African Librarianship and the Academic Enterprise

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African Librarianship and the Academic Enterprise

• Prepared By Kay Raseroka
• Director Library Services
• University of Botswana

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OVERVIEW

• Definition
• Academic Enterprise
• African Librarianship
• Context
• Africas information
• Tertiary Institution In Africa
• Emerging Visions
• Students
• Stakeholders In Shaping The Academic Enterprise
• Perception of The Academic Library
• Role of Librarianship In This Landscape
• Information Literacy
• Learning Commons
• Academic Perceptions
• Partnerships In Support of Learning
• Knowledge Management
• Conclusion
• Opportunities/Challenges
• Implications For Effective African Librarianship
  In The 21st Century

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DEFINITION

• Academic Enterprise
• Generic mission of Universities
• Learning, Teaching, Research/Knowledge
  Development
• Contribution to community development
• African Librarianship
• Generic Library Service
• Process Inputs
• Information Service Delivery

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CONTEXT

• Africas information context
• Orality- grey literature- local languages
• Foreign language publishing
• costly textbooks- poverty-
• Base for learning reliance on notes
• Massification
• Africa Fastest Increase In Tertiary Enrollment
  (1991-2004 15.6 p.a.)
• ICT Extensive Developments Convergence
• Knowledge Driven World Economy
• Human Resource Development
• To meet diversified economy
• Sustained skills development
• Funding Constraints
• Reduced Government Subsidies
• Third stream Income Expectations
• Private Sector Involvement
• Globalisation of Tertiary Education
• Emerging Visions

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STUDENTS

• Schooling
• Preparation For Global Citizenship
• Critical thinking
• Discerning consumers of information
• Connections between ideas
• Ability to think across disciplines
• Creativity, innovation and self generated wealth
  creation
• Collaboration
• Excellent communication skills
• Application of academic Principles
• Strategic Thinking
• Problem Solving
• Generic African Student Applicability?
• How well does schooling in Africa prepare the
  entrant into the tertiary institutions
• Assessment of new intakes on basic information
  seeking and evaluation skills and profiling
  students and role in shaping academic enterprise
• Role of the academy in producing the global
  citizen?
• Conviction and commitment of all stakeholders
• Integration within curricula, funding staff,
  facilities, organizational requirements

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Role of librarianship

• Traditional processes
• collection development, organization, management
• Services reference, guidance to access and
  document delivery
• Storage for local access
• Study spaces
• Current focus improvement of learning outcomes
• Liaison with stakeholders support of learning,
  teaching and research
• Facilitation of access to remote and local
  digital resources
• Information needs and skills assessment for
  effective use of tools and resources
• Resource based learning and problem- solving
  process - shared understanding with students
  and faculty?
• Learning commons supportive social learning
  spaces
• Knowledge management- data sets, digital
  repository

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ACADEMIC PERCEPTIONS

• Ithaka 2006 Faculty Survey
• Declining dependence on library for teaching
  research 80-H and 60-S
• Valued as purchaser and repository
• Gateway role contrasting perceptions
• Prominence of non-library discovery tools e.g.
  Google
• Innovative service in support of learning,
  students ethical use of information
• Embedding information literacy within assignments
• Commitment for collaborative approaches policy
  and practice
• Information literacy Standards
• African association of Universities ILS
  standards learning and teaching
• Learning Commons
• Envisioning new spaces, new partnerships
• Support integrated service needs of digital
  generation
• Library, information technology, other academic
  support services
• Dynamic and interactive space inquiry,
  collaboration, discussion and consultation-
  product focus

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Opportunities

• Visioning the African academic enterprise
• Creating the global citizen
• Preservation, research into analysis of
  alternative ways of knowing within IKS
• Infusion into mainstream fields environment,
  health, history, spirituality, architecture, food
  sciences etc
• Appropriate technologies and Intellectual
  property rights legal systems
• UNISA educational tentacles in Africa How
  embedded are learning resources to local content?
  role of African librarianship?
• Home front opportunities?

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Challenges

• Integration of information vehicles
• Archives, museums, libraries
• Critical assessment of validity of separation,
  beyond organizational interests
• Human resource scarcity,
• Appropriate technology and integrated knowledge
  management systems
• Seamless access for stakeholders

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Implications

• Sustained human resources development in keeping
  with continuous change
• Multiple skilled information professionals
• advocates for planning inclusive of integrated
  approach to learning and teaching roles and
  appropriate financing models
• Marketing information literacy skills as an
  underpinning of life long learning
• Expertise in facilitation of learning
• Well developed collaborative and team approach to
  support of the academic enterprise
• Service to users in new ways
• Scholarly publishing
• Facilitation of local content exposure in digital
  space
• Managing institutional knowledge

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THANK YOUraseroka_at_ mopipi. ub. bw