Authors and Abstracts 

Fatima Darries

Fatima Darries has been practicing as a librarian for fifteen years mostly in the higher education library services sector in the Western Cape and currently in Gauteng North. She is now the head of the Ga Rankuwa Campus Library at TUT. During her working career she has held many portfolios in the LIASA and is currently serving on the LIASA FAIFE committee. She has recently been appointed to serve a second term on the Board of the National Library of South Africa, and sits on the board of HERS SA. She has been SA editor for E-LIS since 2007.

Summary

Librarians and open Access: the case of E-LIS
Fatima Darries

Louis C H Fourie

Louis Cyril Henry Fourie was born in Cape Town, South Africa, where he matriculated. He is presently professor and chair in information systems, as well as head of the department, at the University of the Western Cape, where he is mainly responsible for lecturing to the post-graduate students and the PhD programme. He has taught at various other universities, including Fort Hare, North West, Johannesburg, Tshwane, Bond (Australia), West Florida (USA), Ndejje (Uganda),Stellenbosch and Utrecht (Netherlands). 

The highest academic qualification that he obtained is a doctorate at the University of Stellenbosch in 1991. In 1999 he completed his MBA degree (cum laude) at the Potchefstroom University where he received the Old Mutual Gold Medal for exceptional achievement and the best MBA student. He also received recommendations for the best dissertation in information technology and for strategic management. In addition to the above-mentioned two, Louis holds four other academic qualifications.

He is involved in various research projects regarding knowledge management; e-government, e-business, e-learning, e-skills, bridging the digital divide, and concept maps as business tool. Louis supervised numerous MBA dissertations and PhD theses and developed contact and telematic courses for knowledge and information management, decision support, executive information systems, artificial intelligence, e-commerce, database management, and ethics. In 2004 he received the USB Sanlam award for research and was appointed as the CSSA Western Cape ICT person of the year at the end of 2009.

 His consultation work spans various industries and disciplines, and focuses on the strategic usage of information technology, information systems, knowledge management, e-business, e-commerce, and the Internet. He regularly consults and presents workshops in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda on knowledge management, e-commerce and e-marketing. Louis is also a qualified leadership consultant and regularly facilitates leadership development programmes.

He frequently presents papers at national and international conferences, features weekly on national radio regarding the Internet, contributes regularly to several magazines, has published numerous papers in academic journals, contributed to academic books, and has made many videos on business informatics and the influence of information technology on business.

 April 2010

  Mobile technology in the academic environment: From Homo Sapiens to Homo Contextus
Louis C H Fourie
Department of Information Systems
University of the Western Cape
Lfourie@uwc.ac.za 

Through the centuries study was necessary for a person that wanted to advance in society. However, with the proliferation of information and communication technologies it is no longer the case. The millennium generation has progressed from Homo Sapiens (the “wise man” or “knowing man” using advanced tools) and Homo Mobilis (the “moving man”) to Homo Contextus (the “connected man” overcoming his cognitive limits by using social technologies and shared objects). Homo Contextus, or the connected man, focuses on a diversity of connections to people who use intelligent tools to extend their mind and bodies, uniquely harnessing collective intelligence (networked intelligence). The emphasis is therefore shifting from information technology (where the core is information) to interaction technology (where the core is interaction).

This presentation will focus on the connected human and the future of education and how academic institutions should progress from empowering individuals (computer workstations, library catalogs, image editing, etc.) and groups (learning environments, learning management systems, groupware, etc.) to empowering networks (mobile technology, infoware, social networking, social software, blogs, social navigation, collaborative filtering, etc).

A pedagogical paradigm shift to connectivism is necessary if academic institutions want to accommodate the millennials who are often suffering from what is known as the channel-hopping, YouTube-watching, Google-gorging, Facebook-sniffing, Twitter-tracking condition.

Susan Gibbons 

Summary 

Scenarios for the role of libraries in the publishing process.
Susan Gibbons
Vice Provost and Dean of River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester, New York.

 There are few people who would claim that the current scholarly communication landscape is sustainable, but the pathway forward to a new scholarly communication paradigm appears so mired in tradition, the status quo and vested interests that it seems impossible to imagine what the future norms will be.  Using future scenarios as a tool, perhaps it is possible to jump forward to potential future outcomes and work backwards to construct what those pathways may have been.  My talk will present three future scenarios for scholarly communication and discuss the potential impacts of each for academic libraries and publishing.

The first future scenario is one which leverages print-on-demand to create just-in-time library collection development.  Digital printing offers publishers alternative economic models which can decrease risk while increasing profitability.  But while some of the costs of publication can be removed entirely from the production chain, others are shifted to libraries and their users.

The second scenario assumes that the legal barriers to the Google Book project are resolved.  Google and other major content vendors utilize micro-payments and disaggregate scholarly publications such that libraries are displaced from their role as cooperative purchasing agents on behalf of their academic communities.   

In contrast, the third scenario significantly increases the role of academic libraries in scholarly communication.  Scholarship has pushed beyond the confines of textual presentation such that books and articles can no longer serve as adequate vehicles of scholarship.  Scholarly societies take on the peer-review, quality control role, but it falls to libraries, not publishers, to provide access and active, long-term preservation of these new objects.  The focus of university presses are reposition into their host institutions such that many return to their original missions of acting for the express purpose of disseminating the research conducted by their local faculty.   

It is clear that publishing and academic libraries are on the precipice of a dramatic paradigm shift.  In 10 or 15 years time, we will likely find that all three of these scenarios are off the mark, but in many ways the exercise of imagining potential futures is more important than the accuracy of the end product. 

DR JC Henning
Deputy Executive Director: UNISA Library

J C Henning is the Deputy-Executive Director of the UNISA Library.  She has served on various executive committees in UNISA and the profession, was the Chairperson of GAELIC, COLISA LIS, ITLC and is currently the National Secretary of LIASA.  She has presented various papers on distance library services, obtained a masters’ degree on the role of academic libraries in research and a doctorate on user education in distance education library services. 
Contact: :hennijc@unisa.ac.   +27 82 882 6900 Fax: +27 12 429 3807

Summary 

Optimizing ICT trends to enhance ODL: impact of a practical assignment on professional relationships

Dr Judy Henning
PO Box 26204
Monument Park
0105
hennijc@unisa.ac.   +27 82 882 6900 Fax: +27 12 429 3807 

The image of Librarians and the Academic Library’s role in teaching and learning has always been a topic close to the heart of these professionals.  Equally important for Librarians are positive relationships with Management and colleagues within the institution. Interdependencies between faculty and the library impact on the performance and delivery of services and require careful management as well.

This paper focuses on how a Library Manager as a member of the Extended Management Committee of a University interacted with colleagues in senior management on a topic of mutual interest to complete a group assignment.  The role played by the Library Manger and the changes in and impact on the relationships will be highlighted.  The topic of the assignment “Optimizing ICT trends to enhance Open Distance Learning (ODL)” provided ample opportunity to demonstrate the changed role of the Academic Library in ODL as well as in online teaching and learning.

A brief overview of ODL, information on the assignment and methodology followed will be presented.  Information on the findings will be shared and the views of participants in the audience on these findings will be invited.  An opportunity to share similar or different experiences will also be provided. 

The findings indicate that there is a better understanding of the role of the academic library in teaching and learning as well as appreciation for the way the library optimizes ICT developments to improve service delivery and access to services and resources.   Another finding is that there is enhanced collaboration with the library as well as increased awareness of possibilities to utilize technologies in ODL.  As leader / coordinator of the assignment and as a result of the interaction with the group, I experienced closer collaboration and improved communication with members of the group not only during the assignment but also on an ongoing basis.   

Henriette Latsky
Henriette Latsky is currently Head of the Archiving, Institutional Repository and Special Collections Department at the Library and Information Centre of the University of Johannesburg.
Contact:   hlatsky@uj.ac.za

 Summary

From Vanity Publishing to Open Access: Missing Link or Virtual Link? 
Henriette Latsky

The mainstream publishing world’s business model, culture and sentiments are turned upside down by various marginal publishing ventures which are becoming increasingly popular. For decades, vanity publishing has been a buzz word with negative connotations. Vanity publishing has traditionally been associated with aspirant or frustrated writers who are not good enough to reach the mainstream publishing market.   

This presentation aims to examine the second stream publishing field which includes subsidy publishing, vanity publishing, self-publishing and niche market publishing and its relationship with mainstream publishing.  Examples of each category will be provided. The presentation will highlight some unique individual vanity publishing success stories. 

The vanity publishing field has not become sedentary. With the help of various factors, it has made itself known in the big playing arena. Since the tsunami of the internet has hit the world, factors such as technology, open access, users’ more pronounced needs and social networking have allowed vanity publishing to knock on the door of opportunity. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of this link, the emergence of community publishing, and lastly the possible impact of vanity publishing on the role of the university library.

Huibré  Lombard

Huibré Lombard is Deputy Director at the University of the Free Sate (UFS) Library and Information Services (LIS) (currently acting as Director). She holds a B.Bibl. (Honours) and M.Inf. (both cum laude) from UNISA as well as a Master’s Degree in Translation Studies (cum laude) from the UFS. She is currently enrolled for a PhD at the UFS.

 Summary

?4U (Question for You): implementing a SMS reference service at the University of the Free State Library and Information Services
Huibré Lombard*; Cornelle van Wyk 

Since its inception in 1960 the Internet was exalted as the technology that would revolutionise communication access. However, widespread use in Africa was hampered by the lack of quality telecommunication infrastructure. In just two decades, the cell phone has become the fastest-selling, most loved consumer product. Nobody envisioned how popular text messaging, also referred to as short messaging service (SMS) would become. Research shows that 76% of all subscribers or 3.1 billion subscribers use the SMS actively.

The abundance of cell phone users is also noticeable in today’s academic library. While some universities has responded to the widespread use of cell phones by delivering educational content and administration of tests via the cell phone, libraries have begun to reach out and serve students’ information needs through the use of the SMS. The University of the Free State Library and Information Services initiated a SMS reference service in 2009. This paper briefly describes the widespread use of text messaging and text messaging technology. The system and services implemented at the UFS LIS is described, as well as the lessons learnt. The paper will end with a short review of cell phone use in libraries and how it could be used to enhance library operations.

* Huibré Lombard
University of the Free State
Library and Information Services
P O Box 301
Bloemfontein
9300
Huibre@ufs.ac.za
Tel: 051 401 2225

Tebogo Mogakane

 

Tebogo Mogakane is the co-crdinator for  the GV section, library services at the University of Pretoria. She has extensive knowledge of collection development and works closely with lecturers and department administrators, She has a  BA degree with (UL),  a BA Hons (UP) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Information Management (UJ)

Summary
Presenter: Mogakane Tebogo and Wilna  Marais
Address: University of Pretoria, Hatfield. Pretoria
E-mail:Tebogo.mogakane@up.ac
Tel: 012 420 4923

SA Textbook .Net
Tebogo Mogakane