Impact of ICT’s on library and Information Science professionals in
Zimbabwe’s academic institutions
By Collence Chisita & Munyaradzi Shoko collencechisita@yahoo.com

Introduction
• A myriad of possibilities and opportunities for Information
Professionals through advances in
ICT’s.
• Revolutionalisation of all aspects of
LIS work
• Radical changes aided by the convergence of technology
• From mere gatekeepers of information to vigorous disseminators of information.

Introduction Cont’d
• Adapting to ICT’s as a survivalist strategy.
“…The challenge is to maintain, nurture and optimize resources of libraries with the help of new technology. Hence we must be ready
...emotionally, professionally and financially to accept and make good use of new technology”
Kawatra(2004)

Original Foundation!!

New Dawn for Information
Professionals
• Diffusion of Innovations
• Information/Knowledge at the epicentre of development
• Transition from traditional to modern –techno driven Information
Management
• Role of Information Professional at the push for transition
• use of integrated library systems to improve service delivery

Challenges of the Digital era
• High cost of developing ICT infrastructure
• Dwindling library budgets,
• Poor internet connectivity
• High cost of hardware and software
• Bridging the digital divide
• Turning digital divide into digital dividend
• Life wide learning

Challenges of the Digital era cont’d
“…the Internet holds the greatest promise for humanity … It offers the best chance yet for developing countries to take their rightful place in the global economy ... ensure access … the gulf between the haves and the have-nots will be the gulf between the technology-rich and the technology-poor…” Kofi Annan
(1999)

Traditional to techno driven LIS
• From physical to virtually recorded information/knowledge management .
• Access to information irrespective of location and format
• Progression from paper to paperless libraries
• Access to information without regard to location and format

Library Consortia
• ICT’s and the “Information deluge”
• Library autarchy (self sustenance)
• Formation of library consortia to facilitate resource sharing
• Shift from being "all alone" to collaboration .
• ICT’s as the engine for the
21 st .Century online communities .
“The miracle is this, the more we share the more we have."Nimoy ,L .

Major Library consortia for academic libraries
• Zimbabwe University Library
Consortium (ZULC)
• College and Research Library
Consortium (CARLC)
• ever mounting cost of library resources
• diminishing budgets/limited fiscal support
• competition from free Web Based resources
• digital divide

CARLC ZIMBABWE

Adapting new technologies
• Creation and development of institutional repositories like
UZSpace, using FOSS
• Enlistment in the OpenDOAR.
• Digital repository searchable from any of the major search engines
• Enhanced visibility.
• Global Accessibility.
• Overcoming institutional insularity

Going Digital!!!

Benefits of IR

New Skills for Librarians
• digital literacy
• negotiating skills,
• intellectual property rights (IPR), creative commons
• open access initiatives
• Publishing.
• Content Management
• Copyright

Major Trends
• Shift from print to digital collections and services .
• From “repository maintenance” to user-centered approach
• From a holdings ideology to an access strategy based on content subscriptions .
• Formation of consortia for resource sharing
• Rising demands of techno generation

Digital Library

Integrated Library
Systems
• Millennium Innopac for cataloguing, acquisitions, serial checking, circulation and patron services
• Adjusting to ICT Standards and protocols. e.g. Internet Protocols
• protocol for the exchange of bibliographic information e.g. Z39
• Remote database searching i.e. inter and intra-institutional cooperation

Major Challenges
• Using ICT’s to broaden LIS and prevent cultural homogenization
• Adaptation of business management principles
• Adapting to market oriented approach.
• Using ICT’s for to promote standardization
• Use of ICT’s to break monopoly of information
• Democratization of access to information through social media

Benefits of ICT’s in libraries
• Using ICT’s for “creagement”
• Liberating Information professional from repetitive tasks
• Facilitating association of dissimilar ideas
• Promoting information sharing through social media.
• Quantifying usage patterns through
OPAC, Web Based Databases and
Web sites.

Shifting vocabulary and nomenclature
• Language as a form of professional identity.
• New LIS lexicography e.g.
- Information navigation,
-Information Economy
-evidence based information practice,
-e-resources librarian,
- metadata management,
-e-learning resource management

Alignment and realignment
• Changing Information Science
Landscape
• Changing focus areas
• Impact of ICT’s
• From Library Studies to Library and
Information Science
• Information and Documentation
• Information and Communication.

Information Literacy: A new Pedagogy
Information Literacy covering following subjects:
• information sources
• searching tools
• electronic information
• searching techniques
• management of Information
• evaluation of e-resources ,scholarly communication e.t.c
Standardized information literacy manual

Education and Continuous
Professional Development
• Rapid changes in ICT’s call for CPD
• CPD to overcome redundancy, and irrelevancy.
• Constant renewal of professional skills and knowledge
• Learning organizations
• Learning culture
• Constant review of LIS curricular.

New Roles in the Digital
Age
• Knowledge mediator, information architect, hybrid librarian and knowledge preserver.
• Masters of copyright, licensing and electronic redistribution regimes
• Enhanced service provision.
• Advanced forms of content handling(subject specialisation)
• Communication media and KM management centers

New Roles in the Digital
Age cont’d
“We have new roles to fill . While the format of our resources may change , while access to information may change, while styles of service may change, the vision of high quality, service-oriented, information centers still fits the library's mission. We will serve our user communities best if we incorporate this into the digital library .” MacMillan (1999)

Conclusion
• Creating digital platforms for
• IR
• open access
• E-journal portals
• Complementing e-learning through access to e-resources
• PPPs and community engagement
• Enhancing access to e-resources
“Adaptability is not imitation. It means power of resistance and assimilation” (Gandhi 1948)