Informetrics Education in Library and Information Science (LIS) Departments at Universities in South Africa

Abstract

This study sought to explore informetrics education in Library and Information Science (LIS) departments at universities in South Africa. We adopted the pragmatic epistemology and pluralistic ontology for our study. The mixed research methods we employed were survey and content analysis. The survey comprised a questionnaire by means of which we collected data from the LIS heads of department (HODs) and informetrics lecturers, and we employed content analysis to analyse the content of course outlines. The study’s population was the LIS departments at the surveyed tertiary education institutions in South Africa. Nine LIS departments were targeted, and eight of them responded. At the time of the study, five of the nine LIS departments were found to offer informetrics education, namely those at the University of Cape Town, University of KwaZulu-Natal, University of Limpopo, University of the Western Cape, and University of Zululand. We established that the LIS department at the University of Zululand was the only department that offered informetrics education as an autonomous module/course as part of the full LIS programme. Other LIS departments offered it as a chapter or a unit in a module, and the University of Limpopo offered it at an undergraduate level. We found that the institutions surveyed offered informetrics education at different study levels and notches and that there was no uniformity in the content of the informetrics courses across the institutions’ LIS departments. Our findings indicated that the blended learning method was widely used, comprising case studies, group discussions, and online teaching and learning methods. We found that the various LIS departments experienced challenges (e.g. teaching capacity, student preparedness, and ICT support), and we suggested solutions to meet these challenges. We noted that informetrics education in South Africa was limited and we recommended more awareness creation, curricula development, short courses and awareness of global trends.