REAL OR SUBTLE: THE MENTORSHIP EXPERIENCE OF UNIVERSITY OF CAPE COAST LIBRARY STAFF

As a concept that is seen differently by different people, mentoring or coaching or grooming has now become an indispensable tool in the human resource development of many organizations. Considering the strategic role the library plays in supporting the teaching, learning and research needs of the University of Cape Coast, it is very significant to assess the mentorship experience of junior and middle-level workforce of the library. Using the descriptive survey method, the study engaged 107 respondents through questionnaire and interviews. It emerged from the study that even though there is no formal mentorship program for staff, there was an existing informal mentoring of staff by their own chosen mentors, with experience and trust being key in the selection of such mentors. Accordingly, respondents had made progress in decision-making, personal growth and development, job delivery and above all, have been able to also mentor other library staff. The study therefore recommends a blended highly structured short-term apprenticeship model of mentoring in the wake of the informal scheme. There is the urgent need for the library management to progressively guide employees on the various windows of opportunity for staff to grow in the profession. Above all, the library administration as well as employees should deem it a mutual duty to increase the participation in the numerous Ghana Library Association programmes to build their capacity

Scholarly Communication via Institutional Repositories: A Ghanaian Perspective

ABSTRACT Institutional repositories have emerged as a reliable platform for showcasing intellectual outputs of academic institutions due to their inherent benefits. Despite the embrace of this concept, issues of their sustainability have come up as a result of the attrition of some repositories, especially in developing countries giving rise to the call to ascertain the significant issues regarding how repositories are set up and managed in the Ghanaian context. This study, using the comparative case study design, guided by the Diffusion of Innovations Theory, assesses how institutional repositories are created and sustainably managed for use by the academic communities of two private and two public universities in Ghana. It gathers data 37 respondents whose activities cover the operations of these repositories through semi-structured interview of respondents as well as observation of repository policy documents and the websites hosting the repositories. The thematically-analyzed data reveals that even though some academic institutions in Ghana have seen the worth of online digital institutional repositories in advancing scholarly communication; and have therefore developed same for this purpose, the needed involvement of key personalities on campus to create a wider acceptance of the concept by the general university community is missing. There are instances of repository development without sound policy frameworks. These lead to low material submission and low content access rate. The study thus recommends active and continuous engagement of the various interest groups within academic institutions in the management of the repositories to bring about an appreciable level of buy-in as well as the institution or strengthening of repository policies to address peculiar issues of the academic environment. Again, education on copyright issues should be offered to lecturers and other content producers in order to allow for material submission without infringing on any copyright laws. This should be done alongside juicy motivational packages to encourage more submissions. Above all, the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH), which has been championing the many digital initiatives of libraries in the country, should think of instituting a national research repository

REAL OR SUBTLE: THE MENTORSHIP EXPERIENCE OF UNIVERSITY OF CAPE COAST LIBRARY STAFF

As a concept that is seen differently by different people, mentoring or coaching or grooming has now become an indispensable tool in the human resource development of many organizations. Considering the strategic role the library plays in supporting the teaching, learning and research needs of the University of Cape Coast, it is very significant to assess the mentorship experience of junior and middle-level workforce of the library. Using the descriptive survey method, the study engaged 107 respondents through questionnaire and interviews. It emerged from the study that even though there is no formal mentorship program for staff, there was an existing informal mentoring of staff by their own chosen mentors, with experience and trust being key in the selection of such mentors. Accordingly, respondents had made progress in decision-making, personal growth and development, job delivery and above all, have been able to also mentor other library staff. The study therefore recommends a blended highly structured short-term apprenticeship model of mentoring in the wake of the informal scheme. There is the urgent need for the library management to progressively guide employees on the various windows of opportunity for staff to grow in the profession. Above all, the library administration as well as employees should deem it a mutual duty to increase the participation in the numerous Ghana Library Association programmes to build their capacity

Scholarly Communication via Institutional Repositories: A Ghanaian Perspective

ABSTRACT Institutional repositories have emerged as a reliable platform for showcasing intellectual outputs of academic institutions due to their inherent benefits. Despite the embrace of this concept, issues of their sustainability have come up as a result of the attrition of some repositories, especially in developing countries giving rise to the call to ascertain the significant issues regarding how repositories are set up and managed in the Ghanaian context. This study, using the comparative case study design, guided by the Diffusion of Innovations Theory, assesses how institutional repositories are created and sustainably managed for use by the academic communities of two private and two public universities in Ghana. It gathers data 37 respondents whose activities cover the operations of these repositories through semi-structured interview of respondents as well as observation of repository policy documents and the websites hosting the repositories. The thematically-analyzed data reveals that even though some academic institutions in Ghana have seen the worth of online digital institutional repositories in advancing scholarly communication; and have therefore developed same for this purpose, the needed involvement of key personalities on campus to create a wider acceptance of the concept by the general university community is missing. There are instances of repository development without sound policy frameworks. These lead to low material submission and low content access rate. The study thus recommends active and continuous engagement of the various interest groups within academic institutions in the management of the repositories to bring about an appreciable level of buy-in as well as the institution or strengthening of repository policies to address peculiar issues of the academic environment. Again, education on copyright issues should be offered to lecturers and other content producers in order to allow for material submission without infringing on any copyright laws. This should be done alongside juicy motivational packages to encourage more submissions. Above all, the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH), which has been championing the many digital initiatives of libraries in the country, should think of instituting a national research repository

Marketing Open Access Institutional Repositories in Ghana: Context and Prospects.

Efforts by African researchers to contribute to global share of intellectual productivity hardly yield the needed impact due to the limited avenues of scholarly communication. The emergence of institutional repositories has presented an alternative platform for the sharing of research data and other institutional documents of interest. However, most of these institutional repositories are often not sustainable, and in interrogating the causes of this high attrition rate, critical issues such as marketing and promotion of repositories are seldom considered. The study, using the comparative case study approach to interview thirty-seven respondents, seeks to analyse how institutional repositories in two private and two public universities are marketed and promoted to showcase and share the scholarly output. In doing this, it examines the repositories, the actors in the marketing and promotion, strategies for marketing the repositories as well as the challenges that hinder the smooth publicity of the repository. Results reveal that publicity of the repository is mainly limited to the immediate campus environment, and is done mainly through the word of mouth, use of fliers and notices as well as the use of the university websites and radio announcements. The outfit of the library spearheads the publicity of the repositories in all the institutions under study, with support from the public relations outfits. Key issues which confront the smooth marketing and promotion of the repositories include lack of policy frameworks, competing attention from other aspects of the repositories’ operations such as software and engineering protocols and difficulty in getting the buy-in of key university actors. These are in addition to indirect issues such as low rate of repository content population, and the issue of copyright laws which prevent the addition of materials to the collections. The study thus recommends for a comprehensive policy to guide marketing and promotion and any other significant issues. There is also the need to assemble a dedicated team to carry out the marketing and promotion of the repository to accommodate the diversities in academic institutions. Above all, it is instructive to blend traditional and contemporary platforms to reach out as many potential users as possible with the repository