Library and Information Services

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Browsing Library and Information Services by Subject "academic library"

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    Determinant factors of intention to adopt blockchain technology across academic libraries
    (Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2020-09) Lengoatha, Lebohang; Seymour, Lisa F.
    Academic libraries experience a lot of pressure due to rapid changes in technology, budget cuts and increasing demand of information services from their clientele. At the same time, libraries are expected to improve their information services at the global level to meet the increasing demands of libraries’ population. Therefore, an effective collaboration in academic libraries is not an option anymore, but a necessity in order to cope with the rapidly changing technologies and external pressures. Blockchain technology because of its capabilities to record transactions and digital interactions in a transparent, secure, resilient, efficient and traceable way across untrusted parties, offers new opportunities for academic libraries’ collaboration. However, due to its infancy stage of development, literature on blockchain technology adoption behavior is lacking, especially in the context of academic libraries. This therefore opens up the opportunities for further research in this area. Based on the technology innovation theory and technology-organisation-environment framework, a conceptual research model has been developed to investigate the determinant factors of intention to adopt blockchain technology in South African academic libraries’ collaborative business processes. This conceptual paper also gives directions for future research in the form of 11 hypotheses.
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    Improving Service Delivery at the National University of Lesotho Library through Knowledge Sharing
    (UNISA, 2016-10) Tseole, T. E.; Prof. Ngulube, Patrick; Prof. Dube, Luyanda
    Knowledge is now considered the most important organizational resource, surpassing other resources like land and capital. It has, therefore, been acknowledged that knowledge can play an important role in ensuring an organization’s competitive edge. The purpose of this study was to investigate if knowledge sharing is being used to improve service delivery at the National University of Lesotho’s Thomas Mofolo Library. The researcher held the view that Librarians at Thomas Mofolo Library have different sets of skills which, if combined, could improve service delivery. By not sharing and retaining this existing wealth of knowledge, the researcher claimed that when librarians retire or resign from work, they will certainly take with them the knowledge they possess and the result of this knowledge loss is that the Library may be plagued by an inability to learn from the past experiences, which leads to reinvented wheels, unlearned lessons and the pattern of repeated mistakes. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in the case study design in order to allow for multiple methods of data collection. Data were collected by means of questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires were administered to all librarians who were available at the time and purposive sampling was used to determine interview participants. Out of the 25 questionnaires administered, 15 were returned, providing a response rate of 60%. The data collected by means of questionnaires was processed using Microsoft Access and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software (Version 17). The results of analysis were exported into Microsoft Excel for visual presentation and reporting of the results. The data from the interview sessions was analyzed manually by content analysis, using the notes that were taken by the researcher from the respondents during the interview sessions. The findings pointed to the fact that knowledge sharing does occur at TML, although mostly in an informal manner. This was largely due to a number of impediments such as lack of trust and the absence of motivations and rewards. The study concluded by recommending a number of initiatives that could be implemented in order to retain knowledge within the Library. The recommendations included developing a knowledgemanagement strategy and formalizing knowledge sharing by formulating the desired policies.