She is studying for a Masters in Information Science at the University of South Africa (UNISA). Buhle Mbambo-Thata (formerly Buhle Mbambo) was at the time of writing University Librarian at the University of Zimbabwe. She holds a Master's degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
Overview and Context of the Library’s Digitization
With the exception of Special Collections, there is open access to all parts of the library and its branches. Although this library is located in the Geography building, its maps are available for university-wide use. Thus, the library's efforts were based on the key outcomes of the university's strategic plan.
The Automation of
University of Zimbabwe Library
A number of lessons were learned during the planning and implementation of the library automation project. The partnership between the library and the Computer Center led to the creation of the Library's Information Technology Unit. It was also pleasing to note that the university administration encouraged joint committees for planning and implementing the library information system.
From Card Catalogue to OPAC
Without doing feasibility studies of the library's information systems that already existed, the library simply went for Erudite. With the failure of the initial automation exercise and the inadequacy of the card catalog, the library had to find an alternative. Innovative interfaces provided a thorough training of library staff in the use of various modules, including cataloging and OPAC.
A pilot was carried out in the Reserves department.3 The main objective was to identify any teething problems, to make an inventory of the balance sheet and to meet the original requirements. Second, the retrospective conversion project depended on the resources—the human and material needs—that could be devoted to achieving the ultimate goal. The library now has WebBridge and Metafind installed, allowing users to search multiple databases simultaneously and from off-campus.6 The off-campus user can search the OPAC as well as access electronic resources such as e-journals.
The implementation of the initial library information system in 1996 was a learning process for the library staff. It has become essential for the library to use both the OPAC and the card catalog simultaneously. The OPAC had to be regularly updated to reflect the correct information about each item in the library; for example, material that is lost or has gone for repairs should be reflected in the OPAC.
An up-to-date OPAC is essential to enable patrons to access the information in the library.
Digitizing Local Collections
The idea of building a database of dissertations and theses submitted to universities in Africa was introduced at the University of Zimbabwe in 2000 by a representative of the AAU who was assigned to carry out a feasibility study for the DATAD project feed. The main purpose of the DATAD project is to provide information on African dissertations and theses. The librarian strategically included faculty members in the management team to help lead and support the project work team and to ensure acceptance of the project in their faculties.
While the management team was holding its meetings, the work team was also holding its own series of meetings to determine the course of the project. The issues that emerged from the working group concerned copyright, thesis formats, and the thesis submission process. The statement reads: “The University of Zimbabwe relies on the guidelines in the Copyright Act (Chapter 26:01) 1981, which provides that copyright rests with the author of the work and therefore copyright for theses and dissertations belong to students.'2.
After building the DATAD database, which provided only metadata and an abstract, the UZ library's third database of full-text electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) was developed using the ETD database (ETD-db) open source software. 4 The database is an extension of the DATAD initiative and is available on the intranet (see Fig. 2a and 2b). One of the major tasks of this team was to sensitize the university community to the importance of making their research outputs available on open access. Copyright became a major issue with academic staff during the implementation of the Institutional Repository.
The sustainability of the digital projects in the UZ library is very important and will depend entirely on the availability of funds and the marketing of the facilities now established to the university community.
Information Literacy Skills and Digital Collections
Before the introduction of information literacy skills as an integral part of the Communication Skills course in 2004 (see below), some form of user education was taught at the university. The integration of ILS into the curriculum was formalized as a result of the work of a university librarian who initiated discussions with staff in the Communication Skills Center, where all first-year students were required to take a semester of communication skills. The board strongly supported the joint library/communication skills proposal and positively accepted the logistics committee's proposals.
These units were graded by librarians and sent to the Center for Communication Skills at the Faculty of Arts, where the grade made up 30% of the final grade in the Communication Skills course. At the end of the semester, first-year students helped second- and third-year students access the online catalog resources on the library's intranet and on the Internet.4 The librarians and teachers found common ground in helping the students with their overall information skills. Students are now aware of the importance of information literacy in their education and subsequently in their future careers.
Librarians are tasked with working with faculty in teaching centers, such as our University Teaching and Learning Center, and collaborating on interactive online teaching with teaching staff members. Librarians are also skilled in helping faculty learn to use the Web and how to integrate electronic information into their teaching and research. Finally, both librarians and faculty can collaborate in pursuing synchronized digital instruction across campus for the full benefit of the institution's teaching, learning, and research.
The Computing Centre's involvement in training teaching staff in the use of Claroline software will make a major contribution to localizing the digitization drive on the UZ campus.7 The type of outcomes we are looking for are those of the developing a student population that is computer literate, information literate and communicative.
Digital Health Sciences Information
Digital health information came to the Medical Library when the CD-ROM MEDLINE service was launched in 1989. The University of Zimbabwe Medical Library has placed great emphasis on the promotion of local and African literature.3 The library has contributed the Zimbabwe entries in the Utano bibliography (also a database) to the African Index Medicus. Digital document delivery has been used as an effective method of disseminating digital health information at CHSL.
CHSL was chosen to become a DOCLINE library providing document delivery to the MIM research sites.5 The main reason Zimbabwe was chosen was because at that time CHSL had current subscriptions to over 200 journal titles and long runs from previous years. Various forms of ICT have been used in Zimbabwe to disseminate digital health information related to a variety of health issues. The HealthNet node in Harare provides low-cost email and health information services to the healthcare community.
CHSL uses HealthNet email to disseminate digital health information about various health issues in provincial hospitals. PubMed has proven to be a very useful database for healthcare professionals in Zimbabwe to access digital health information. However, these challenges have not prevented the library from leveraging ICT in providing digital health information.
It is therefore important that everything that can be done is done to continue to provide access to digital health information.
Computer-Assisted Legal Information Instruction
- Syllabus of CALII
- Introduction and Print Resources (summarized)
- Searching OPAC and Electronic Resources (summarized)
- Advanced Concepts of the Internet
- Advanced Information Retrieval Search Engines
- Evaluating Websites and Citation Styles Evaluating Websites
Known as ILS in the rest of the university library, in the Law Library it is referred to as CALII. It promotes 'students' ability to access, use and evaluate information in order to improve their learning, solve problems and generate new knowledge'.2 Thus, computer-aided legal information literacy really just means information literacy using computers in the legal field. The main purpose of CALII is to make students aware of the wide availability of information related to their academic work.
As Barratt argues, the "involved model" is the most sophisticated model of teaching information skills.4 The idea is not to have an elaborate, independent course on library research tools, but rather to engage with real, substantive law courses and weave them into research skills. Matsikidze, Current Developments in Labor Law in Zimbabwe: The Essentials of ICT for Labor Lawyers after the Globalization of Labor Law. Librarians learned how to teach and how to adapt teaching methods to the needs of the audience.
Objectives The main aim of the information literacy program conducted in the form of library classes at the Law Library of the University of Zimbabwe is to make students aware of the wide availability of information related to their academic work. Matsikidze, R., "Current developments in employment law in Zimbabwe: the essence of ICT for employment lawyers in the wake of the globalization of employment law". Balthazar, "The Evolution and Installation of an In-house CD-ROM LAN," Bulletin of the Medical Library Association.
Mumtaz, S., "Factors Influencing Teachers' Use of Information and Communication Technology: A Review of the Literature," Journal of Information Technology for Teacher Education.
