Magister Artium - MA / Academic libraries in the economically developed countries have taken the lead in adopting and appropriating various social media platforms to enhance services offered to their patrons. However, there are many unanswered questions on how libraries in the economically developing countries of the South, Africa in particular, are using social media in their service delivery, as well as in the personal lives of their librarians. Against this backdrop, this study investigated how librarians at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), South Africa and the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Zimbabwe deploy and appropriate social media technologies. It examined the familiarity, benefits, challenges as well as the factors shaping and constraining the use of social media by academic librarians in the two institutions. In doing so, the study adopted the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by Fred Davis (1989) as its conceptual framework. Methodologically, the study deployed a Web-based questionnaire (administered via e-mail) with 59 academic librarians at UWC and 40 academic librarians at NUST. To ensure the validity of the study the questionnaire was pretested among a few librarians at the NUST. The findings of the study show that UWC librarians are more adept at appropriating social media applications than NUST librarians. The study further revealed that UWC librarians are directly in charge of managing social media whereas at NUST the Information Technology (IT) department is responsible for managing the applications. Similarly, while UWC Library largely uses social media for marketing their services, NUST library uses the platforms for reference services. The study also notes that there is a thin line between personal and professional uses of social media. In particular, personal uses of the platforms have a direct influence on their use in work-related contexts. Some of the motivating factors for the use of social media by librarians across both universities are: patron demand, low cost, ease of use and functionality. The study also highlights the factors militating against the effective use social media and recommends that library management for both institutions should put in place supportive policies to encourage their effective use for the benefit of service users.

Scholars report that 80 percent of on-the-job learning is informal (Marsick & Watkins, 1992). Yet little research exists that describes how those in the workplace can encourage informal learning through their interactions with potential learners. This is a case study drawing upon phenomenological methods—specifically, interpretive phenomenological analysis. The intention was to explore the interpersonal space among employees in order to understand how, if at all, the participant’s professional associates encouraged the participant to learn informally. Participants in this study were fourteen librarians. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore how participants said their choice to learn informally was influenced by their interactions with other people. Findings indicated that participants were the architects of their own informal learning. While participants drove their own learning, the positive regard of others played an important enabling role, particularly when participants were new or were attempting to transition to new roles, such as managing others. Participants did not focus on themselves; thus self-efficacy did not play a role in the topics they learned about. Instead, participants chose their topics and persisted in learning about the topics because they wanted to serve their customers in a way that enabled their lifelong library use. Given a backdrop of positive regard, participants initiated and participated in a variety of informal learning projects, often with learning being so embedded in the initiative or task that it was challenging to identify it as learning. Role modeling was important for the function of showing employees how to do things—and particularly for giving them ideas about how they could interact effectively with the public or with employees that they supervised.

Introduction present in both volumes (1 and 2) of the handbooks.

Acknowledgments section present in both volumes (1 and 2) of the handbooks.

Purpose: Significant research has been done on morale within libraries focusing on librarians as teachers, administrators, staff, and faculty members. This review is the second in a series of two with the purpose of providing suggestions on ways to improve morale in librarians and library staff. The first part of this review discusses contributors to low morale in these populations. Methods: Searches were conducted between Spring 2020 and 2021 across six databases and by hand (Medline via PubMed, Library and Information Science Collection via ProQuest, Sociological Abstracts via ProQuest, PsycInfo via EBSCO, Library Literature and Information Science Full Text via EBSCO, and ERIC via EBSCO). Broad and narrow searches were performed utilizing keywords and controlled vocabulary terms related to morale and librarians or library staff. Results were reviewed by authors in three stages according to inclusion and exclusion criteria outlined in the article. Results: The initial search resulted in 735 articles for review. After completion of a three-stage review process and hand search, 52 articles remained. The search and hand search update resulted in 13 additional articles for a total of 65 articles for inclusion in the initial review. These articles were then split into two main groups: articles that address contributors to low morale and those that provide suggestions for improving morale. This article will address 28/65 articles retrieved that provided suggestions for improving morale within libraries. Conclusion: There is currently a large body of research on morale related to librarians and library staff; however, it is worth reexamining morale as librarianship and the world around it continues to change. Researchers confirmed that libraries have unique cultures based upon their region, overarching institution, type of library, customer or patron base, and other factors. As such, supervisors must be creative in terms of encouraging their staff and must adapt morale improvement efforts to their individual institution as material resources are not always available as rewards.

Purpose: Significant research has been done on morale within libraries, focusing on librarians as teachers, administrators, staff, and faculty members. This review is the first in a series of two with the intention to provide perspective on contributors to low morale in librarians and library staff. The second part of this review will be forthcoming and will discuss ways to improve morale in these populations. Methods: Searches were conducted between Spring 2020 and 2021 across six databases (Medline via PubMed, Library and Information Science Collection via ProQuest, Sociological Abstracts via ProQuest, PsycInfo via EBSCO, Library Literature and Information Science Full Text via EBSCO, and ERIC via EBSCO). A hand search was added in Spring 2021 in the interest of completeness. Broad and narrow searches were performed utilizing keywords and controlled vocabulary terms related to morale and librarians or library staff. Results were reviewed by authors in three stages according to inclusion and exclusion criteria outlined in the article. Results: The initial search resulted in 735 articles for review. After completion of a three-stage review process and initial hand search, 52 articles remained. The search update and hand search update resulted in 13 additional articles for a total of 65 articles for inclusion in the initial review. These articles were then split into two main groups: articles that address contributors to low morale and those that provide suggestions for improving morale. This article will address 40/65 articles retrieved that discuss contributors to low moral within libraries. Remaining articles and articles that discuss both contributors to low morale and ways in which to improve morale will be discussed in the second half of this review series. Conclusion: There is currently a large body of research on morale related to librarians and library staff; however, it is worth reexamining morale as this profession and the world around it continues to change. Researchers confirmed that libraries have unique cultures based upon their region, overarching institution, type of library, customer or patron base, and other factors. As such, supervisors and managerial staff indicate the importance of examining the culture of one’s own library including the motivations of staff/faculty and barriers that they encounter.

Submitted to tbe Department of Library and Information Science For the Award of Master of Library and Information Science University of Zululand, 2009. / Different categories of people who may be scholars, lectures, students, retirees, housewives, politicians, administrators etc. use the library to access the information they require to pass exams, make decisions or read for leisure. Academic libraries are most important to all scholars and students who pass through a university. For these libraries to continue striving and provide effective services, research is required to improve on areas that are not viable to users. The professional academic librarian is mandated to provide guidance on how these services can be improved in order to make the library useful to all. This cannot be possible if the academic librarians only concentrate on shelving, acquisition, classification, cataloguing, charging and discharging and processing of information materials. The role of academic librarians has continued and will continue to change as time goes on. Many academic librarians provide research assistance to their users and other vital services to facilitate the completion of their client's research. However, it is significant to note that academic librarians must engage in research and publish, in order to improve services and attract more users to the library. Payne and Payne (2004: 9) highlights that there are two main reasons why people carry out research. One among others is because there is an intellectual challenge and the urge to fill a gap in our knowledge, or believe that current accepted theories should be tested. A second reason is that we want to change the world. Academic librarians need to be provided with incentives such as funding, promotions, and time out in order to entice them to carry out research. This study was carried out with an idea that academic librarians should carry out research and publish, for development and for the improvement of library services. Academic librarians holding a bachelors degree and above,, who were working in public universities in Eastern and Southern Africa were targeted for the study. The purpose of this research was to compare the research and publication patterns of academic librarians working in Eastern and Southern Africa from 1990 to 2006. Six objectives were formulated in order to achieve this purpose. The research was purely carried out online, 866 academic librarians names were retrieved from a total of 47 Public university libraries WebPages, via the universities websites. These names were used as access points to retrieve data from the two online databases (i.e. LISTA and WORLDCAT). Bibliometrics was used as research method, Microsoft Excel software was also employed for the purpose of data analysis and presentation of the collected data. Findings indicated that Southern Africa was the most prolific region with 194 (74.00%) of the publications emanating from there. South Africa was the most productive country in Southern Africa with 111(42.21%) publications. Tanzania was the most productive country in Eastern Africa with 31 (11.41%). Muswazi and Pienaar were the most prolific academic librarians with 11(3.97%) publications each. Most productive academic library was from Southern Africa, which was Botswana with 31 (11.41%) publications. Majority of the academic librarians from both regions contributed to one publication. The study was concluded with the following observation being made: Overall South Africa emerged the most prolific country in both regions; majority of the countries from both regions were not consistent in their publication production; there was a continuous rises and drops in research publication from 1990 to 2006; and academic librarians preferred publishing articles than any other publications, many academic librarians did not engage in research and academic librarians, from the two regions prefer publishing individually. The study further recommended several studies that needed to be carried out in Africa and other parts of the world in order to fill and clarify gaps that emanated from the study.

Objective: To describe the process of mentoring a new medical librarian from the perspective of both the mentor and the mentee. Methods: This program is a descriptive qualitative analysis detailing techniques used in the mentoring process. Techniques used by the mentor in the mentoring process were creating a library journal club and library grand rounds for mentee; creating opportunities for leadership in professional groups for mentee and opportunities for presentation at professional conferences for mentee, providing opportunities for skill development for mentee by exposure to the Famly Physicians Inquiry Network (FPIN) librarian process and clinical library responsibilities, and providing a highly personalistic and humanistic approach to developing the mentee by having an open door policy and engaging in frequent refl ection with the mentee. Results: Mentoring is a rewarding experience for both mentor and mentee. In this case study, the mentee’s career was enhanced by being published, leading professional library groups, developing expert searching skills, and greatly accelerating access to new knowledge within the fi rst year of the mentee’s professional career. Conclusion: The mentoring process is a necessity for the development of next generation librarians. Successful mentoring involves a high level of commitment by both the mentor and the mentee, therefore perhaps institutionalized mentoring programs do not often succeed because they lack this depth.

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