-activation of the 11β-hydroxyprogesterone 20α-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, which could be partly reduced by the presence of NADPH₂. This enzyme was somewhat unstable, being inactivated by 3 day dialysis against running tap water and filtration on a Sephadex G-25 column while the corticosterone 20α-hydroxysteroid dehydro genase was little affected by these procedures. The multiple nature of the 20α-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases was also shown by a comparison of the ratio of products from various enzyme fractions. The ratio of 20α-dihydro-11-dehydro corticosterone to 20α-dihydrocorticosterone after incubations with 11-dehydrocorticosterone and corticosterone respectively remained constant indicating one enzyme. However, the ratio of 20α-dihydro-11-dehydrocorticosterone to 20α-dihydro-11β-hydroxyprogesterone after incubations with 11-dehydrocorticosterone and 11β-hydroxy-progesterone respectively varied greatly indicating that these two substrates were reduced by different 20α-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases. / Medicine, Faculty of / Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of / Graduate

The rule against hearsay of evidence law, and its exceptions, can be explained with a simple heuristic device. Where the circumstances surrounding the making of the hearsay statement indicate that the declarant perceived the matters reported accurately, believed and remembered what she saw when she reported it, and intended to accurately report it, the evidence appears reliable and is admissible in court. This theory is used as the basis for building an expert system to advise lawyers about admissibility of hearsay evidence. The expert whose knowledge forms the basis of this expert system is Professor M. T. MacCrimmon of the Faculty of Law at the University of British Columbia. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

The challenge of integrating information from multiple data sources automatically, via computers, has long been of great interest in the area of Databases and Information Systems. It has become more important with the growth of the Internet and proliferation of Semi-Structured information sources. The major obstacle to integrating information from multiple sources lies in reconciling the meaning of data, which is known as Semantic Reconciliation or Semantic Integration. In the design of databases and information systems, the meaning of data that can be stored is usually described by a conceptual model. Thus, one needs to express data or transform data into a comprehensive and uniform conceptual model before approaching the issue of automatic (computerbased) integration. This thesis proposes a conceptual model - the property-based model - as the basis for semantic data integration. The main premise underlying the model is that to identify the meaning of data requires identifying what the data represents in the world. The branch of philosophy dealing with what exists in the world is Ontology; hence, the proposed model is based on ontological foundations. Specifically, it is based on Bunge's ontology as adapted to information systems by Wand and Weber, and on a method for semantic reconciliation proposed by Parsons and Wand. The thesis begins with an overview of research in the field of Information Integration. It discusses the most common type of conceptual models - the Class-Based Model, which includes the Entity- Relationship Model and Object-Oriented Models, and mentions some problems with this type of models. Then the thesis presents the property-based model. Based on the Property-Based model, the thesis proposes and develops a Property-Based Approach to integrating information from multiple sources. The approach uses two main tools, the Property-Precedence Schema (PPS) and the Instance Function (IF). After discussing briefly some practical issues, the thesis introduces a general integration procedure and demonstrates it on a case study to illustrate the usability of the approach. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate