Consent to the processing of personal data online is what drives the profit of the growing data economy. Therefore, certain websites have a strong interest in maximising user consent by optimising the design of cookie consent notices (notice) in a persuasive manner. Persuasive design uses psychological theories to influence users to make certain choices. When implemented in a way that goes against the user’s own interest this practice is known as a ‘dark pattern’. However, if implemented to promote the user’s own interests it can benefit them instead, and therefore be more likely to result in a usable (effective, efficient and satisfactory) design. This study aims to explore how persuasive design affects the usability in notices when the user goal is to decline third-party cookies.  To gain insights in respect of the above, the study was conducted in three steps: (a) the use of persuasive design through dark patterns in two different notices was examined by way of content analysis; (b) how users experienced the usability in the same notices was examined via a usability test; and (c) similarities and differences between these findings were explored through a comparative analysis. The results suggest that the mere presence of dark patterns does not determine the usability of a notice, but when they are combined in a way that affects the efficiency of the design – and therefore the cognitive load of the users – it is particularly hard for them to say no.

Bibliography: leaves 106-110. / School libraries can have a significant impact on students' academic performance and the quality of learning. This thesis explores the factors surrounding school library use or non-use of school libraries in Government Aided Community Junior Secondary Schools (GACJSS) in Botswana. Background information pertaining to the quality of teaching and learning in GACJSS in Botswana is provided, highlighting policy statements towards the improvement of the quality of learning.

The purpose of these case studies was to explore the impact of a public library’s print collection on the community using the library. The motivation for this research is driven by three factors in the South African public library environment. Firstly, the huge investment in library print collections is not currently accounted for in any assessment of library performance, other than expenditure. Secondly, studies of the low levels of literacy and book ownership have established that the public libraries are potentially the only source of reading material for over fifty percent of the population. Thirdly, The Library and Information Services (LIS) Transformation Charter calls for more effective and meaningful performance measurement. The research design for this study was informed by the work of reading theorists. The methodology made use of the GLOs (Generic Learning Outcomes) developed and adopted by the United Kingdom Museums, Libraries and Archives Council as well as research into reading outcomes in public libraries. The study was undertaken within the framework of impact assessment as outlined in the ISO 16439 – Information and documentation – Methods and procedures for assessing the impact of libraries and the work of library assessment specialists, Markless and Streatfield. The research was conducted at two public libraries in two different communities of Cape Town. Questionnaires were distributed to fifty people at each site to collect quantitative data, with follow up interviews conducted with a smaller sample. The focus of the survey and interviews was the leisure reading activities of the participants. The results describe both the patterns of library use and reading behaviour, as well as the impact of using the print collection on the participants. While the results showed that taste in reading differed, in some respects, between communities, the participants all considered reading an important pastime. The reading experiences described by the participants in this study at the two libraries were similar, as were the benefits gained from leisure reading. This study mirrors the results of studies performed in the United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom. Recommendations from this research are that the impact of the public libraries print collection on users, that primarily make use of the collection for leisure reading, is significant and should be documented as an important outcome of a library’s performance. Public libraries should focus efforts on providing leisure reading material, despite pressure to focus on literacy, skills development, youth programmes and other activities that are considered to produce more tangible outcomes. In order to uncover factors that make reading an activity of choice, further research needs to be conducted into what differentiates the serious leisure readers from those who do not engage in this pastime.

Bibliography: leaves 251-262. / The investigation was undertaken to establish, in the first place, whether it is correct to assume that university library managers in South Africa do understand the main tenets of marketing. Secondly, the investigation was undertaken to determine whether these librarians actually do implement some or all of the principles of marketing in the management of their libraries. The study was carried out in two parts: a literature survey and an empirical investigation. The investigation was confined to university libraries in South Africa. The literature survey of the relevant marketing literature had a twofold purpose. In the first place, the marketing of libraries could only be properly appreciated within the context of understanding what is meant by marketing. Secondly, it was an underlying assumption of the investigation that in order to determine whether the management of South African university libraries did understand and apply the principles of marketing, the questions posed to them in the survey would of necessity have to reflect the principles, concepts, terminology and techniques of marketing, as established in the literature survey. The survey of marketing literature therefore endeavoured to establish clearly the main tenets of marketing and the techniques of marketing planning, the broadened marketing concept which has extended marketing to non-profit organizations, and, the significance of the interactive relationship of services marketing. A survey of the relevant literature of librarianship was undertaken to gain an insight into how marketing was perceived by the Anglo-American library world. It was against this broader background of the literature of librarianship that the South African experience was considered. As part of the empirical investigation a questionnaire was constructed and mailed to the respondents in order to determine whether the principles of marketing are understood and implemented by university libraries in South Africa. The analysis of the data obtained from the questionnaire indicated that the management of South African university libraries have a general understanding of the principles of marketing, although at present only a small minority have an in-depth knowledge of it. From the analysis of the data it is also apparent that South African university library managers to a greater or lesser extent do carry out some of the main activities of marketing, although, for the present, they do not necessarily consider that they are implementing formal marketing planning in their libraries. Only a small minority of university libraries are actually engaged in some formal marketing activities.

Includes bibliographical references. / Researchers have relied on journals as a source of current research information for more than 350 years. In sub-Saharan Africa, researchers and libraries complain about a lack of access to subscription electronic journals despite an increase in electronic journals access schemes for developing countries. Furthermore, African researchers lag behind in publishing their work when compared to their counterparts in the developed world. Research was carried out in the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Zimbabwe, which sought to investigate electronic journal availability from the researchers’ perspectives; to discover how electronic journals are used for teaching and research; and how faculty use journals in their publications. To explore this multi-faceted objective, four key sub-objectives emanated from the main research objective. The first sub-objective was to determine to what extent the available electronic journal collections met faculty’s electronic journal teaching and research needs. The second was to establish journal usage through analysing journals cited in faculty research papers and reading lists given to graduate students. The third was to understand the problems if any, encountered in accessing electronic journals –establishing the nature and frequency of these problems. The last was to explore if academic staff desire and publish their research and in the process, to understand the obstacles they face. This study used methodological triangulation, and data was gathered through three main research methods. These were an electronic journal availability study, a 26 question- 7 survey, and a citation analysis. Each respective method addressed a respective sub-objective, with an overlap of methods for the fourth objective. The findings revealed that 85.5% of the required journals were available across the available electronic journals collections. Faculty members use electronic journals for their work; however, they need training to access and to be aware of what journal content is available. While faculty members aim to be published, evidence indicated that they use less recent journals in their published works. There was no evidence that suggested that access to electronic journals alone leads to increased publications.

Bibliography: leaves 216-228. / This is a qualitative interpretive case study of project work (independent enquiry learning, also labeled topic work or theme work) in a disadvantaged South African primary school. The underlying problem was to examine the potential role of project work in the teaching of information literacy in "information poor" environments. Information literacy is recognised as a crucial outcome in the documentation of Curriculum 2005, the new South African curriculum now being phased in. An Information Skills Learning Programme has been developed and placed in the Learning Area Language, Literacy and Communication. Moreover, information skills have been a compulsory subject in the Western Cape Education Department's Interim Curriculum since 1995. Both the WCED interim curriculum and Curriculum 2005 stress continuous formative assessment via projects and portfolios. Information skills are inherent in good project work, which, internationally, is seen as the ideal context for the integrated learning of these skills. However, information literacy education internationally assumes access to a wide variety of learning resources, such as school libraries, which cannot be assumed in South African schools. The paucity of research within disadvantaged environments as well as the nature of the construct of information literacy explains the choice of methodology - exploratory ethnographic field study. An ex-House of Representatives primary school, within a historically coloured township on the Cape Flats, Cape Town, which regularly undertakes project work, was chosen. The Grade Seven class was selected as Curriculum 2005 was due to be phased in at that level in 1998. The questions framing the study aimed at finding out how projects were conducted within the school, what resources were used, how teachers managed them, and how information literate teachers were.

Bibliography: leaves 129-134. / Law libraries are specialised libraries consisting primarily of printed and electronic legal literature which assist their patrons in legal research and the teaching of law. The use of the law library by the entire university often causes concern on the part of the legal patrons and staff who use and manage the library and its collection. This dissertation investigates the nature and purpose of the law library of the University of Cape Town, with a view to establishing patterns of use and revealing the problems encountered by patrons and members of staff in the use of this library and its collections. In the investigation, two types of questionnaires were prepared and administered to the patrons and members of staff of this library in order to establish their library usage and preferences. The researcher undertook the quantitative approach since the qualitative approach in the form of interviews and observations had earlier been effectuated by the researcher during his internship in this library. In the investigation during which a total number (60) of students, academics (14) and four members of staff responded, it was revealed that the patrons encounter problems of space, noise and movements. The members of staff noted inter alia that in addition to the problems of space, noise and movements, there were also problems of mutilation of the library's materials (underlining passages and tearing pages) and of the deliberate mis-shelving of materials. In the light of these identified problems, this dissertation makes a number of recommendations designed to alleviate the problems experienced by the respondents.

Bibliography: leaves 101-107. / An interest in the topic of recreational reading was prompted by the observations and experience of the researcher. The study that followed was intended to confirm or refute the theory of the decline of reading. A perceived decline in reading has concerned teachers and librarians and strategies have been devised to reverse this trend. The strategies used by the researcher were adopted and adapted to meet the pupils' recreational reading needs. Methods that were likely to reverse the trend in the decline of reading were used with the expectation that the reading programme would affect reading behaviour and that pupils would be encouraged to read for pleasure. The case study method which included both a questionnaire and discussion with the pupils was used. Studies of this kind are scarce and out-dated, but this investigation has been of value to the pupils, teachers and the researcher as teacher-librarian, for all have benefitted from the stimulating and interesting input from the interventive strategies. A number of the results proved to be unforeseen, such as a decline in recreational reading generally throughout the group, and also the children's perception of the short amount of time they spend viewing television. These were contrary to the findings of all previous studies and should be treated with circumspection. The role of the school library and the teacher-librarian are essential in schools today as they are of great benefit to the whole school community. The study has proved without a doubt that availability of reading resources and guidance to the pupils in making stimulating and interesting choices should be the aim of all concerned with children's reading so that their needs can be met and the reading habit fostered.

Includes bibliography. / Having given a short resume of the background of maps and map making, the handling of maps in libraries was investigated. The examination of the development of bibliographic description of maps, resulted in, inter alia, the identification of their peculiar characteristics Special attention was focussed on the difficulties of the detailed description of early maps. As it was considered important to refer to authoritative reference sources for further details, cartographical sources for maps of the Cape of Good Hope were examined and evaluated. As a final step, the maps themselves were examined, with full details being supplied for 15 representative maps. This is followed by a comprehensive checklist of maps of the Cape of Good Hope (south western section), sufficient information being supplied to identify them, together with references to their original published sources, their reference in standard bibliographies, and a record of any known reproductions available. The primary objective of contributing towards improved access to maps of the Cape of Good Hope has thus been achieved.

Includes bibliographical references. / Adapting the Model for Information Literacy and Cultural Heritage in Cape Town: investigating user attitudes and perceptions in libraries, museums and archives, by Kim Baker, investigates the attitudes and perceptions of general public adult users of the City of Cape Town public libraries, Iziko Museums of South Africa, and the Western Cape Archives and Records Service in Cape Town towards cultural heritage, information literacy and learning in order to adapt the Model for Information Literacy and Cultural Heritage for Lifelong Learning to the Cape Town context. A generic Model for international use was developed for the book. In formation Literacy and Cultural Heritage: Developing a model for lifelong learning . (Baker, 2013). The adapt at ion of the generic model is a necessary preliminary step before designing courses to teach information literacy and cultural heritage to the general public in a given local context and in an integrated manner, with public libraries, museums and archives collaborating and co - operating to provide the training together. The investigation was conducted by means of survey questionnaires, which applied within-method triangulation of quantitative and qualitative questions, and a combination of Yes/No answers, Likert scale questions and multiple-choice questions. The survey questionnaires included the demographic categories of race, gender, age group, home language, level of education, religion and employment status in order to gain an understanding of the demographic profiles of users necessary to the application of training in cultural heritage to different cultural groups. Questions were grouped into sections, with Section A asking questions pertaining to understandings of cultural heritage, Section B investigating whether users had access to the Internet at home, and if so, how much bandwidth was available to them; Section C explored information seeking and evaluation (information literacy) patterns, and Section D explored learning behaviours and preferences. Section E explored whether users of the public libraries also used museums and archives, why or why not; whether users of the museums used public libraries and archives, and why or why not, and whether users of the Archives used public libraries, and why or why not. At the public libraries, 480 respondents across the branches of Central Library; Athlone; Milnerton; Moses Mahbida; Grassy Park; Bellville; Harare; Somerset West; Brackenfell and Town Centre, Mitchell’s Plain, completed the questionnaires. At Iziko Museums, 220 respondents across the sites of the South African Museum, and the Slave Lodge completed questionnaires. At the Archives , which has only one site, 25 respondents completed the questionnaires. The surveying was conducted using the convenience sampling method. The data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2010, by means of non-parametric, descriptive statistics and presented in graphic format. Following the interpretation of the results, and as a result of this study, recommendations were made for the adapt at ion of the Model of Information Literacy and Cultural Heritage for Lifelong Learning to apply to the context of Cape Town.