Based on a review of literature on evalution of public activities and in purpose to introduce amore general framework, this study describes a picture of the concept, context, motives,strategies, use and actors in Evaluation as these are experienced outside the field of libraryand information. The background is the increased need for" evaluations in public libaries and aneed for new LIS knowledge about it. The reviewed literature has its origin in differentdisciplinary contexts and the study include contributions from policy studies, sociologi,education research, business administration, philosophy and anthropology. The focus, though,is not placed upon differences in the literature but on similarities.The review is organised in six parts. In the first part a presentation is given of how evaluationsare conceptualized and its meaning in a historical perspective. In the second the focus is uponthe context of public descision making, implementation and public programming. Different ·purpuses of evaluation is discussed in the third part followed by a description of strategies andmodels in the fourth. Issues of evaluation use is discussed in part five and finally is a presentationof those actors of particular-importance in evaluations given in part six. In the reviewedliterature the -author finds some general patterns, who are assembled and described in acomprehensive discussion. In the contusion some claimes are made about the nature ofevaluation. One claim is that evaluations are of great complexity and given several functions.This complexity is explained by the fact that evaluative activities are of increased concern andimportence for numeorous actors and their relevance for many fields of practice.Future research is suggested to focus on the role of evaluation in the perspective of politicalandadminstrative governance, program change and development, scientific knowledge andin the perspective of negotiations and communication in social and political conflicts.

Scholarly communication has changed with the growth in technology, particularly the internet and the social web. The changes include a broader definition of the scholarly communication format, and the role of social media in the research process, amongst others. This study sought to record the body of work that PLAAS had produced over a 20-year period (1995 to 2015) and to measure its visibility and impact through bibliometrics and altmetrics. It was the first time that such a study had been done. The Web of Science Citation Index and Scopus are two commercial databases that have recently been joined by Google Scholar, the first open database of scholarly items with citation counts based on the entire contents of the World Wide Web. Scopus and Google Scholar were used in this study. Methods used in the study included the compilation of a full bibliographic record of the outputs during that period. Citation analysis and publication counts were conducted, per author, within Scopus and Google Scholar. Altmetric analysis was achieved with the Altmetric Explorer database, and by studying three PLAAS grey literature outputs in more depth for altmetric indicators. The last method used was a small survey based on an online multiple-choice questionnaire of researchers at PLAAS to investigate their attitudes to a selection of the social media platforms commonly used by scholars. The full list of outputs, once compiled, showed a composition of 54% grey literature published by PLAAS and 46% journal articles and monographs. The results showed that bibliometrics, as a purely quantitative indicator, can be useful in measuring the impact of a body of work on the scholarly domain and in this study indicated high publication and citation rates. The authors of the highest number of PLAAS outputs and with the highest citation counts and h-indices, were found to be the same throughout the study. These authors are closely associated with the Institute and have contributed to the good academic reputation of its research. The study was inconclusive with regard to the impact on social media platforms as none of the grey literature from PLAAS had a unique identifier which made it difficult to track; in addition, the use of social media by the Institute and its researchers was intermittent and uneven in covering all the PLAAS-published outputs that were produced. Key recommendations for PLAAS to improve the visibility and impact of their outputs in scholarly and social contexts were to use unique identifiers, to track their social media activity and to keep author profiles up to date. Further use and application of the research design in other research units and departments at UWC will generate results that are useful to research management at UWC.

The scale of the scholarly community complicates searches within scholarly databases, necessitating keywords to index the topics of any given work. As a result, an author’s choice in keywords affects the visibility of each publication; making the sum of these choices a key representation of the author’s academic profile. As such the underlying network of investigators are often viewed through the lens of their keyword networks. Current keyword networks connect publications only if they use the exact same keyword, meaning uncontrolled keyword choice prevents connections despite semantic similarity. Computational understanding of semantic similarity has already been achieved through the process of word embedding, which transforms words to numerical vectors with context-correlated values. The resulting vectors preserve semantic relations and can be analyzed mathematically. Here we develop a model that uses embedded keywords to construct a network which circumvents the limitations caused by uncontrolled vocabulary. The model pipeline begins with a set of faculty, the publications and keywords of which are retrieved by SCOPUS API. These keywords are processed and then embedded. This work develops a novel method of network construction that leverages the interdisciplinarity of each publication, resulting in a unique network construction for any given set of publications. Postconstruction the network is visualized and analyzed with topological data analysis (TDA). TDA is used to calculate the connectivity and the holes within the network, referred to as the zero and first homology. These homologies inform how each author connects and where publication data is sparse. This platform has successfully modelled collaborations within the biomedical department at Purdue University and provides insight into potential future collaborations.

This thesis examines the discourse of the information age and its influence on information literacy and social networking websites. The information age proposes that society has been dramatically changed by the recent advancements of information and information technology. The information age is a ubiquitous concept, manifesting specifically in two areas: library and information studies (LIS) and social networking websites. Information literacy, the American Library Associations education strategy for the information age, empowers library patrons with information skills to participate in the emerging era. Social networking websites (Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter) represent information- based businesses like those predicted by information age theorists. This thesis concludes that the arrival of the information age is impossible to discern, but the influence of information and information technology is significant.

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Abstract The archival community worldwide faces challenges posed by the advent of digital communication, shifting understandings of archives prompted by a new emphasis on the power of means of communication and archives to shape knowledge, and fundamental debates that have followed over how archives should be run. Archivists from different parts of the world have started to revamp archival concepts, learn new skills, and acquire the specialized knowledge through graduate level education (master’s and doctoral degrees) necessary to address these challenges. Such specialized university degree programs in archival studies are fairly new phenomena. Professional education for archivists was initially offered in many countries by archives themselves to their new staff members and through conferences held by archival associations. Some then followed with one-year graduate diploma programs that eventually developed into a full master’s degree. In Canada, the Association of Canadian Archivists first established guidelines for master’s degree programs for educating archivists in 1976. The first master’s program in Archival Studies offered in North America was launched in 1981 by the University of British Columbia. In the United States, the first guidelines for the development of a graduate program in Archival Studies came out in 1993. In Asia, by the late 1950s courses in archives were offered in several countries such as Vietnam, Taiwan, and the Philippines, but not as a specialized degree program. In the Philippines, archival courses are only being offered as elective courses within library and information studies programs. There is, thus, a major gap in the programs of archival education in the Philippines. Certain factors that are unique to the Philippine archival profession further increase the existing common challenges facing archivists across the world and heighten the need for a specialized master’s degree in Archival Studies. These factors include: inadequate access to records or archives that document the country’s rich cultural and historical heritage, which makes research on the richness of Philippine history and culture difficult; the natural environment of the Philippines that makes it disaster prone requires special education in the care and management of the archives; and the relative youth of the archival profession in the country and thus limited number of properly educated professional archivists. This thesis discusses these challenges and how they can be addressed through a graduate program in Archival Studies. Lastly, the thesis offers a rationale and proposal for a master’s program in Archival Studies at the School of Library and Information Studies, University of the Philippines. / May 2017

This study examined library services’ provision for people with visual impairments and in wheelchairs in academic libraries in Tanzania. It looked into access to the information resources available and the layout of library buildings in five universities. The universities studied were University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Open University of Tanzania (OUT), Dar es Salaam University College of Education (DUCE), Sebastian Kolowa Memorial University (SEKOMU) and St. John’s University of Tanzania (SJUT). The broader issues in this study were drawn from issues relating to the importance of access to information as a fundamental human right. The main research question the study sought to answer was what services do academic libraries provide for people with visual impairments and in wheelchairs? Specific subsidiary research questions were what is the physical layout of academic libraries in Tanzania? what information resources are provided by academic libraries for people with visual impairments ? what are the challenges facing people with visual impairments and in wheelchairs in accessing and using library services? what is the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in facilitating provision of information resources to people with visual impairment and in wheelchairs? and what challenges are experienced by the library in seeking to provide services to people with visual impairments and in wheelchairs? The study was guided by the social model of disability of Oliver and used the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) framework to address the research problem in the context of the academic library. The pragmatism paradigm was employed in the study. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Regarding the respondents 113, (of a population of 139) were surveyed by questionnaire and 57 of 67 were interviewed. The population of the study involved library directors, professional library staff, disability unit staff, and people with visual impairments and in wheelchairs. Snowball sampling was used to identify the people with visual impairments and in wheelchairs. In order to obtain good measures of validity and reliability three data collection methods were employed: questionnaires, interview schedules and an observation checklist. The overall response rate from the questionnaires was 81%. Data gathered through the questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics facilitated by SPSS and data gathered through interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. The research conformed to the research ethics policy of University of KwaZulu-Natal. Access to information is a fundamental right of every human being and academic libraries exist to support learning, teaching, research and consultancy to all in a university’s community of users, including people with visual impairments and in wheelchairs The study confirmed that academic libraries in Tanzania provide services to people with visual impairments and in wheelchairs which are not inclusive or universal. The study put forward a new non-recursive interactive model for application and testing. It offered guidelines for academic libraries in providing inclusive and universal services to people with visual impairments and in wheelchairs For academic libraries to provide services which are inclusive and universal, the layout of library buildings need to include working lifts and ramps for people with visual impairments and in wheelchairs so that they can easily access the information resources housed in the library. In addition, information resources which are in Braille and large print are required for people with visual impairments to read easily as well as assistive equipment to help them read the information resources available. Furthermore, having staff trained and experienced in special needs requires university programmes and curricula to include components, at all levels of qualification, on special needs for people with disabilities. Positive attitudes to both library staff and people with visual impairments and in wheelchairs are needed to allow access and use of information resources. In addition policy addressing library services for people with disabilities is important for the library, to not only guide the provision of universal services, but also to ensure adequate allocation of funds to support library services to people with visual impairments and in wheelchairs. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2014.