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Technological, economic and other changes continually reshape the library and information science landscape. In South Africa, the Library and Information Science (LIS) education and training sector is caught up in developments that include new directions in higher education such as the new Higher Education Qualifications Framework (HEQF). This paper provides some observations on the implications of the HEQF on LIS education and training, amid other changes that influence the discipline. While establishing common parameters and criteria for designing qualifications, the HEQF poses challenges to the LIS education needs and practices including names, levels and articulation of qualifications, as well as titles of posts and hierarchies in the workplace. The paper further expounds on the other challenges that need to be simultaneously tackled while reshaping the future. At this critical juncture, the education and training for the information professions in South Africa requires a mixture of ardent focus on understanding the market forces on the one hand, so as to attract students and produce employable graduates and on the other hand a dogged determination to uphold a noble profession in spite of encroaching competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa has undergone a decade of curricular change that has evoked much debate, study and even condemnation. New terminology has entered the public domain. However this huge curriculum revolution had a curious passenger: Information Literacy. Prior to the release of Curriculum 2005, a bold new curriculum for Information Literacy was introduced for use in schools. With the advent of Curriculum 2005, with its totally new paradigm, one would have expected that the Information Literacy curriculum would have disappeared. However, in a somewhat surprising move, it appeared within the curriculum for the new 'Learning Area': Languages, Literacy and Communication. Within this learning area it was found, intact, as one of the four Specific Outcomes, which were seen as the subdivisions of the subject. In the revision of the curriculum called the National Curriculum Statement this changed. This paper studies the position of Information Literacy within this curriculum, within each of the Learning Areas. It also outlines a practical exercise with education students to pinpoint their understanding and recommends actions for the better implementation of information literacy in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the impact of educational change in South Africa on public libraries. It surveys the recent literature to conclude that the position of school libraries is precarious and that public librarians feel victimised by the new curriculum. This represents a puzzling contradiction, as librarians' expectations were that the ethos and methodologies of the new curriculum, Curriculum 2005 (C2005), would provide a more favourable climate. The curriculum has indeed brought increased use of public libraries by school learners, yet there has been little recognition in official quarters of the educational role of public libraries. It is suggested that, if librarians are to gain a better footing in curriculum planning, they need to engage with educationists as to the role libraries play in resource-based learning. They will need to provide documented evidence by means of research studies. As an example of such a study, the paper describes the author's study of school learners' use of two public libraries in a disadvantaged community in Cape Town. The libraries were found to be playing a crucial role in the learning programme of the learners. However, it is suggested that the two libraries need to design more systematic structured programmes if the needs of school learners for information literacy education are to be met. This might require explicit endorsement of their educational role by their own governance structures and the provincial Education Department. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shortage of reading material and information resources in many South African schools, especially those in poor communities, is a problem that needs to be addressed. While there has been considerable progress with the implementation of an outcomes-based curriculum relying on a learner-centred, resource-based methodology, libraries are largely absent in disadvantaged schools. This paper reviews the situation of school libraries in the Northern Cape, highlighting progress made in the last few years. Lessons drawn from policy and implementation factors have implications for education planners, librarians and library educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]