A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Information Science at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2009. / This study investigated the nature and level of information ethics education in Library and
Information Science Departments in South Africa. The study was carried out using both qualitative
and quantitative methods through a survey and content analysis. All 12 LIS Departments in South
Africa were targeted. Within these departments, the departments’ Heads, lecturers teaching the
module, and the course outlines/study guides of information ethics modules formed the target
population. Data was collected via questionnaires that were emailed to the Heads of the various LIS
Departments, who were also requested to forward a separate set of questionnaires to the lecturers
teaching information ethics modules. Departments that offered information ethics modules were
also requested to forward the study materials of their modules (i.e. their study guides) for content
analysis. Of the twelve LIS Departments, responses were received from only seven. These were
departments from the Universities of Zululand, Pretoria, Cape Town, South Africa, KwaZulu Natal,
the Western Cape, and the Durban University of Technology. Study guides for content analyses
were received from the three LIS Departments that offered information ethics as a full stand-alone
module. These were the LIS Departments at the Universities of Zululand, Pretoria and South
Africa. The results of the study indicate that in most LIS Departments, information ethics was
taught in the content of other modules and not as a stand-alone module. In the LIS Departments that
offered a stand-alone information ethics module, the module was only first offered in 2nd year, the
rationale being that at this level, students are senior enough to appreciate information ethics. It was
also found that the stand-alone information ethics modules were only offered by LIS Departments.
Furthermore, only one lecturer from the University of South Africa had a background in both
Library and Information Science and Philosophy; the rest of the lecturers in the LIS Departments
had backgrounds only in Library and Information Science. The study also found that in terms of the
units covered in information ethics modules, there was quite a bit of diversity, with each LIS
Department offering its own version of information ethics. However, issues of intellectual property,
copyright and privacy were covered across the board. The study acknowledges the ethical
dilemmas facing information professionals and recommends that information ethics be made a
major component of LIS education and training, in which case it would be offered as a full standalone
module.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/1281 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Ndwandwe, Sipho Cyril |
| Contributors | Ocholla, D.N., Dube, L. |
| Publisher | University of Zululand |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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