PostgraduateDepartments |
About us
The Department of Information and Library Studies provides research, consultancy and a programme leading to academic and professional qualifications in Library and Information Science. The department has a primary focus on research and intervention through its professional education programme in the field of information management. Fundamental to this focus is the recognition that access to information can empower people and guide the process of transformation.
The research activity of the department emphasises information needs analysis and information literacy in response to both staff interests and the transformation of society. Staff are actively engaged through the Centre for Information Literacy at the University of Cape Town. In addition consultancy is undertaken and is largely concerned with information systems design and the design of information literacy programmes. The department's work also includes investigations on library performance, measurement and evaluation, design of classifications and taxonomies for recording and managing knowledge. The Department of Information and Library Studies is linked with the Department of Information Studies, University of Wales Aberystwyth and runs a workshop in association with members of its staff every year.
Librarians and information managers work in many businesses, government and non-governmental organisations with the aim of using and managing an organisation's most valuable asset: information. They are part of the "information economy", making use of electronic and other sources of information in communities such as universities, hospitals, schools, towns and commercial organisations. Information is stored in many forms, with electronic sources becoming widely used in some subject areas, such as medicine, law, science and business. Successful information management depends on knowing about sources of information in many forms, including print, electronic and visual media but it is also vital to understand how people ask for, and describe, the information they are seeking. Librarians and information managers - the "knowledge professionals"- need to be good listeners and good communicators. They also need to be competent users of Information and Communication Technologies and know how to organise information sources.
