Browsing by Author "Pather, Roshini."

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A comparative study of the costs and benefits of journal ownership versus full-text electronic access in the Faculty of Science at the University of Natal, Durban, Libraries.
(2004) Pather, Roshini.; Stilwell, Christine.
There has been a huge increase in the costs of the journal collection at the University of Natal, Durban Libraries. This is due to the increased foreign exchange rate compounded by the frequent increase in the price of journal subscriptions. The library budget has not been able to keep pace with these increases in materials. The consequence is the cancellation of journal subscriptions together with the erosion of new book purchasing. To cope with this situation, libraries are coming to measure their collections and looking at alternative ways to overcome this journal crisis. The development of the technology of computers has greatly widened access to information but still at a cost in money and specialized skills much higher than is required for access to the traditional media. With the technology, the user can access the information or journal from anywhere not necessarily in the library but from home as well as the office. The patron can access various information sources from one point. For this study a multi-pronged method was employed. The methods employed were a literature review, a review of the documentary sources, an analysis of the journal data, surveys by self-administered questionnaires to the users – postgraduate students and academic staff in the Faculty of Science and an interview with the Acting University Librarian, Ms Nora Buchanan. One important element of the survey was to obtain in-depth information on journal usage patterns. The study was interested in determining whether the shift from print to electronic would affect journal usage patterns and dependence on the physical library. The findings of the survey demonstrated that usage patterns have changed and now favour the use of e-journals. There are, however, certain advantages to both formats and it is important to take advantage of both. The University Librarian interviewed recognized the popularity of e-journals and saw that over time the journal collections will shift from print to electronic. The archiving of online content remains a concern and print is still regarded as a short-term answer to the archive problem. The analysis of the journal data revealed that print and e-journal prices increased substantially each year, with the exception of 2004, for various reasons. But the print journals increased much more than the e-journals. The findings of this study could be drawn on to inform policy and practice regarding journal acquisition at the Howard College Libraries, University of KwaZulu-Natal and possibly other libraries as well.
Library spaces in higher education: exploring academics' understanding.
(2016) Pather, Roshini.; Sookrajh, Reshma.; Khoza, Simon Bhekumuzi.
During the last decade, technology, globalisation, and competition have caused the ground to shift in higher education worldwide. As an integral part of the campus, the academic library will be profoundly affected by changes in the university itself and in higher education generally. The role of libraries in higher education is dependent on the educational objectives of the university, namely Teaching, Learning and Research and in all three objectives the library plays a central role, especially in Research productivity. The role of the library as a place in the academics’ working lives is becoming very different, however, from what it has traditionally been. The traditional academic library had been predominantly a place for collecting and preserving text-based scholarly literature, but with the changes in information technology, there are now different ways of organising, finding, and publishing (in the broad sense of making public) scholarly literature, both old and new. These collections have experienced intense expansion of scope and depth through access to a wealth of databases and electronic resources. As a result the traditional library is coming under great pressure. This study aims to understand how academics use the library space. In particular, what effect the digital technology and change in pedagogy has had on their lived experiences as academics. The theoretical foundation for the study was Henri Lefebvre’s theory on the ontology of space which described three important concepts of space or the triads as being: “Spatial Practice (perceived space), Representations of Space (conceived space), and Spaces of Representation (lived space)”. This conceptual trial was used as an analytical tool to explore the relationship between academics and library spaces. Library spaces are social spaces that are produced and experienced, and they are also being produced through the experience of their users. This study was carried out at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, School of Education and relied on academics’ voices to reflect on emergent research and library behaviour. The research design was a case study with an online survey of all academics in the School of Education at the Edgewood campus, UKZN, conducted to generate a mixture of qualitative and quantitative data on the understanding of research behaviour in library spaces The second phase involved semi- vi structured interviews with a purposive sample of seven selected academics. This study employed a mixed methods design whereby qualitative and quantitative data were collected and document analysis undertaken. The study offers a spatial model of the understanding of library spaces by academics which responds to the final critical question on how academic users theorise their understanding of the library space, which suggests that there are four aspects to be considered: a convergence of the academic library user identity with that of the general library identity, a fusion of the physical and virtual space, a merging of the perceived and conceived spaces, and academics’ vision for the future of the library spaces. In their understanding, these academics do not see themselves as distinctive library users or having a library identity. They have shifted the spaces around in such a way that they are now using their offices and homes as research centres and their library visits are minimal as indicated by the data. A lot has been written about this shift of physical and virtual space and, it was found in this study that although academics do not have a library identity, they are busy shifting in their understanding of the library spaces. The significance of the study is that academics and their relationship with the library can now be located in a shifting space.