M.Inf. / The research study investigates the importance of information as a resource in academic institutions. The study serves to answer questions appertaining to management of information as a resource, such as, what is information resource management? How should information as a resource be managed in academic institutions? How should information be audited? Which stages should be followed in developing information policy? The interrelationships of information as a resource, information auditing and information policy as managerial components are discussed. Information audit and information policy become the major components of management of information as a resource. Information in various enterprises is becoming increasingly recognized as a resource. The study purports to indicate that information as a resource can be managed like other traditional resources such as labour, entrepreneurship, capital and natural resources to use it for competitive advantage. The aims of information audit and information policy are to serve as fundamental development of an information managerial strategy. The information audit enables the information service to pursue the most significant strategic marketing of its information resources. The necessary breadth of information auditing techniques, such as Burk and Horton's "Infomap" are required to fulfill a wide variety of objectives. They analyze the effective methodology for auditing information resource controls and help to identify relevant and accurate information resources for the purpose of learning, teaching and research. The purpose of developing information policy is prompted by the objective of which the information enterprise would successfully like to achieve. It is more appropriate to develop a set of information policies, each of which is concerned with a specific area of operation or focussed on other topics of interest and informational value within the academic institution. At the ultimate end the University of the North is singled out as a model for the development of information policy.

M. Tech. Interior Design / The focus of this study was a small university library situated on the TUT Arts Campus in Pretoria. Since the library opened its doors nearly 20 years ago, little attention was paid to the interior and no alterations were implemented since then. Staff and students did not perceive the library as a positive asset due to the state of disrepair of its interior. As indicated by previous studies, redesigning a library interior has the potential to improve the learning environment it offers. It was hypothesised that the condition of the TUT Arts Campus library interior may have been a deterring factor causing students' reluctance to use it and that the redesign of the library's interior would have the potential to solve this real-life problem. This study involved itself with the process of redesigning the interior of the TUT Arts Campus library and the process of achieving the final design. The study dealt with answering the research question: How may one go about to redesign the interior of the TUT Arts Campus library, with the use of focus groups involving iterative cycles and user-based input, to increase student usage?

<p>This research project is a comparative study of management of two university libraries (University of the Western Cape and Dhaka University) from two different countries (South Africa and Bangladesh). This research was to identify and document how the functions of management are applied in both libraries.</p> <p><br /> A sample of the two university libraries&rsquo / users, librarians, and library staff were taken. The questionnaire, interview, observation and documentary sources of information were major methods of data collection. In order to provide a brief presentation on how the management functions were applied at other university libraries, a description of how some university libraries in the U.K, U.S.A, Eastern countries and Africa are given. The findings of the study revealed that the problem of inadequate financial support is true for both University libraries, and is the major cause amongst other weaknesses. Both libraries still use a large percentage of non-professional staff and the library service is in desperate need of personnel. However, the observed difference between DUL and UWCL in this comparative study was significant. Services offered in both libraries differ in some cases such as: Consortia, Inter library loans, OPAC, CD-search, e-journals and multimedia. These areas still need to be developed at DUL. UWC have the most of these facilities. Although it needs to improve on aspects such as e-journals, access to data-bases and open access on the Internet.</p>

D.Litt. et Phil. (Library and Information Science) / Since the first library building was built in 1900 at the University of Stellenbosch no scientific study of library buildings as seen from the viewpoint of the librarian in the RSA has been done. No South African criteria for libraries at tertiary institutions exist, but SAPSE building norms have been available since the late seventies. The shift of priority from merely collecting information to providing information and updating developments in information and telecommunication technology, have resulted in the philosophy of the library building being adapted. With the primary problem area of the study being the functionality of the modern library building, in the RSA, the research area was defined according to period, type of library building and kind of institution. This study covers the period 1946 through 1983. A thorough literature study on the planning of libraries overseas and in the RSA has been conducted. The type of libraries analised in this study are the main library buildings at universities, teacher training colleges and technikons in use at the end of 1983. Eighteen university library buildings, nineteen teacher training college library buildings and seven technikon library buildings were considered. Each library has been visited and personal interviews were conducted with heads of libraries and senior members of the staff. The personal interview was supplemented by a structured questionnaire dealing with the history, planning, functional areas and the influence of technology on the building. This was completed during the interview. One university library did not occupy a planned library building in 1983. Two universities built two new main library buildings during the period thirteen universities built one each, while one expanded in linear fashion through several academic departments. At teacher training colleges ten new main libraries were constructed, one library was housed in a converted hall and eight were in temporary facilities. Three technikon libraries were in converted halls, three in temporary facilities and one in a library building which was built in 1923...

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This research project is a comparative study of management of two university libraries (University of the Western Cape and Dhaka University) from two different countries (South Africa and Bangladesh). This research was to identify and document how the functions of management are applied in both libraries. A sample of the two university libraries&rsquo; users, librarians, and library staff were taken. The questionnaire, interview, observation and documentary sources of information were major methods of data collection. In order to provide a brief presentation on how the management functions were applied at other university libraries, a description of how some university libraries in the U.K, U.S.A, Eastern countries and Africa are given. The findings of the study revealed that the problem of inadequate financial support is true for both University libraries, and is the major cause amongst other weaknesses. Both libraries still use a large percentage of non-professional staff and the library service is in desperate need of personnel. However, the observed difference between DUL and UWCL in this comparative study was significant. Services offered in both libraries differ in some cases such as: Consortia, Inter library loans, OPAC, CD-search, e-journals and multimedia. These areas still need to be developed at DUL. UWC have the most of these facilities. Although it needs to improve on aspects such as e-journals, access to data-bases and open access on the Internet. / South Africa

The failure to evaluate the service quality by comparing service expectations and service perceptions of students requires that the management of NMMU libraries identify the service expectations and service perceptions of students and measure the gaps between these service expectations and service perceptions of students. A literature review was conducted to explore the service expectations and service perceptions of students. An effective method (using the LibQUAL model) to evaluate the service quality of NMMU libraries based on the service expectations of students was described. Thereafter, a LibQUAL survey was used to collect the required empirical data from a convenience sample of 2 047 students enrolled at NMMU. The empirical findings showed that gaps existed between the service expectations and service perceptions of students at different campuses of NMMU. At different campuses of NMMU, the service expectations of students were not met in term of the service perceptions of the four dimensions (affect of service, library as place, information access and personal control) of the LibQUAL model. ii The study identified the gaps between the service expectations and service perceptions of students at different NMMU campuses and conclusions and recommendations based on these gaps were formulated. The management of the NMMU libraries needs to choose appropriate strategies to improve the quality of NMMU library services based on the service expectations of students.

M.Inf. / Enterprises are in the midst of some revolutionary changes in how people are managed in work situations. The major premise underlying work-force management traditionally has been that efficiency can be achieved best by imposing management control over workers' behaviour. Today, in response to massive evidence that control-oriented management models can produce outcomes that subvert the interest of both enterprises and the people who work in them, a new work-force management model is appearing - that of participative management. The premise of the emerging model is that enterprises must elicit the commitment of their employees if they are to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in contemporary markets. Rather than relying on a "retain and control" management, enterprises in the future will apply a "share and learn" management where they will heavily rely of member self-management in pursuing collective objectives. This study intends to stress the fact that employee potential needs to be mobilised by management and can only show up as performance when employees are given opportunity to contribute to decision-making with the minimum interference of management. This study calls for a transformation of leadership willing to empower staff to participate fully and freely in the creation of the future. The time has come to transform the way in which leaders work with and provide leadership to staff in academic information services. Leaders in academic information services need to realise that employee participation will enhance commitment and performance for both employees and management. A review of literature revealed that participative management is more than only a willingness to share influence - formal patterns of participation need to be truely implemented where employees have a right to contribute on all levels of decision-making. Participation is not an absolute term - there are various degrees of participation and types of involvement programmes to apply. Participative management is more complex than simply allowing employees to make some of the decisions. It involves formal programmes which need to be effectively implemented. The empirical survey which was done through a twenty-item questionnaire distributed to seven academic information services in Gauteng, revealed that participative management is applied at these institutions but more in low-level decisions. This indicated that participation is still limited and controlled by management and is not yet experienced as a right by employees. This study also clearly showed that self-regulation occurs most effectively through self-managed work-teams. These teams offer the highest degree of decision-making autonomy to all levels of staff and are a unique and viable alternative to traditional forms of work design in academic information services. Directors and leaders of modern academic information services need to encourage and facilitate self-regulation among employees of all levels. This will help to cope more effectively with future challenges of rapid change and technological complexity that now threaten efforts to create more responsive academic information services.

Non-book materials have a unique role to play in university libraries of South Africa, as they re-inforce what has been learnt and facilitate presentation of subject matter to fulfil the needs of teaching and learning of institutions. The key problem of the study was that non-book materials though very important as sources of information like books, appear to be little or not used in South African university libraries. This may be caused by unclear policy presented in formal or informal collection development policies. The general aim of the study was to find out collection development practices, policies and use of non-book materials in South African university libraries. To this end the specific objectives were: To find out how non-book materials in university libraries are collected and maintained as part of teaching, learning and research. To get some understanding on the policies and patterns the university libraries follow in the development of non-book materials. To find out the manner in which non-book materials are funded and acquired. To find out the extent to which library orientation, instruction and user education cover non-book materials. The study therefore examined the collection development and usage of nonbook materials in university libraries of South Africa. All the South African university libraries except University of Zululand where the researcher works and is the AV-librarian were included in the study. The major method of study chosen was the survey method and the questionnaire was used for data collection. The methods of analysis used were the univariate and bi-variate methods and the basic type of statistics, the descriptive statistics. Libraries surveyed showed that they favoured non-book materials, and above all they do have the most NBM that are available in all formats. The study guided the researcher in making the following recommendations: The need for improvement of the NBM information services in libraries. That clear policies, whether written or not, for selection and acquisition of NBM be reviewed in libraries in South Africa. The role of NBM specialist is important and needs to be redressed. That the academic staff, library staff and students work together as a team and devise a program of library user education integrated with curriculum. / Thesis (M.I.S.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

M.Bibl. / Information is an important and powerful resource in the modern society. The so-called information explosion leads to certain manpower issues in the library and information profession. The question arises whether married women with family obligations can contribute to the alleviation of library and information workforce problems? Can other librarians, e.g. post graduate students or librarians reaching retirement age, contribute to the library and information profession on a basis other than that which is traditionally accepted (i.e. working approximately forty hours per week in a library?) To what extent does the university library use this potential workforce? What are the career opportunities for this latent workforce? The following non-traditional career patterns were included in this study: part-time work, flex(i)time, dual appointments, free-lance information brokers. job sharing, librarianship, staff rotation, consultants and Following a literature survey a questionnaire was sent to 22 South African University Librarians. Another questionnaire was sent to 122 non-traditional library and information professionals at nine university libraries. Although the study was limited to only a few university libraries, it was found that the current non-traditional university library workforce consists mainly of part-time employees. The majority are female, married, Afrikaans-speaking, have children at school and have stopped working full-time because of family obligations. The largest percentage (25%) of the respondents are between the ages of 36 and 40 years. Their responsibilities are primarily professional. 50% of the respondents are employed in the Cataloguing Department. Respondents also maintained that they were more productive in their current positions, than when they had been employed full-time. This corresponds with statements made by the employers in the first questionnaire, as well as with those made by several authors in the literature survey.

Magister Commercii - MCom / In virtually any field of endeavour today, access to information is a prerequisite for success. Library services are affected by financial considerations and staffing problems. This work evaluated library performance with the aim of improving service management. Its targets are UWC, and others such as the Stellenbosch University and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. The application of selected service management techniques and measures used in business will be explored. The study also touched on transformation and change management. / South Africa