The study is based on the premise that the culture of library assessment from the users' perspective is of vital importance to determine what users' needs are and whether these needs are being met. Consequently, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the existing library services and using the assessment results can improve service delivery. The study examined the quality of service at Iringa University College Library (IUCo) from the users' perceptions. The users' expectations and perceptions of service quality were investigated to determine the gap that existed between the two; and to determine the extent to which the library met users' expectations or not. A sample of 294 undergraduate students, all 31 postgraduate students, and 50 academic staff were surveyed. The adapted LibQUAL+T questionnaire was self-administered for data gathering from these respondents. A total of 213 (72.4%) undergraduate students, 20 (64.5%) postgraduate students, and 31 (68%) academic staff responded. The results were analysed using SPSS to determine the frequency of responses. The results are displayed in the form of charts and tables. The insights gained from this study indicate that there is a gap between user's expectations and perceptions of service quality at IUCo Library. The magnitude of the gap varies depending on individual services. The results show that the most problematic services for users are: electronic journals, photocopying, interlibrary loan, electronic databases, a quiet library environment, and the library webpage. The results show also that there are variations within difference groups of users regarding the expectations and perceptions of service quality. The academic staff have higher expectations and lower perceptions compared to the postgraduate and undergraduate students. Recommendations to improve service quality at the IUCo Library and the introduction of new services pertinent to current needs of users are given. / Thesis (M.I.S.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

This study investigated the preparedness of technikon trained library science diplomates for the work situation. The views of both diplomates and their employers were sought in order to determine the preparedness of the former for the work situation. Both the diplomates and employers were requested to rate the various tasks for which diplomates were trained according to the degree of preparedness of diplomates. Respondents were also asked to identify weaknesses and strengths ofthe diploma. Results indicated that generally diplomates were employed as library assistants and were therefore not performing tasks for which they were trained. However, those diplomates who were performing tasks for which they were trained , were prepared in terms of their skills although certain problem areas were identified. There was no consensus on what could be identified as weaknesses ofthe diploma. Areas that should have been developed according to diplomates included communication skills, computer literacy and practical work. Employers identified areas that were peculiar to their kinds of libraries as areas that should have been developed but were not, for example, story telling, community information services, on-line searching, and others. Cooperative training, exposure to technology and the practical nature of the programme were identified as strengths of the diploma. What also emerged was that diplomates were underutilised as half of those who responded were performing at library assistant level in their work places. This indicated the reluctance of employers to afford diplomates the opportunity of undertaking para-professional tasks. Recommendations were made to conduct a survey of all employers in order to establish which employers have positions for para-professionals. This would indicate what job opportunities exist for diplomates. Another recommendation was that this study needs to be duplicated by other technikons in order to establish the preparedness of diplomates. / Thesis (M.I.S.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

Combined libraries are school facilities that double as public libraries, to allow libraries to reach areas not previously served, in a very cost-effective way. These libraries are most suitable for small disadvantaged communities which cannot afford to provide minimum library services through seperate services. This study is based on the extension of library services in the Umtata district of the former Transkei, where library services are almost non-existent. It sets out to establish the following: (i) the status quo in terms of school library provision and availability, (ii) the extent of, or lack of awareness with regard to the role of the school library in education, (Hi) the existing relations between the school and the community, (iv) the attitude of school principals to the concept of combined libraries. The survey research was employed with person-to-person interview using an interview schedule. Ninety two school principals and two teacher-librarians were interviewed. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data obtained. The findings revealed that school library provision in the Umtata district is poor, the few libraries that exist are inadequate in terms of material, staff and accomodation. There is however, a growing realization of the necessity for libraries in educational institutions. There is also a healthy relationship between the school and the community as a result most respondents supported the idea of joint-use. In conclusion, the study is in concurrence with previous studies on combined libraries, that they are suitable for those communities that are unable to provide minimum library services through seperate facilities. The adaptation of combined library services to suit the divergent needs of people with different cultural and social background is recommended. A local-based information system, which takes the form of a community participatory model is recommended. / Thesis (M.I.S.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.

The research critically assessed the KwaZulu-Natal School Library Policy and its feasibility for implementation in the province. In order to provide appropriate perspectives and to contextualise the study, accepted standards of good policy formulation were taken into account, and the educational challenges for the sector and the Library and Information Services field in which policy development and implementation take place were delineated. The study was guided by the following theoretical frameworks, namely a constructivist approach in interpreting and evaluating the role of school libraries within an education system based in constructivist principles, the traditional policy model to evaluate policy formulation and design, and a social constructionist view of policy in the interpreting of policy development and implementation. The epistemological basis for the Delphi technique too, the main methodology used in the study, was social constructivism. The Delphi technique combined expert opinion in order to determine the adequacy of the KwaZulu-Natal School Library Policy and to test the suitability of the policy for implementation in the province. The study set out to systematically collect and analyse the data needed to reflect on the research questions. A research design comprising two phases, with a mix of qualitative and quantitative methodologies was used to explore the research questions. Firstly the qualitative data collected from the Delphi panel's expert opinion and responses was interpreted to analyse the policy document critically and to assess its implementation strategy. Practical implementation problems were identified, as well as gaps in the policy that might necessitate revision. Secondly, quantitative data from an analysis of existing surveys, questionnaires and reports provided an overview of the current state of school library provisioning in the KwaZulu-Natal province, and the school library models already being implemented in the province were evaluated against this background. This study was undertaken in the belief that it would offer a fresh and objective response to the KZN School Library Policy and reflect in an informed manner on its adequacy as a policy document. The chosen methodologies and the data generated enabled the researcher to determine that the policy document and its implementation strategy met, to a large extent, the standards of good policy-making. Practical strategies for and solutions to the challenges of policy implementation in the province were generated. The research results provided sound guidelines for reviewing the policy and the implementation strategy and for developing a more comprehensive strategy for policy implementation which would in turn refine and refocus the provincial policy intervention. The study has brought to the fore several issues that need to be resolved to facilitate school library development in South Africa. These concerns include the lack of support and overall direction from the national Department of Education as manifested in its reluctance to finalise national school library policy, the importance of ICT as a learning tool to provide to all learners equal access to information and finally the general lack of human, physical and financial resources required to achieve satisfactory implementation of the policy. Partnerships and innovative service delivery solutions are required to address the backlog in school library provisioning, even if this intervention takes place initially only on a small scale. In keeping with interpretative research, recommendations are made and ideas put forward for future research. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

Agriculture is an important enterprise in Africa and indeed in Tanzania where it is one of the major economic sectors, embracing all its population. Agriculture contributes about 60% to the Gross Domestic Product, generates about 75% of the total export earnings and employs 84% of the Tanzanian active labour force. Information plays a critical role in agricultural development in most countries. However, one of the most serious reasons adduced for the low agricultural production in Africa is the limited access to adequate information support to all stakeholders in agricultural production. This affects all sectors of research, extension and training. Inadequate access to and use of agricultural information by research scientists undermines the potential to fulfil their information needs. They often lack access to current, relevant and timely information. This results in duplication of research efforts. Lack of access to scientific literature in the agricultural field in Tanzania has been attributed to the ineffectiveness of the various information providers in the country, among which the key ones are agricultural libraries and documentation centres. Studies by agricultural information specialists and international organizations have established that agricultural libraries and documentation centres in Less Developed Countries have not excelled in providing agricultural information to users. This has been attributed to several reasons. The major one being the non-implementation of policies, strategies and recommendations advanced by scholars, international organizations and consultants for more availability, accessibility and use of agricultural libraries' services and facilities. The main objectives of this study were to establish the extent to which Tanzania has implemented the key policies, strategies and recommendations for enhancing accessibility and use of agricultural libraries and documentation centres' services and facilities. Some of the key policies and strategies recommended by scholars include; increasing the libraries' capacity in human, financial and material resources. Such policies and strategies include, among many others: library staff development, cooperation and networking among agricultural libraries and documentation centres at national regional and international levels and formulation of national information policies to give guidance to agricultural information acquisition, organization, management and provision. They also include formulation of Information and Communication Technologies' policies for standardization in operating systems and data formats. Two main data collection instruments were used in the study namely; a self administered questionnaire and an interview schedule. The instruments were supplemented by on site observations of the libraries' operational activities. The sample size comprised 34 agricultural libraries and documentation centres located in all seven agricultural zones and 18 interviewees from the Ministry of agriculture, agricultural institutions and research stations. The Statistical Product and Service Solution (SPSS) for Windows version 9.0 was used to analyze the quantitative and qualitative data. The problems facing agricultural libraries and documentation centres in Less Developed Countries today are many and varied, and differ from one country to another. In Tanzania, the study findings established that these problems can be classified into six major categories: lack of adequate resources/materials; inadequate number of qualified personnel at managerial, professional and technical levels; lack of cooperation and coordination among existing libraries and documentation centres; limited financial resources; lack of explicit and operational training programmes for library personnel and lack of a national information policy per se. Tanzania has a number of sectoral policies in place, related to information, technology and research. These "little sectoral policies" are fragmented and need a policy framework to provide the missing coordination. The study established that the number of skilled information staff in the national agricultural library system was small. Libraries and documentation centres in many agricultural institutions and research stations were poorly equipped and lacked professional trained staff. Furthermore, operational budgets were limited and hence lack of current and relevant library materials including Subscriptions to scientific journals. Contacts of agricultural information personnel with regional and international circuits on development were found limited. The study findings also revealed that the agricultural library information system in Tanzania was lacking in efficiency and effectiveness in meeting the diversified information needs of agriculturalists, particularly the research scientists. To this effect, where information was abundantly available, it was often inaccessible due to lack of technical know-how in documentation, organization and management for awareness of its availability to users. The study assumed that the global Information and Communication Technologies (lCTs) and current technological developments in the publishing industry could facilitate effective agricultural information organization and management, including repackaging of information for extension personnel and farmers, and resource sharing via electronic networking. However, the poor economic growth of Tanzania, as in other Less Developed Countries, has posed limitations to the full utilization of ICTs through lack of resources, policy guidelines and frameworks for the implementation of such policies. The study concluded that there has not been an effective and efficient implementation of policies, strategies and recommendations for access and use of agricultural information in Tanzania due to a number of problems, the main ones being: lack of awareness of the policies and strategies among the libraries, parent organizations and policy makers and lack of capacity of the libraries and documentation centres to implement the policies, strategies and recommendations. The study recommended that agricultural libraries and documentation centres in Tanzania be given priority in budget allocation for acquisition of basic equipment, such as photocopiers and microcomputers and for training library personnel at all levels. The more affluent libraries, such as the Sokoine National Agricultural Library and the Division of Research and Development library of the Ministry of agriculture, should audit their resources to determine the best ways to assist the documentation centres in remote research stations to organize and adequately present the required information to users. Agricultural libraries' managers and information specialists should become more assertive, focused, and committed in finding out about the policies and recommendations and eventually working out the requirements for their implementation and monitoring. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

One of the legacies of the apartheid system was the discrepancy in funding and support for various activities, including research work in science and technology based on racial grounds. Some institutions of higher learning and research institutes were favoured more than others in terms of resources. Presently, despite the fact that there is national democracy, previously disadvantaged institutions with their culture of minimal research and poor publication output continue to produce inadequate quantities of research and publications while the historically developed universities are at the forefront of research and publication.This research is a bibliometric study of the publication patterns of South African scientists. The subjects were academic scientists from ten selected universities of the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and KwaZulu Natal, which vary considerably, with regard to standards of education, quantity of publications, development and overall progress. The general purpose of this study was to investigate the patterns used by scientists in publishing the results of their research, provide valuable information and play a significant role in evaluating the research and publication patterns of scientists from these different institutions The study collected two sets of data through lists of publications and a questionnaire. The questionnaire was pretested and the comments of the respondents enabled the investigator to make the necessary revisions in the subsequent questionnaire. The questionnaire was sent to 350 full-time academic scientists in the departments of physics, chemistry, botany, zoology and biochemistry / microbiology in the selected universities. Out of the 350 scientists, 174 responded. Twenty one returns were discarded, hence only 153 were used in the data analysis. Further data was obtained from the Science Citation Index and the Foundation for Research Development. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, one way ANOVA and Pearson Chi-Square test. The results obtained in this study showed that the five null hypotheses were rejected. It was found that there was a : - • direct relation between academic rank and productivity; academic status and productivity. • direct relation correlation between prestige and productivity. • higher impact of "A" grade scientists over non-"A" grade scientists. • significant difference in productivity between areas of science that are funded and areas which receive little or no funding. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

Three primary mechanisms of paper deterioration in library and archival collections are driven by climatic conditions of excessive relative humidity. These are chemical reactivity, mechanical stress and biological deterioration. It is the view of the researcher that the role of chemical reactivity has not been adequately assessed in relation to the deterioration of paper. The significance of an autoxidative phenomenon, similar to the brown tideline staining at the wet/dry interface, has not been previously recognised as a cause of deterioration as an accelerated function of time under humid conditions of the macroclimate, and as a function of the unstable equilibrium moisture content of materials in a microclimate, but has been obscured by the accepted explanation of biological deterioration. An analytical procedure was developed to enable the comparison of oxidative degradation products found in stained areas of naturally aged samples with those formed during a dynamic simulated ageing programme to induce cellulosic discolouration. A relationship between the degradative mechanism and humid climatic conditions was established. Based on the findings of the analytical investigation, this study forms a contribution towards the development of a theory of deterioration. Evidence is presented of a chemical process of degradation in the oxidation of paper at the wet/dry interface, following the condensation and evaporation kinetics induced by cycling relative humidity (RH) driven by temperature fluctuations in diurnal and seasonal ranges. Sites of moisture accumulation at which the oxidative reaction readily take place, and which constitute a wet/dry interface, are identified at surface areas exposed to atmospheric exchange, in physical defects, in uneven adhesive lamination, in local wet treatments, in impervious storage enclosures or adjacent to an impervious surface which acts as a vapour barrier to the transudational force of capillary action. In advancing the theory of a chemical response of library and archival materials in the fluctuating moisture content as an explanation for the causation of cellulosic staining, the evidence of foxing is redefined. Librarians, archivists and conservators are thus assisted in the identification of the basic chemical reactions involved in the process of deterioration, and in recognising the role of oxidative degradation relation to environmental conditions. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

The study investigated the effect of problem-based learning (PBL) on medical libraries in South Africa. PBL, as a teaching/learning method, has been used in medical schools throughout the world for the past twenty or more years. It was introduced into South African medical schools in the early 1990s. Its impact was felt beyond the academia. Libraries, as engines of the institutions at which they are based, were greatly affected by the introduction of PBL. / Thesis (M.I.S.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

Indigenous Knowledge (IK) is an important resource which needs to be collected and preserved for present and future generations and also disseminated in every possible way. Muswazi (2001) states that Swaziland has an immense quantity of IK dealing with almost every aspect of daily life such as food production, preparation and preservation; agriculture; leadership; medicinal plants and their use and so on. It is therefore important that this useful information be well managed to be accessible for present and future generations. If not well managed, its abundance would be of no significance to potential users. IK if appropriately utilised, can enhance productivity and development. A lack of knowledge or inappropriate use of it, can lead to poor decision making and generally impact negatively on production and development. The fact that IK systems are at risk of becoming extinct pose a very big challenge to the Swaziland National Library (SNL), the Swaziland National Archives (SNA), the Swaziland National Museum (SNM) and the University of Swaziland (UNISWA) Library which are sites for this study. This is because among other functions they are tasked with managing IK. This present study was conducted to investigate the strategies used by the four institutions to collect and preserve IK for future use. This study adopted the qualitative research methodology. The study population consisted of four administrators and eleven staff members dealing with the management of IK in the four institutions. Semi-structured interviews and observation were used as data collection tools. Information gathered through the interviews was analysed using content analysis and then presented in the form of tables and graphs. / Thesis (M.I.S.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermarizburg, 2009.

The crux of the research problem for this study pertains to the fact that, as the world moves towards a digital age, it is imperative that we gain insight into the current copyright laws which govern the transferring of music from the old analogue form to the new digital formats. In terms of the research problem, this study explores the South African Copyright Act No. 98 of 1978 as it pertains to the transferring of sound recordings from analogue to digital format. The study also examined digital copyright laws for sound recordings in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia as well as major copyright conventions and treaties as these international copyright laws impact on the South African situation, especially in terms of reciprocity. Furthermore, the study addressed the issue of balancing the rights between copyright holders and the public good in the preservation and dissemination of knowledge in the digital age. The study employed methodological triangulation which included a literature search, a questionnaire and informal interviews. The population constituted 16 music librarians and two legal librarians who were surveyed. Quantitative and qualitative techniques were employed. Considering the size of the population (18) the results of a self-administered questionnaire were analysed using a calculator. Data collected for the informal interviews was analysed qualitatively. The study revealed that music librarians in South Africa are not well-versed in South African copyright law, especially as it applies to sound recordings. Guidelines, based on the South African Copyright Act No. 98 of 1978, and specifically for South African music librarians, have been formulated concerning both print and the actual sound recordings. It is important for the music librarian to take note that the composition of songs in a sound recording has an individual copyright that is separate from the copyright of the sound recording. Further copyrights can also exist in, for example, the sleeve of an album. It is anticipated that the guidelines will give clarity to music librarians on South African digital copyright legislation with regard to sound recordings. / Thesis (M.I.S.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.