The purpose of this study was to investigate how library web sites are used in delivering information literacy to a diversity of users in five selected universities in South Africa. Drawing from the Association of College and Research Libraries’ information literacy framework for higher education, the study sought to establish how information literacy content is designed into curricula and delivered. It further established tools that are used to deliver information literacy via library websites, strategies that are adopted in managing the process as well as the assessment tools used to test students’ learning of information literacy. Ultimately the study established the challenges librarians encounter when developing information literacy curriculum/content and using technologies on their web sites. This was done to improve the current practice of information literacy programme delivery at the University of Namibia libraries. The study was guided by Constructivism paradigm and the framework for Information Literacy Competency for higher education. The study employed a qualitative approach in which research participants were purposely selected. While a checklist was used to collect data from the library websites, interviews were used to collect data from librarians who are information literacy coordinators in their institutions. The study found that information literacy content encompasses the ability to identify an information need, locate, evaluate, use and manage information legally and ethically. Academic libraries used various strategies to inculcate information literacy skills among others includes Libguides, YouTube, videos, presentations in PDF and Microsoft Words, blog, Ask a Librarian and live Chat with a Librarian. Technologies such as Camtasia, Articulate software for videos, games, audios, quizzes creation, and Libguides are often used to develop and deliver information literacy content through library web-pages. Challenges that were highlighted by the librarians include inability to identify appropriate technologies to use and in most cases, librarians depend on IT personnel for assistance. The study will be useful to libraries which are in the process of developing online tutorials; it has potential to help librarians to identify appropriate technologies and processes involved to effectively develop tutorials that will eventually transform library websites into educational and learning platforms.

Includes bibliographical references. / The premise from which this research project begins is that public libraries particularly in the developing world, are unable to fully finance their services and thus should seek alternative sources of funding. This project attempts to identify sustainable funding options for the Kenya National Library Services (KNLS) with specific reference to user fees for library services. In order to put the study into perspective, an outline of library history in Kenya is presented together with an overview of social, economic, technological, and social factors which influence the provision of library and information services. The literature review traces the origin of the user fee debate and summarises the arguments for and against fees in libraries. It also attempts to determine whether economic theory could present a theoretical perspective in reconciling the divergent views. The review shows that the issue of charging for library services is hotly contested within the LIS profession and that there is no easy solution. The position of the public libraries within the African continent is contextualised by briefly detailing prevailing conditions, particularly the pressures brought to bear in library budgets during difficult economic periods. An overview of user fee policy in Kenya and the current position of library funding and income generation in South Africa are presented.

Providing research support services is an important role and function of an academic library. Nationally and internationally, academic institutions are under pressure to improve the quality and quantity of their research outputs. An important aspect in developing a research culture is the provision of effective research support services. As a young research institution, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) invests a lot of time, energy and resources in supporting the development of a research culture. A significant aim of research support services is the progression of emerging researchers to established researchers. CPUT Libraries wishes to play an active role in this regard by providing research support specifically to emerging researchers. The provision of effective research support services however requires services that are aligned with researchers’ unique research support expectations. Without a clear understanding of the unique research support expectations of its researchers, the library will not be able to fulfil an effective research support function. This study obtained a renewed understanding of emerging researchers’ support needs through using a mixed methods approach and a case study research design, focusing on CPUT’s Education Faculty. Emerging researchers’ support needs were determined through a self-administered online questionnaire consisting of open- and close-ended questions. The research life cycle guided the design of the questionnaire. Online questionnaires were sent to all 37 emerging researchers employed in the Education Faculty. A total of 21 responses was received. Data about the perceptions of a group of four librarians and the Education Faculty’s research coordinator about emerging researchers’ most important support expectations were collected through a semi-structured focus group interview and an individual interview respectively. Data collected via the three data collection methods were triangulated to compare the differences and similarities in what was considered emerging researchers’ most important research support expectations. The triangulation of the data led to the creation of a list of the most important research support services that should be provided for emerging researchers at CPUT’s Faculty of Education. The results showed that researchers as well as research support providers regard information provision services as libraries’ most important research support function. Recommendations by the researcher include the active marketing of libraries’ research support services, personalised researcher training, closer cooperation between institutional research support providers and using the research cycle as framework when designing and promoting library research support services. Through the collection of data and the literature reviewed, this study reached an improved understanding of the research support expectations of emerging researchers at CPUT’s Faculty of Education.

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.