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)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/27258 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Mohlakwana, Dibuleng Elizabeth |
| Contributors | Dube, Luyanda, Ugwu, Cyprian |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xii, 282 pages) : color illustrations, application/pdf |
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