Evaluation Course Simmons 2009

2. South Africa has the longest history of library science
training in all of Africa, starting in 1933.
There are currently 14 institutions offering professional and
paraprofessional degrees in Library Science in South
Africa
The Library and Information Science
Association of South Africa (LIASA) is the
official regulating body for the profession,
but they have not been very successful at
implementing standards, because they are
a fairly recent organization.

3. LIS programs in South Africa vary
intensely from one institution to the
next.
There is a visible need for LIS professionals in South
Africa, but there is not enough supply to fulfill the
demand.
As researchers, we are interested in knowing how alumni
of these programs feel about the quality of their
education, so that we may suggests ways to improve
the LIS profession in South Africa.

4.  Dennis Ochalla
 S o l o mo n B o p a p e
 E l l e n R . Ti s e
 Mabel K Minishi Manjana
 Nisha Sewdass and J.C. Theron
 J. Raju

5.  28 Question Survey
 Mailed to 351 alumni (assuming a population of
4,000)
 A hoped for response rate of 63%
 A 6 part survey with many open ended questions
 Information about the respondent
 Information about the respondent’s education
 Information about the specific LIS program
 Information concerning faculty’s teaching style
 Information about the respondent’s employment
 Prediction of future trends and current needs

6.  Correlation Analysis
 Cluster Analysis
 Means and modes
 Expert Opinion

7. Professional input Inclusion of biases
Cost effective Satisfaction is Subjective
Possibility of supporting
institutions to gauge whether
their contributions have been
effective (friends of South
African libraries, like the
Carnegie Foundation,
UNESCO, etc.)

8. More research need to be done. Therefore, this is only
one aspect of the needed research
.
Comparative studies also must be done between
different types of LIS training (i.e. Technikon vs.
university)
Focus groups could be organized among
alumni to get more ideas.
The faculty's opinion could be researched.

9. Much work has been done by South Africans and
supporting institutions (IFLA, UNESCO, etc) to insure
the sustainability of LIS services in this region.
Evaluation of LIS training and
education programs is essential
because strong library services
start with strong librarians.