First steps: reconstructing library and information science education in South Africa

First level library and/or information science qualifications at South African universities and technikons: a comparative study of curricula

“…ND: LIS diplomates too can help themselves out of this situation by organising themselves into structures such as paraprofessional interest groups, staff associations or even unions that can be used to lobby for career ladders in LIS services as their counterparts have done with much success in the United States of America, Canada and especially Australia (Bowman 1988;Oberg 1992 Underwood and Nassimbeni (1996), and uncertainties and inconsistencies regarding this qualification in the findings among employers surveyed, as possibly being the result of a general lack of clarity, especially among employers, on the issuethat professionalism and paraprofessional ism are parallel career paths. Each has its own career progression and, as pointed out in the literature (Kerkham 1988;Nettlefold 1989;Horton 1990), the latter is not a step in the direction of 1987,1996) and international trends (Bramley 1975;Stieg 1992;Rochester 1997;Rosenberg 1999), established professional LIS qualifications.…”

LIS education and training in South Africa : a historical review

“…Stilwell (1997: 207) comments that the core curricula of the various LIS education and training departments in South Africa have "varying emphases between library and information studies on the one hand and information science on the other". Underwood and Nassimbeni (1996: 219) see these differences of emphasis in the curricula offered as an exploration of the "distinction, if any, between library science and information science" and "South Africa is not unique in exploring this issue... (it is] typical of many other countries". Underwood and Nassimbeni (1996: 219) go on to point out that "a recent effect of this difference in emphasis is a change in nomenclature by some institutions for their departments and degrees to emphasise 'information' instead, or to the exclusion, of 'library"'.…”

“…and the B degree and,post-graduate diploma", thus making reference to issuesof articulation between university and technikon LIS programmes. According to Underwood and Nassimbeni (1996: 219) these problems of vertical and horizontal mobility are experienced across many academic disciplines and professional areas of study with the result that in the absence of "an agreed upon system of modular credits, accreditation and the ability to use credits gained for courses completed elsewhere, students tend to find themselves 'locked in' to a particular packageof courses offered by one institution". It is hoped that these unresolved issues of recognition of qualifications, accreditation and articulation between different types of higher education institutions would be resolved by current attempts to develop a single co-ordinated system of higher education in South I.…”

First professional, in-service and continuing education and-training:provincial library staff perceptions

“…Many changes are underway in the education and training sector in South Africa (Underwood & Nassimbeni 1996) and the University of Natal, for instance, is in the throes of restructuring its existing faculties into fewer faculties comprised of schools of cognate disciplines. While this has been introduced as a measure to maximize cost effectiveness it also offers interesting enhanced opportunities to link more closely with other disciplines, for instance, in policy and development studies and research methods thus achieving the long called for multi-disciplinary approach to various offerings (Braman 1989;Fairer-Wessels & Boon 1995;Rowlands 1996).…”