South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science - Volume 68, Issue 2, January 2002

Extracted from text ... EDITORIAL Dear SAJLIS Readers, It is our pleasure, once again, to present the final issue of South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science, Vol. 68 No. 2, which contains valuable articles on a variety of current themes on Library and Information Science in general and relevant to South Africa in particular. In the previous issue (Volume 68, No 1) the coverage was largely focused on knowledge management - indigenous knowledge systems and information seeking. We are delighted that one student's article, based on completed masters research, has been positively reviewed for inclusion in this issue. Furthermore, it is ..

The study investigates the use of electronic journals for the dissemination of scholarly information in the Universities of Natal and Zululand. It attempts to determine the level of use of electronic journals by the scholarly communities, and the perceived impact that these journals have on the community. Similarly, the role played by the academic libraries in the provision of these journals was explored. The scholarly community included the academic staff, the library staff and postgraduate students. A survey research method was used to elicit information from the respondents. The population was sampled using the stratified random sampling technique. A sample of 10% was drawn from the population of 1969 postgraduate students. Regarding the academic staff a sample of 20% was drawn from each stratum. The total population for the academic staff was 557. All professional librarians in the two university libraries were identified and included in the study. Data was analysed by means of the SYSTAT Version 7.0 and Microsoft Excel. The findings indicate that the level of electronic journal use by the two universities is low despite their historical differences in resource support. It is recommended that the academic library should provide facilities where users can access electronic journals on their own. The librarians should also market their services and products to library clientele. There is a need for user education, especially in the use of electronic journals. The study provides interesting insights on the theme.

This study focuses on the intellectual accessibility of information in indigenous languages, using Zulu, one of the main indigenous languages in South Africa, as a test case. Both Cross-Lingual Information Retrieval (CLIR) and metadata are discussed as possible means of facilitating access and a bilateral approach combining these two methods is proposed. Popular CLIR approaches and their resource requirements are analysed and the dictionary-based approach combined with approximate string-matching for query translation from Zulu to English are discussed in detail. Metadata formats for knowledge representation from the Indigenous Knowledge (IK) viewpoint are discussed, in particular the advantages and limitations of the Dublin Core (DC) metadata format.

A qualitative study was designed to investigate the use of women's groups as sources of family information for women residing in three rural villages in Botswana. The objectives of the study were to investigate situations that lead to information seeking, awareness of women's groups, the use of women's groups as sources of family information and the sources of information on women's groups. The study also captured the reasons for use and non-use of such organizations. A snow ball effect sampling procedure was used in selecting the participants of the study. The instruments of the study were focus groups and interview schedule. Descriptive statistics was used generated using SPSS for close ended questions. Responses from open-ended questions were analysed by grouping the data into themes. The results show that the respondents were aware of the existence of the various women groups both locally and nationally. However, they were not aware of the types of information and help that one could get from such organizations. Women were more familiar with the activities of the community-based women's groups as compared to the national women groups.

The absence of national school library policy guidelines is of great concern to the school library profession as this has an adverse effect on the provision of school library services and curriculum reform initiatives in South Africa. The purpose of this article is to present a review of school library policy initiatives since the report of the National Education Policy Investigation (NEPI) up to the present time, and to provide a perspective on the relationship between school library policy development and the provision of school library services and curriculum reform. The implications for the LIS profession are discussed. It is suggested that the LIS profession make a combined effort to form a partnership with educators, other stakeholders and government to engage in school library policy development based on realities on the ground and financial constraints for the benefit of curriculum reform, meaningful school education and a democratic society.

Extracted from text ... 123 SA Jnl Libs & Info Sci 2002, 68(2) GENERAL CONTRIBUTIONS A report on the Second Biennial DISSAnet Conference - Prolissa: Pretoria 2002 Luyanda Dube Department of Library and Information Science, University of Zululand email: ldube@pan.uzulu.ac.za Introduction The democratisation of South Africa culminated in changes and growth in the library and information science (LIS) profession. The formation of the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) came as a result of such transformation. Unfortunately, most changes were more focused on strengthening the resource base in terms of material and information technologies. Arguably, the skill of utilising these technologies at ..

Extracted from text ... Book review Human resources for library and information services (East, Central and Southern Africa), Julita Nawe. Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press; xvi, 208p. ISBN 9976 60 341 X. Price not known The book focuses on a broad spectrum of issues regarding of human resources and related issues in library and information services (LIS) in the East, Central and Southern African regions. There is also a strong focus on the problems facing the library and information workforce in these regions, as well as suggested solutions, such as the establishment of links between information professionals with those in ..