Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology
School of Information Technology
Department of Information Science
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
Ongoing research is being done in collaboration with French colleagues on the theme On socio-pathology and socio-therapy. Research was also done for four themes: 1. Methodology and noology: amazing prospects for Library and Information Science; 2. The re-invention of human spirituality; 3. Collective intelligence: inventing worlds of shared meaning; 4. Being digital: philosophical reflection, literary texts and informatisation processes. Book manuscripts (Afrikaans and English) were completed on The inventive act of reading. A 2009 conference proceeding, Let the new knowledge come: Atlas of knowledges, was translated and published in Polish.
Contact person: Prof CS De Beer.
Research on information behaviour in various contexts was continued including cancer, palliative care and teaching (the latter as part of doctoral supervision and publications following from this). An attempt was made to clarify context of palliative care. Work on this will be deepened in the following year in order to align it with earlier work on multiplicity of contexts in palliative care. A close relationship between information behaviour and information literacy has been argued and in this line, research on teaching ICT and information literacy skills to teachers from a rural area in a developing country has been reported, and will be pursued. Information behaviour and information literacy can be aligned with personal information management (PIM) and collaborative information seeking which can be a focus of study, but can also support research on information behaviour, collaboration, the teaching of information skills and PIM for the caring professions such as nursing, social work and teaching, as well as those supported by these professions e.g. patients. This can further more be aligned to the importance to define contexts such as palliative care, cancer, and teaching per se as well as considering geographic and environmental contexts such as rural areas or developing countries.
Contact person: Prof I Fourie.
The main focus of research was on the methodology and conceptual framework of international and comparative librarianship, for a monograph to be published by De Gruyter Saur (Frankfurt, Germany) in 2012. In addition research was conducted on (1) a critical evaluation of current literature on Comparative Librarianship, (2) Whitley's (1984) theory on the intellectual and social organization of the sciences as applied to the development of Library and Information Science in the Arab world (3) the international relations of national library associations, (4) the role of libraries in the preservation and promotion of indigenous languages, and (5) the ethical and political-economic aspects of digital preservation.
Contact person: Prof PJ Lor.
Two commissioned chapters were written for an e-book on the Slave Lodge in Cape Town, based on the work on the transcription of a slave's notebook. The online publisher, Ancestry24, requested permission to use a recently published article. An invitation to co-author led to the publishing of a chapter for a book on social identities in 18th century Cape Town. The research findings of a forthcoming book, The hidden history of South Afria’s book and reading cultures, were delivered at a book festival in September, in Cape Town.
Contact person: Prof AL Dick.
The University of Pretoria was once again requested to conduct the annual industry surveys for the Publishers' Association of South Africa (PASA). These surveys are essential in gaining a sense of the size and shape of the publishing industry, and this information is used by the publishers themselves, as well as government and international investors. The research found that the local publishers have weathered the recession well, although there have been some declines. The study also traced patterns in the distribution of books in South Africa, and found a sharp increase in electronic products, although off a very low base.
Contact person: Ms EH Le Roux.
Research focused on the social ethical issues as they relate to the creation, use and distribution of information in digital format mainly in social settings. Topics addressed include: Information poverty and social justice in Africa with particular reference to human capacity development; Ethical issues of web archiving; Access to information as a basic human right - a moral reflection based on Sen's capability approach.
Contact person: Prof JJ Britz.
Ongoing research is being conducted with colleagues from the Universities of Pretoria, Stellenbosch, Aarhus (Denmark) and Hildesheim (Germany) on information organisation and retrieval for electronic dictionaries. The aim of the project is to experiment with various technologies to develop better and different e-dictionaries. For one part of the project we are creating a database of fixed expressions, as well as developing the necessary database tools, administrative backend, user interfaces and search functions that enable users to have access to a number of monofunctional dictionaries and one polyfunctional dictionary derived from one database, which will enable the user to obtain correct and relevant information in terms of his/her information need in a specific context. In a second part of the project we are developing the principles and criteria for an interactive, dynamic electronic dictionary aimed at text production which should guide the user in innovative ways, especially in respect of difficult, complicated or complex phenomena regarding the interaction between lexis and grammar. The project provides a platform to experiment with disruptive technologies and to see to what extent any of these technologies can add value for the user in providing access to information in terms of the user’s specific information needs in a given user situation.
Contact person: Prof TJD Bothma.
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