M.Inf. / The information society is placing new demands on the LIS profession which could soon be facing an identity crisis. Certain issues need to be addressed to make the traditional LIS more viable and active today. One of these issues is the suitable education of potential employees of the LIS. The purpose of this study was to establish, by means of empirical research, to what extent the IT education offered by Departments of Information Science (DIS) at South African universities are preparing graduates for an electronic information service (EIS). A literature survey was undertaken to establish the nature of an EIS. Three major categories of information technologies which make up an EIS were identified, viz network technologies, communications technologies and retrieval technologies. A second literatyre survey was then undertaken to ascertain the state of IT education in DIS both in developed and developing countries. The motivation for distinguishing between these two nation types was based on the fact that South Africa comprises both developed and developing nations. Based on the information gleaned from the two literature surveys, a questionnaire was compiled and posted to all heads of DIS at South African universities. The purpose of the questionnaire was to establish the extent to which those technologies that comprise an EIS have been incorporated into the curriculum of South African DIS, as well as the attitudes of DIS heads towards the role and significance of IT education in their curricula. The main finding was that although the importance of an IT component in the curriculum is recognised by all DIS, the majority are not placing sufficient emphasis on IT in their curricula. There is a general willingness and a positive attitude towards the incorporation of more IT into the curricula but various constraining factors inhibit this willingness. Problems faced by all DIS is finding the space in their curricula to allocate to IT training and maintaining a healthy balance between theory and practice. Some DIS have the added burden of a lack of facilities as well as catering for students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:3271 |
| Date | 28 August 2012 |
| Creators | Kloppers, Marie |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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