Department of Library and Information Science

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Browsing by Author "Davis, Gavin"

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    Investigating the relevance of quality measurement indicators for South African higher education libraries
    (University of the Western Cape, 2021) Ntshuntshe-Matshaya, Pateka Patricia; Davis, Gavin
    This study investigates the relevance of quality measurement indicators at higher education libraries for faculty academics, librarians, and students. The study followed a mixed-method design with a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data collection. Faculty academics, librarians and students ranked the existing quality measurement indicators for South African higher education libraries. The findings revealed that for library quality measures to meet the needs of faculty academics, librarians, and students, the resources must be accessible both physically and virtually, and staff should be accountable and willing to offer services responsive to the users' needs and expectations of a safe, secure, and comfortable library space, be it physical or virtual. The qualitative data highlighted the importance of adequate resources and the adoption of new developments as measures for quality. Quality measurement indicators must include elements such as adequate funding; relevant resources aligned with teaching and learning programmes; programmes that are integrated into teaching plans; effective supplier collaboration with respect to the process of acquiring relevant learning materials; effective student training; communication of the value of library services and alignment with the student learning outcomes; research support in a digital environment with e-tools and website navigability; research data management; and open access, which is a prominent role of the library. Based on the data, there was a quality measure (process) that was commendable even though it did not form part of the existing quality measures nor a service whose relevance was assessed. The separation of undergraduate and postgraduate learning spaces was amongst those services that ranked quite high from the students' responses (qualitative data). Even though there were differences emphasized on each indicator by either faculty academics or students, there were also discrepancies in the interpretation of what each quality indicator means to each study population group. As the study of this nature has recommendations and gaps identified in terms of research findings, it is quite important to record that there was a series of gaps that were identified in terms of library expectations and perceptions. These gaps were suggested as part of further research that must be conducted to fill the void in terms of library users’ voices in the development of higher education library measurement indicators.
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    The role of the public library towards a knowledge economy of Namibia
    (University of the Western Cape, 2019) Iilonga, Selma; Davis, Gavin
    Access to knowledge and information is found to be the cornerstone in the road to knowledge economy transformation whereby the utilization of knowledge is the key engine of economic growth, where knowledge is acquired, created, disseminated and used effectively to enhance economic and social development. This means that the more people acquire knowledge, the more they will begin producing new products or improving systems and existing products, thus adding value to local products and improving the GDP of the country, as well as improving their social livelihood. Therefore, the primary role public libraries have is being the knowledge hubs, to make provision of higher quality knowledge and to make information accessible to the public to equally contribute to all NDPs towards achieving the Namibia Vision 2030 for a knowledge economy. This research study discusses “The contribution of the Public Library services towards a knowledge economy transformation readiness which is envisaged by the Namibia Vision 2030. In achieving that, the study has investigated the state of the Namibia legislative and policy framework reflections of access to knowledge and information as provided by libraries. The study further examines the availability and accessibility of knowledge and information resources, including ICT infrastructure at public libraries in remote rural areas. Moreover, it discusses the types of education and training programmes conducted by public libraries in ensuring that users have the necessary information and retrieval searching competencies and skills for accessing and navigating available information infrastructural resources. Finally, it explores innovation systems, technologically and non-technologically initiated by librarians for library services enhancement, and how library users have tapped into the growing stock of knowledge and information, and adapted them to local needs for economic and social development. The study has employed the four pillars of the World Bank Knowledge Economy Framework, namely an economic and institutional regime; information, knowledge and ICT infrastructure; education and training, and an innovation system as the lenses through which to investigate the research questions understudied.