- Title
- The impact of public libraries in the Eastern Cape Province with reference to three Buffalo City Municipal libraries in King Williams' Town
- Creator
- Gunuza, Nokuthula
- Subject
- Public libraries Information services
- Date Issued
- 2019
- Date
- 2019
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- M.Bibl
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/16452
- Identifier
- vital:40721
- Description
- The study sought to investigate the impact of public libraries in developing information literacy in libraries in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa: a case study of Buffalo City Municipality public libraries in King William’s Town. The objectives of the study were to find out how these three libraries in Buffalo City Metro public libraries ensure equity of library and information services provision to the user communities, to find out how public libraries support education and lifelong learning, to identify the challenges that public libraries face in rendering library and information services with reference to the three libraries, and to investigate the role of library professionals in marketing the library services to the community. Both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were employed in a descriptive survey. The main research instrument was a questionnaire supported by face to face interviews. A total of 297 questionnaires were distributed and 200 were returned giving a response rate of 67.3%. The quantitative data which was collected through questionnaire was presented using graphs and tables, while qualitative was analysed manually by content analysis, using the notes that were taken by the researcher from the respondents during the interview sessions and reported verbatim in some instances. The findings showed that regardless of South African LIS environment having contradictions resulting from years of apartheid, most of the Buffalo City Metro public library patrons indicated that they experienced fair and equitable access to library and information services. In addition to participants’ quantitative responses, the qualitative excerpts from librarians attested to the library having a classification system that allows easy access to library resources. In addition, findings of the study also revealed that the Buffalo City Metro public libraries have a diversity of users, ranging from different age groups and social standing. The results from the current study revealed that the Buffalo City metropolitan public library users have little knowledge about literacy programmes that are taking place in the library. The findings also indicated that the Buffalo City Metro public libraries market library services by word of mouth, posters and notice boards. One of the major findings of the study is that Buffalo City Metro public libraries are faced with financial constraints and that led to a myriad of challenges ranging from inadequate library operating hours; limited information sources; lack of information retrieval training to patrons; internet connectivity issues; xii lack of professional staff and lack of training on the latest technological trends. The study concludes that the Buffalo City Metro public libraries should establish a marketing strategy to motivate for funding. The study recommended that the Buffalo City public libraries should create an integrated system for all libraries in the metromunicipality that encourages adult literacy programme to raise awareness of information literacy.
- Format
- 152 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
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UFH Department of Library & Information Science
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Gunuza 201212538 Library and Information Science.pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |