South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science

Disaster risk identification and business continuity planning in community libraries in the North West Province in South Africa

Disasters affect access to community libraries that provide essential access to information for citizens in rural South Africa. The purpose of this research was to investigate the identification of disaster risk in community libraries in the Northwest Province in South Africa. Disasters in community libraries have been under-researched in Library and Information Science literature. Using a multi-method approach, data was collected from community libraries that are under the Northwest Department of Culture, Arts and Traditional Affairs (CATA). Participants were community librarians and librarian assistants employed by CATA. The response rate for the quantitative phase was 64% (70) and 100% (4) for the qualitative phase. The main results indicate that risk identification was considered the responsibility of their municipalities and that the CATA for community libraries was used to identify risks or conduct disaster planning. Therefore, risk identification is an area that has been largely neglected, with negative implications for business continuity planning.

Promotion of Open Access Publications and Visibility by Institutions in South Africa

Information Technology infrastructure, internet connectivity, platform agility and institutional governance remain significant challenges to Open Access (OA) publishing on the African continent. This study examined South African libraries and institutions' efforts to promote open-access publications. Bibliometric tools were used to analyse research outputs, trends, and citations. An informetric analysis of abstracts and titles of (n =4,808) samples from the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) outputs in Scopus Databases was conducted. The top 1,999 of these outputs accounted for a total citation count of (n =18, 913), representing 1,686 of the total link strengths of the outputs. This finding suggests that OA may promote the visibility and prominence of African scholarship and knowledge dissemination in the Social Sciences. Our findings present the extent of SSH contributions to Open Access Publishing (OAP) and the most prolific contributors and institutional ranking of OAP in South Africa. The descriptive statistics of the publications metric summary were max = 4,808, μ= 57.742, σ² = 186857.721, and σ = 432.270. The implications of these findings suggest that low OAP will significantly hinder African scholarship, knowledge dissemination and scholar's visibility. It is recommended that institutions promote more OAP to increase the visibility and prominence of South African scholars' academic output.

Publication in open access journals at a university of technology in South Africa

Researchers in South Africa publish in journals that have a high impact factor and are accredited by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) as this will bring financial support to the researcher and the affiliated Institution for continuous publication. Moreover, these researchers do so for possible ranking of their universities and to seek collaboration with international and national researchers. However, publishers make it difficult for researchers to publish because of the Article Processing Charges that increase annually. Therefore, the study's main objective is to propose general benefit guidelines for the use of open access by researchers. The unit of analysis was the university's Institutional Repository (IR) and Scopus, a database which the university subscribes to. The IR has a collection of research outputs that include peer-reviewed articles, conference proceedings, and datasets. Hence, a quantitative and qualitative research approach was selected, where content analysis was used to collect data whereby research output from 2016 to 2020 was identified from both the IR and Scopus. The study examined, investigated, and explored the hindrances and challenges faced by researchers when publishing in open access journals (OAJ) with specific reference to South Africa. The study drew from a few organised threads of confirmation which make up the current dialogue on OAJ, comprising of peer-reviewed literature, grey literature, and other forms of communication. A manual Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method was applied to collect data from Scopus and the IR. The ethical considerations for conducting the study included permission to use the university's IR and to collect primary data from academics in the selected university. The results show that publishers are making it difficult for researchers to publish in open access, because of the outrageous publishing costs involved.

Adoption and use of Information and Communication Technologies by teachers in selected vocational and technical colleges in Lagos State, Nigeria

This study was designed to examine the adoption and use of information and communication technologies by teachers in Selected Vocational and Technical Colleges in Lagos State, Nigeria. Data was collected from 90 VTE teachers out of a sample of 105. The variables were created based on UTAUT theory. Principal component analysis was used to reduce the dimensions of each of the constructs in the model. The relationship between performance expectancy and adoption of ICT variables of using information technology services to improve job performance is very small, and negative but significant (B=-0.14, t=-0.257, p<0.000). Using information technology to improve teacher performance and adoption of ICT yielded a similar result. But the reverse is the case for using information technology to improve teaching efficiency (B=0.248, t=1.786, p=0.19). The correlation coefficient of the relationship between the availability of ICT tools and the adoption of ICT is relatively low (r=0.392, p<0.05). Furthermore, the regression coefficient between effort expectancy and adoption of ICT is not significant, but the situation is different for the availability of a specific person or group available for assistance with any technical problem. Self-efficacy variables also predicted the adoption and use of ICT. Generally, the ICTs were available but not as much accessible. The implementation of ICT in the VTE colleges in Lagos would benefit from a wider scope study, with an examination of factors other than those of UTAUT.

Cyberethics Awareness and Implications on Library and Information Science Educators in Selected Universities in South-West Nigeria

This study examined cyberethics awareness and implications on library and information science(LIS) educators in selected universities in South-west Nigeria. A quantitative method was adopted along with a descriptive survey design; while 35 LIS educators drew through total enumeration from two universities in South-west Nigeria to represent the sample for the study. A questionnaire adapted from the previously related validated scales was used for the data collection. The research questions were developed and answered. The findings revealed that the LIS educators were aware of cyberethical issues, and the awareness is also very high. The LIS educators regularly participated in training on cyber technology, internet policy issues, cyber security and cyberethics. The LIS educators were very familiar with various types of cyberethical issues including intellectual property, fair use, illegal downloads and wrong copies of files and text, respecting others' opinions, and privacy concerns in the cyber environment. Based on the findings, the study recommends that the deliberate adoption of cyberethics as a stand-alone distinct course that will be part of the curriculum of LIS should be encouraged to further enhance the awareness of students.

Perceptions of engineering researchers towards citizen science: a case study at a university of technology

Societal demands and challenges are increasingly shaping academics' research endeavours. Citizen Science (CS) is a developing concept that constitutes a fundamental shift towards alternative ways of knowledge creation by including audiences beyond academia. The applied nature of the engineering discipline and subsequent opportunities to involve citizens in knowledge-creation processes are of particular importance in this paper. A qualitative case study in the Faculty of Engineering at a selected University of Technology in South Africa explored the roles of academic libraries in engineering CS initiatives. Nine full or associate professorship engineers participated in in-depth interviews. The results indicated great enthusiasm and aspirations among engineering researchers to contribute to societal needs in support of Sustainable Development Goals. As CS projects' development proliferates in academic institutions, the roles of academic libraries could increasingly become prominent and favour creative input during knowledge-creation practices. The findings provide valuable guidelines for academic libraries during engineering CS projects' planning and execution and demonstrate how a multidisciplinary approach can accelerate implementation.