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A phenomenological study of experiences in blended librarianship among academic librarians in Zimbabwe with special reference to selected higher education institutions
This exploratory phenomenological study served the purpose of investigating the phenomenon of the Zimbabwean academic librarian whose professional identity has been evolving into Bell and Shank's (2007) blended librarianship over the past decade. The primary objective of this study was to explore th...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Library and Information Studies Centre (LISC)
2019
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| _version_ | 1867613297980735489 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Dabengwa, Israel Mbekezeli |
| author2 | Raju, Jayarani |
| author_browse | Dabengwa, Israel Mbekezeli Raju, Jayarani |
| author_facet | Raju, Jayarani Dabengwa, Israel Mbekezeli |
| author_sort | Dabengwa, Israel Mbekezeli |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | This exploratory phenomenological study served the purpose of investigating the phenomenon of the Zimbabwean academic librarian whose professional identity has been evolving into Bell and Shank's (2007) blended librarianship over the past decade. The primary objective of this study was to explore the shared experiences of blended librarianship to find out how effectively Zimbabwean academic librarians adhere to their dynamic roles and functions, and how they are perceived in the university. To achieve the primary goal, the study was framed using the theoretical constructs from Lave and Wenger's (1991) Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) and Communities of Practice (CoP), to understand how academic librarians learnt in the workplace through involvement in authentic work tasks. The research methodology relied on Heidegger’s Interpretive Phenomenology Analysis and the philosophy of interpretivism. The researcher looked for the academic librarian’s experiences of blended librarianship and then made sense of the academic librarian’s interpretation, to draw out a common meaning of blended librarianship. The researcher collected data from a calculated sample of 101 academic librarians from non-professional roles to Library Board level. Data collected was triangulated using multiple methods of data collection that included a semi-structured questionnaire, document research and semi-structured interviews. Data was collected from academic librarians from the Bindura State University of Education, Chinhoyi University of Technology, Lupane State University, Midlands State University, the National University of Science and Technology, and PHSBL80 University which was anonymised. Though blended librarianship had been adopted in different academic libraries through various ways that account for the sociocultural and historical issues in each academic library, it can be concluded that blended librarianship may bridge the theory-practice divide. The study recommends academic libraries to move towards integrating the teaching of Information Literacy Skills (ILS) and Low Threshold Technologies Applications (LTAs) into the courses that are taught by lecturers. This is set to place academic librarians within the context of their community, where they can contribute “legitimately” as equals, rather than working at the periphery of the classroom where they have a subservient role as seen in the study. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/29889 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:54.099Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publishDateRange | 2019 |
| publishDateSort | 2019 |
| publisher | Library and Information Studies Centre (LISC) |
| publisherStr | Library and Information Studies Centre (LISC) |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/29889 A phenomenological study of experiences in blended librarianship among academic librarians in Zimbabwe with special reference to selected higher education institutions Dabengwa, Israel Mbekezeli Raju, Jayarani Matingwina, Thomas Librarianship This exploratory phenomenological study served the purpose of investigating the phenomenon of the Zimbabwean academic librarian whose professional identity has been evolving into Bell and Shank's (2007) blended librarianship over the past decade. The primary objective of this study was to explore the shared experiences of blended librarianship to find out how effectively Zimbabwean academic librarians adhere to their dynamic roles and functions, and how they are perceived in the university. To achieve the primary goal, the study was framed using the theoretical constructs from Lave and Wenger's (1991) Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) and Communities of Practice (CoP), to understand how academic librarians learnt in the workplace through involvement in authentic work tasks. The research methodology relied on Heidegger’s Interpretive Phenomenology Analysis and the philosophy of interpretivism. The researcher looked for the academic librarian’s experiences of blended librarianship and then made sense of the academic librarian’s interpretation, to draw out a common meaning of blended librarianship. The researcher collected data from a calculated sample of 101 academic librarians from non-professional roles to Library Board level. Data collected was triangulated using multiple methods of data collection that included a semi-structured questionnaire, document research and semi-structured interviews. Data was collected from academic librarians from the Bindura State University of Education, Chinhoyi University of Technology, Lupane State University, Midlands State University, the National University of Science and Technology, and PHSBL80 University which was anonymised. Though blended librarianship had been adopted in different academic libraries through various ways that account for the sociocultural and historical issues in each academic library, it can be concluded that blended librarianship may bridge the theory-practice divide. The study recommends academic libraries to move towards integrating the teaching of Information Literacy Skills (ILS) and Low Threshold Technologies Applications (LTAs) into the courses that are taught by lecturers. This is set to place academic librarians within the context of their community, where they can contribute “legitimately” as equals, rather than working at the periphery of the classroom where they have a subservient role as seen in the study. 2019-03-01T11:48:25Z 2019-03-01T11:48:25Z 2018 2019-02-22T13:49:59Z Master Thesis Masters Mphil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29889 eng application/pdf Library and Information Studies Centre (LISC) Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Librarianship Dabengwa, Israel Mbekezeli A phenomenological study of experiences in blended librarianship among academic librarians in Zimbabwe with special reference to selected higher education institutions |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | A phenomenological study of experiences in blended librarianship among academic librarians in Zimbabwe with special reference to selected higher education institutions |
| title_full | A phenomenological study of experiences in blended librarianship among academic librarians in Zimbabwe with special reference to selected higher education institutions |
| title_fullStr | A phenomenological study of experiences in blended librarianship among academic librarians in Zimbabwe with special reference to selected higher education institutions |
| title_full_unstemmed | A phenomenological study of experiences in blended librarianship among academic librarians in Zimbabwe with special reference to selected higher education institutions |
| title_short | A phenomenological study of experiences in blended librarianship among academic librarians in Zimbabwe with special reference to selected higher education institutions |
| title_sort | phenomenological study of experiences in blended librarianship among academic librarians in zimbabwe with special reference to selected higher education institutions |
| topic | Librarianship |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29889 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dabengwaisraelmbekezeli aphenomenologicalstudyofexperiencesinblendedlibrarianshipamongacademiclibrariansinzimbabwewithspecialreferencetoselectedhighereducationinstitutions AT dabengwaisraelmbekezeli phenomenologicalstudyofexperiencesinblendedlibrarianshipamongacademiclibrariansinzimbabwewithspecialreferencetoselectedhighereducationinstitutions |