Navigating information, facilitating knowledge: the library, the academy, and student learning

Understanding the nature and complementarity of the phenomena of information and knowledge lend not only epistemological clarity to their relationship, but also reaffirms the place of the library in the academic mission of knowledge transfer, acquisition, interpretation, and creation. These in turn reassert the legitimacy of the academic library as necessary participant in the teaching enterprise of colleges and universities. Such legitimacy induces an obligation to teach, and that obligation needs to be explored and implemented with adequate vigor and reach. Librarians and the academy must, however, concede that the scope of the task calls for a solution that goes beyond shared responsibilities. Academic libraries should assume a full teaching function even as they continue their exploration and design of activities and programs aimed at reinforcing information literacy in the various disciplines on campus. All must concede that need for collaboration cannot provide grounds for questioning the desirability of autonomous teaching status for the academic library in information literacy educatio

The adequacy of corporate mandatory disclosure practices on emerging markets: a case study of the Zimbabwe stock exchange.

This research study is descriptive, normative and empirical in scope. The main purpose of the study, reported in this thesis, is to empirically investigate the "adequacy" of mandatory information disclosure practices of public companies listed on an anglophone African stock exchange classified as an emerging equity stock market by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and to assess the "stringency" of the disclosure regulatory regime of that market. The study also investigates the characteristics of the relationship between some selected corporate attributes and mandatory disclosure. The corporate attributes examined are: company size, audit quality, ownership structure of equity shares, industry-type, company age, multinational corporation affiliation, profitability, and liquidity. A sample of 49 non-financial companies listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) as of 31 December 1994 formed the basis of the conclusions reported in this thesis. To measure the "adequacy" of mandatory disclosure in the annual reports and accounts of these companies, a disclosure measuring instrument was constructed consisting of information items required by companies law, financial accounting standards, and listing rules of the ZSE. Applying the measuring instrument against the annual reports and accounts of the sampled companies, their mandatory disclosure scores were obtained, and were used with other data specific to each sample company to test the relational hypotheses. To investigate the adequacy of mandatory disclosure practices of the sample companies, a descriptive statistical analysis was undertaken. The results of this analysis suggest that the amount of mandated information disclosed in the annual reports and accounts of these companies is inadequate for the information needs of users of annual reports and accounts in Zimbabwe. There were several instances where none of the sample companies disclosed the required information items. In another respect, the stringency of the disclosure regulatory regime of the stock exchange was empirically assessed with both a Paired sample t test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The results of these tests indicate that the disclosure regulatory regime of the stock market is less stringent. Although it has an elaborate monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, it failed to secure full compliance with its disclosure requirements in practice as there were several instances of non-compliance. To ascertain the nature and the strength of the relationship between the corporate attributes and mandatory disclosure, both correlation and multivariate regression analyses were undertaken. The results of the correlation analysis showed that only company age has a significant positive relationship with the extent of mandatory disclosure. In contrast, a robust regression analysis indicated that company size, ownership structure, company age, multinational corporation affiliation, and profitability are positively significantly associated with the extent of mandatory disclosure in Zimbabwe. Thus, of the eight corporate attributes, only company size, ownership structure, company age, multinational corporation affiliation, and profitability "best" explained mandatory disclosure behaviour of the sample companies. On the whole, the results of this study provide support to the general view and prior studies that disclosure practices of emerging equity stock market listed companies are inadequate due to weak monitoring and enforcement of disclosure requirements. It is recommended in this study that the disclosure regulatory regime should be made stringent to minimise non-compliance with requirements by increasing the number of annual reports and accounts of public listed companies that is reviewed annually under the existing monitoring and enforcement mechanisms. This will ensure that each listed company is subject to the review process, at least, once in every three years

Identifying the Dominant Ecological Worldviews of Community Leaders and the Influences These Have in Managing Conservation Areas in Ghana

This study was set on the premise of a research question that sought to identify the dominant ecological worldviews of Community Resources Management Area (CREMA) leaders and the influences these have on the management prescriptions of their conservation areas. The relevance of the question was to identify whether the CREMA leaders subscribed to an eco-centric or an anthropocentric worldview which could have direct consequences for the control of resource levels of utilization after the devolution of authority. A phenomenological approach was thus applied to collect data from nine selected conservation leaders from three different CREMAs. Their ecological worldviews were found to be mixed—depending on the ecological worldview domain, the CREMA leaders showed leanings toward stances ranging from complete eco-centrism to ambivalent eco-centrism and ambivalent anthropocentrism. The findings, however, mostly suggested that the dominant ecological worldviews of the CREMA leaders were eco-centric and not anthropocentric. They exercised the middle ground, i.e., ambivalent ecological worldviews stances, to influence sustainable natural resource utilization while complete eco-centric worldviews were applied to protect balances in ecological functions. The leaders applied these determinations to promote the dual purposes of the CREMAs as they were set up for nature conservation and socio-economic development in Ghana. The study also recommends that the findings should be explored further to develop adaptable criteria that include ecological worldviews in the selection of CREMA leaders

Financial decision making about found oil and gas in Ghana : real options vs. traditional methods

This research is a study of the use of capital budgeting methods for investment decisions. It uses both the traditional methods and the newly introduced approach called the real options analysis to make a decision. The research elucidates how capital budgeting can be done when analysts encounter projects with high uncertainty and are capital intensive, for example oil and gas production. It then uses the oil and gas find in Ghana as a case study to support its argument. For a clear understanding a thorough literature review was done, which highlights the advantages and disadvantages of both methods. The revenue that the project will generate and the costs of production were obtained from the predictions by analysts from GNPC and compared to others experts’ opinion. It then applied both the traditional and real option valuation on the oil and gas find in Ghana to determine the project’s feasibility. Although, there are some short falls in real option analysis that are presented in this research, it is still helpful in valuing projects that are capital intensive with high volatility due to the strategic flexibility management possess in their decision making. It also suggests that traditional methods of evaluation should still be maintained and be used to value projects that have no options or those with options yet the options do not have significant impact on the project. The research points out the economic ripples the production of oil and gas will have on Ghana’s economy should the project be undertaken. These ripples include economic growth, massive job creation and reduction of the balance of trade deficit for the country. The long run effect is an eventually improvement of life of the citizens. It is also belief that the production of gas specifically can be used to generate electricity in Ghana which would enable the country to have a more stable and reliable power source necessary to attract more foreign direct investment

Image Theatre as a Conduit for Academic Research

In the last few decades Africa has seen an upsurge of the use of applied theatre in addressing individual and community issues in diverse paradigms. However, fewer studies have examined its potential beyond sensitisation, awareness creation campaigns and general education through playlets and post-performance discussion. This paper discusses how some aspects of applied theatre were used for data gathering in academic research in connection with Irregular Migration in Ghana. I base the discussion on how I used Applied Theatre, specifically, Augusto Boal’s Image works on the platform of Testimonial Theatre as an investigation tool in academic research. It also shows its ripple effect of breaking the silence among irregular migrants - returnees in Ghana. Performance as Research was considered for this investigation. The findings reveal that applied theatre has high potential of serving a larger purpose in eliciting underlying information in academic research

Elision in Esahie

One of the syllable structure changes that occur in rapid speech because of sounds influencing each other is elision. This paper provides an account of elision in Esahie, also known as Sehwi, a Kwa language spoken in the Western North region of Ghana. The paper discusses the processes involved in elision, and the context within which elision occurs in the language. The paper shows that sound segments, syllables and tones are affected by the elision process. It demonstrates that elision, though purely a phonological process, is influenced by morphological factors such as vowel juxtapositioning during compounding, and at word boundary. The evidence in this paper show that there is an interface between phonology and morphology when accounting for elision in Esahie. Data for this study were gathered from primary sources using ethnographic and stimuli methods

Re-Examining, Re-Empowering: The Effect of Contextualizing Testimonial Theatre on Spect-actors

To be empowered, freed from rejection, silence and trauma, one may have no choice but to speak up. But how does the silenced speak in the presence of the oppressor? At this point, theatre (of testimony) became the most useful tool to break the silence among irregular returnees in Akuma, Ghana. This qualitative study article reports on the healing and empowering effects of Testimonial Theatre on spect-actors during its use for dissemination of research findings to the researched community. It aims to show how Testimonial Theatre’s effects of compassion and empathy led to the resilience of human essence, breaking silence, and emancipating its participants. The study finds that Testimonial Theatre, when contextualized, is a remarkable tool for breaking silence through non-coercive self-examination, thereby empowering participants

Human Factor Issues In The Use Of E-Government Services Among Ghanaian Middle Age Population: Improving Usability Of Existing And Future Government Virtual Interactive Systems Design

It is an undisputable fact that the world is changing at a very fast pace. It therefore requires a change if every organization and institution are to respond to these changes. It is for these reasons that government needs to take initiative in order to stimulate its citizens to adopt and embrace the use of ICT, using usability engineering as a tool to iimprove the existing and future government Virtual Interactive Systems designthem to give off the best leading to an increase in work performance.Given the fact that more and more governments in Europe and Africa invest heavily in e-government design and implementation, e-government has become an evolving and important research area in the IS (Information System) field. A mixed methodology (quantitative and qualitative) was adopted whilst the purposive sampling was used to select respondents of the study. The main instrument used in gathering data was questionnaire.   The results indicated that the e-government services have transformed how government relates itself to its citizenry. About (38.1%) of respondents identified that an improved usability or system interface was a major reason for the adoption and usage of e-government service and vice versa. However, there were some suggestions and recommendations on how to improve the human factor issues in the adoption and use of e-government services among the middle age population in Ghana with purpose of improving usability of existing and future government virtual interactive systems design, which include establishment of Public Authority for e-government projects, improvement of Payment systems, e-government campaign, improvement of ease of use of services, enhance training of personnel, interactive interfaces and effectiveness of the system design

Leading Sustainability: Understanding Leadership Emergence in Community Resources Management Areas in Ghana

Community Resources Management Areas (CREMAs) establishment strategy in Ghana aims at putting some biodiversity rich communal lands belonging to families and traditional rulers under conservation. Community leaders play important roles in the success of the CREMAs conservation programmes to achieving the desired sustainability in the rural areas. This study applied phenomenological approach to collect qualitative data from community conservation leaders from three CREMA sites in northern Ghana. The major findings of the study showed CREMAs establishment origins vary from community initiated projects through interest group initiatives to cooperation between central government and community enterprises. Leadership emergence was found to be influenced by personal experiences, expected personal benefits and nominations from community members. Emerged leaders engaged state agencies and other external partners for technical and financial assistance in facilitating the establishment of CREMAs. Findings on decision making processes in the CREMAs suggested they were based on consultations. It is recommended that tailor made training programmes on leadership that emphasizes individual agency of responsibility to the CREMAs and their communities should be designed for those who emerge to lead

Identifying the Dominant Ecological Worldviews of Community Leaders and the Influences These Have in Managing Conservation Areas in Ghana

This study was set on the premise of a research question that sought to identify the dominant ecological worldviews of Community Resources Management Area (CREMA) leaders and the influences these have on the management prescriptions of their conservation areas. The relevance of the question was to identify whether the CREMA leaders subscribed to an eco-centric or an anthropocentric worldview which could have direct consequences for the control of resource levels of utilization after the devolution of authority. A phenomenological approach was thus applied to collect data from nine selected conservation leaders from three different CREMAs. Their ecological worldviews were found to be mixed—depending on the ecological worldview domain, the CREMA leaders showed leanings toward stances ranging from complete eco-centrism to ambivalent eco-centrism and ambivalent anthropocentrism. The findings, however, mostly suggested that the dominant ecological worldviews of the CREMA leaders were eco-centric and not anthropocentric. They exercised the middle ground, i.e., ambivalent ecological worldviews stances, to influence sustainable natural resource utilization while complete eco-centric worldviews were applied to protect balances in ecological functions. The leaders applied these determinations to promote the dual purposes of the CREMAs as they were set up for nature conservation and socio-economic development in Ghana. The study also recommends that the findings should be explored further to develop adaptable criteria that include ecological worldviews in the selection of CREMA leaders