Considerando a necessidade de comunicação entre a administração pública e a sociedade e seus cidadãos, da maneira mais efetiva e transparente possível, o objetivo desta pesquisa foi analisar o conjunto de elementos de transparência das informações públicas apresentadas pelos gestores nos portais dos Institutos Federais da Região Sul do Brasil. Trata-se de uma pesquisa quantitativa e qualitativa, aplicada quanto à sua finalidade, e exploratória quanto ao seu objetivo. No intuito de explicar a problemática a partir dos referenciais teóricos publicados, foi utilizado omo procedimento a pesquisa bibliográfica e o posterior estudo de campo nos seis Institutos Federais da Região Sul do Brasil. Assim, o referencial teórico abordou aspectos sobre a transparência pública e conceitos de informação e comunicação no setor público, apresentando índices de mensuração de transparência pública. O levantamento de dados junto aos Institutos buscou mensurar nos portais o grau de transparência das informações apresentadas pelos gestores, aplicando instrumento de pesquisa que permitiu a obtenção de índice de transparência para 11 categorias de itens pesquisados, além de verificar a presença nos portais dos itens considerados obrigatórios pela Lei de Acesso à Informação. Em um segundo momento, buscou verificar, por meio de questionário, a percepção dos gestores dos Institutos sobre os aspectos que compõem o tema proposto, a fim de observar como acontece esse processo de comunicação entre os órgãos públicos e o cidadão. Os principais resultados obtidos enfatizam, de maneira geral, um baixo índice de divulgação das informações públicas, com menor média de divulgação para informações sobre responsabilidade social, ambiental e econômica, e maior média para as informações relacionadas aos dados gerais da instituição, desde sua estrutura administrativa até sua regulamentação. Também foi observado que nenhuma instituição pesquisada cumpre integralmente com as exigências da Lei de Acesso à Informação. Os resultados sobre a percepção do gestor demonstram uma tendência de divulgar as informações produzidas, mas fatores como a desorganização das informações nos portais, a falta de padronização na estrutura virtual e no tipo de linguagem utilizada, bem como a falta de mecanismos de participação e interação popular nos portais são determinantes no tocante aos problemas de acesso e de comunicação com o público em geral. Além disso, o pouco tempo de criação das instituições pesquisadas e do exercício do cargo de seus gestores também deve ser considerado como reflexo para os resultados encontrados. Dessa forma, a presente pesquisa realçou a importância do tema Transparência Pública e alcançou um resultado positivo para uma contribuição científica e social. / Considering the need of communication between public management and society and its citizens, in a way which is more effective and transparent, the aim of this research was to analyze the transparency of public information presented by the managers of the portals of southern Brazil’s Federal Institutes. It is a qualitative and quantitative research, applied as its purpose, and exploratory as its aim. In order to explain the issue from the theoretical frameworks published, it will be used as a procedure the bibliographic research and the further study field research in the six southern Brazil’s Federal Institutes. Therefore, the theoretical framework approaches aspects about public transparency, concepts of information and communication in the public sector, and it presents measurement indexes of public transparency. The data collection with the Institutes sought to measure – in the portals – the level of transparency of the information presented by the managers, applying a search tool which provided the transparency index of eleven categories of the researched items, besides verifying the presence of the required items by Access to Information Law. In the sequence, it sought to verify the Institutes managers’ perception of the aspects which composes the proposed theme, for the purpose of observing how the process of communication between public agencies and the citizen is happening. The main results obtained emphasize, in a general way, a low level of public information propagation, with a lower average of propagation to the information about social, environmental and economic responsibility, and a greater average to the information related to the institution’s general data – from its management structure to its ordinance. It was also observed that no institution which was researched fully comply with the demands of the Access of Information Law. The results about the manager perceptio demonstrate a tendency in publishing the produced information, however, elements such disorganization of information in the portals, lack of standardization of the virtual structure and type of language to use, and lack of procedures of popular participation and interaction in the portals are determiners to bring problems in the access and in the communication with the public. Besides, the short time of institutions’ creation and the short time of the managers assuming their functions must be considered as a reflex of the found results. Therewith, the present study highlighted the importance of Public Transparency theme and it reached a positive result to a scientific and social contribution.

Many scholars lament of poor infrastructure to manage and preserve digital records within the public sector in South Africa to support electronic government (egovernment). For example, in South Africa, the national archives’ repository and its subsidiary provincial archives do not have infrastructure to ingest digital records into archival custody. As a result, digital records are left to the creating agencies to manage and preserve. The problem is compounded by the fact that very few public sector organisations in South Africa have procured systems to manage digital records. Therefore, a question is how are digital records managed and stored in these organisations to support e-government? Do public organisations entrust their records to the cloud as an alternative storage given the fact that both physical and virtual storages are a problem? If they do, how do they ensure accessibility, governance, security and long-term preservation of records in the cloud? Utilising the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) Lifecycle Model as a guiding framework, this qualitative study sought to explore digital curation of records in the cloud to support e-government services in South Africa with the view to propose a framework that would guide the public sector to migrate records to the cloud storage. Semi-structured interviews were employed to collect data from the purposively selected Chief Information Officers in the national government departments that have implemented some of the electronic services such as the Department of Arts and Culture, Department of Home Affairs, Department of Higher Education and Training and the Department of Basic Education. Furthermore, the National Archives and Records Services of South Africa was also chosen as it is charged with the statutory regulatory role of records management in governmental bodies. So is the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), a public sector ICT company established in 1999 to consolidate and coordinate the state’s information technology resources in order to achieve cost savings through scale, increase delivery capabilities and enhance interoperability. Interview data were augmented through document analysis of legislation and policies pertaining to data storage. Data were analysed thematically and interpreted in accordance with the objectives of the study. The key finding suggests that although public servants informally and unconsciously put some records in the clouds, government departments in South Africa are sceptical to entrust their records to the cloud due to a number of reasons, such as lack of policy and legislative framework, lack of trust to the cloud storage, jurisdiction, legal implications, privacy, ownership and security risks. This study recommends that given the evolution of technology, the government should regulate cloud storage through policy and legislative promulgation, as well as developing a government-owned cloud managed through SITA in order for all government departments to use it. This study suggests a framework to migrate paperbased records to cloud storage that is controlled by the government. / Information Science / D.Lit. et Phil. (Information Science)

This study assessed the digital preservation capability maturity readiness within the context of e-government in Botswana Public Service with a view to developing a strategic framework that ensures digital continuity. There some studies that have been conducted in Botswana regarding digital preservation but they did not provide a framework which could be used as an assessment to check their capability in digital preservation as e-government progresses so that digital information is continuously being used for decision making over time. The study adopted a pragmatic paradigm and embedded mixed method approach; whereby a cross sectional survey and case study were deployed in each of the 6 selected ministries as a unit of analysis. The target study respondents comprises of 5 Senior Managers, 4 Managers - Human Resources and Administration, 6 ICT Managers, 40 Records Management Officers,12 Information Technology Officers, 1 Performance Improvement Coordinator, 1 Project Manager, 8 Archivists, 1 Assistant Deputy Manager and 1 Deputy Managers- Management Services. The data was collected through interviews, questionnaires, personal observations, and documents analysis. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected sequentially and simultaneously where one form of data supported or complemented each other so as to have one form of data play a supportive role to the other. Data analysis was achieved through the triangulation of both qualitative and quantitative data in order to yield a single interpretation and conclusion drawn. The findings of the study showed that the Botswana Public Service has no unified national information systems used to manage public sector records leading to some ministries adopting their own electronic records management systems. Currently few ministries have implemented the electronic records management system and majority of the digital records are not preserved due to lack of preservation guidelines and strategies. The study further established the lack of preservation policies and skills in managing and preserving digital records in Botswana Public Service. In that regard, the study developed a strategic framework for digital preservation capability maturity readiness in the context of e-government in the Botswana Public Sector. The ultimate aim of the framework is to ensure digital continuity and make sure that e-government is sustained for the benefit of an open government and increased participatory citizenry. / Information Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Information Science)

This study investigated the use and management of electronic mail (email) in Zimbabwe’s central government. Employing a mixed method research approach, the study used a pluralist ontological paradigm and a pragmatic epistemological paradigm within the convergent mixed methods research design. Quantitative responses from questionnaires were corroborated by qualitative findings from semi-structured interviews, personal observation and document reviews. The study was restricted to Zimbabwe’s central government, focusing on head offices of 22 government ministries situated in Zimbabwe’s capital city of Harare. The population of the study was 670. The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown imposed in Zimbabwe as from 30 March 2020 negatively affected data collection as some targeted respondents could not be accessed as the researcher had initially planned, leading to an overall response rate of 37.3%. Nonetheless, 12 out of 22 government ministries participated in the study. Quantitative data were analysed using Microsoft Excel 2010® and descriptive statistics while qualitative data were analysed thematically using Atlas.ti®. The study conformed to ethical standards of research as espoused in the University of South Africa’s ethical review guidelines. The study revealed that due to the adoption of electronic government and the inherent relative advantages of email, among other factors, there was increase in use of email as an official record in Zimbabwe’s central government. Nonetheless, management of email was still in its nascent stages and was largely poorly articulated. Poor email classification, filing, appraisal, security, preservation and disposal were largely traceable to deficiencies in legal, policy and procedural frameworks as well as skills and information and communication technology infrastructural challenges. These in turn triggered email retrieval, access, preservation and authenticity challenges. This study was a first local research to address both the use and management of email in a single study and one which proposed a framework for the effective use and management of email where a call was made to match increase in use of email with increase in professional management of the same. The proposed framework may go a long way in influencing proper and professional use and management of email in Zimbabwe’s central government and similar organisations. / Information Science / D. Phil. (Information Science)

Libraries have traditionally facilitated each of the following elements of research: production of new knowledge, its preservation and its organization to make it accessible for use over the generations. In modern times, the library is constantly required to meet the challenges of information explosion. Assimilating resources and restructuring practices to process the large data volumes both in the print and digital form held across the globe, therefore, becomes very important. A recourse by the libraries to application of successive forms of what can be called as Digital Library Technologies (DLT) has been the imperative. The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) is one recent development that is expected to assist the libraries to partner in setting up virtual learning environment and integrating research on a near universal scale. Future extension of this concept is envisaged to be that of Grid Computing. The technologies driving the â Gridâ would let people share computing power, databases, and other on-line tools securely across institutional and geographic boundaries without sacrificing the local autonomy. Ushering an era of the ubiquitous library helping the e-research is thus on the card. This paper reviews the emerging technological changes and charts the future role for the libraries with special reference to India.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the implementation of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system at Western Cape Government (WCG), South Africa. The study evaluated the state of the implementation in order to establish whether the system met information and records management requirements and objectives. A probability sampling was used on a total population of 51 respondents and participants. The data were triangulated using multi-methods, whereby both qualitative and quantitative approaches were adopted in a sequential manner. A structured online survey questionnaire, online interviews, and document analysis were used to collect data, which were descriptively analysed. The study revealed that although the WCG has embarked on digitisation projects, which culminated in the department-wide implementation of ECM, the system was not evaluated regularly and consistently. This resulted in an inability to capture the lessons learnt – as well as a failure to realise the full benefits of implementing the system. The findings also showed that ECM implementation at WCG encountered some challenges – for example, inadequate training provided to staff, lack of adequate technology infrastructure, and poor technical support with regard to systems for managing digital records – that impacted on the system’s efficiency. Some of the recommendations of the study are that WCG should consider conducting regular ECM reviews to determine whether the system performs as required in terms of bringing about expected benefits, such as easy retrieval of digitally stored content. Departments should also ensure that there is an alignment among various digital applications for the purpose of creating a single enterprise platform that promotes collaboration and knowledge sharing. A study of ECM implementation in other provinces would enable a comparison of how the system performs elsewhere, including how it could be used as a viable option for organisations to promote digitisation. / Information Science / M. Inf. (Information Science)

The scarcity of financial resources often poses challenges for organisations in both the private and the public sector, which require productive (tangible) resources, in order to thrive. Organisations are developing innovative and cost-effective methods to secure productive resources that are needed to drive performance. Special libraries in the public sector face the same pressures that resulted in some of them being overwhelmed by poor resources. The purpose of the study is to determine the levels of resources available to the libraries in the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) and the extent to which tangible resources can predict information service provision in GPG libraries. The theory of the firm and the resource-based view (RBV) theory were used as theoretical framework to support the study. The study addresses the identified gap of resource adequacy in special libraries by measuring adequacy from the perspective of those responsible for exploiting the resources, instead of the library services (the output) and library users. This approach differs from those in similar studies, which measured adequacy from the perspective of consumers. The study adopted a positivist philosophical assumption, using a quantitative research approach, with questionnaires and interviews as the data collection tools. The population of the study involves all the library officials of the libraries in Gauteng Provincial Government departments, including management. Due to the nature and size of the target population, there was no need for sampling. A total of 30 respondents for both quantitative and qualitative data, participated in the study. In order to achieve acceptable levels of validity of collected and analysed data, the face validity method was used, whereas the representative reliability method was used to ensure reliability and consistency of the measuring instruments. Mean and standard deviation, multiple regression and Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient analyses on quantitative data was conducted by using the data analysis tool Statistical Software for Social Sciences (SPSS). Atlas Ti was used to analyse the qualitative data collected. No major limitations were identified. The study found the level of physical, financial, ICT-based resources and staff development and training in the GPG libraries to be low, similarly the level of information services provided was found to be low. The resources were found to have predictive value on one another, but not on information services. Furthermore, the study did find a positive and strong relationship between resources and services at GPG libraries. The study recommended a resourcing model that is based on the collaborative consumption/sharing economy concept and principles. / Information Science / D. Phil (Information Science)

The dawn of democracy in South Africa ushered an increasing need for government to interact with the citizens. This study assesses the use of the state of the province address (SOPA) as a communication platform to keep the citizens abreast of the government programmes and deliverables in Limpopo province, South Africa. SOPA is broadcasted mainly from the legislature whilst the communities can view the proceedings in identified public viewing areas. Since SOPA’s inception, there is limited academic studies conducted on the effectiveness of SOPA in general and public viewing areas in particular. To fill this paucity of research, this study reviewed the government communication strategy with specific reference to government communication and information systems (GCIS) which emphasises on the need for government to interact with stakeholders at all levels. Using communication effectiveness and stakeholder theories (also called Izimbizo), this study evaluated the planning process of SOPA and citizens’ views on the effectiveness of the public viewing areas. In-depth interviews and survey were conducted with campaign planners and Mokwakwaila citizens respectively. Data was analysed using thematic analysis for interviews and descriptive statistics for survey. This study found that the internal planning process of the campaign (SOPA) is accordingly linked to the strategic objectives of the province, but inadequate funding hinders the longevity of the campaign. It is also this study’s finding that whilst citizens found SOPA to be effective they however feel that government does not do enough to source feedback after the campaign. This study recommends that there could be an exploration of the new media utility to produce more awareness about the campaign in order to accommodate audience that do not use radio and newspapers. The implications on campaign planners is that they should conduct feedback to improve public participation in future government programmes / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication)