SOUTH AFRICAN

HIGHER EDUCATION

LIBRARY MERGERS:

WHAT DID THEY ACHIEVE?

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15th LIASA Conference  Vivian Agyei10 October 2013

“Merger policy is seldom merger practice” Jonathan Jansen

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ORDER OF PRESENTATION

• Goals for higher education institutional mergers

• General perceptions on mergers

• Aim of the study

• Approach

• Limitations of the study

• Findings

• Conclusions

• Recommendations

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GOALS

FOR THE HE

INSTITUTIONAL

MERGERS

An increased contribution

to the solution of

social problems

Improved use of financial and human resources

Curriculum restructuring

Improved administrative governance of

higher education

institutions

Increased student access

A better standard of

higher education

An increase in training and

development of higher education

staff

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GENERAL PERCEPTIONSON MERGERS

Traumatic

Government does not follow-up on implementation of employment equity

Government does not follow up on the cost of mergers

Government does not follow up on utilisation of resources

Mergers failed

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To assess the success of the mergers in creating efficient

university of technology libraries out of the former technikon libraries w.r.t.

provision ofo

AIM OF THE STUDY

InfrastructureFinancial

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(5)

Surveyed areas

(3)

Focus on SA UoTs formed from mergers

(2)

Survey Monkey

(1)

Questionnaire

APPROACH

(4)

Obtain data

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LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Small and targeted sample

Not aimed at all staff of the said libraries

Some of the directors may or may have not been in the former technikons

The views of the directors may differ significantly from those of their staff

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Some of the directors may be for or against the mergers

Survey may not cover the full extent of areas surveyed in the libraries

Responses were interpreted at face value

…./ 2 Limitations of the study

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FINDINGS

All the libraries surveyed report to academic environments

They have campus/branch libraries ranging in number from 6 to 13

Numbers of students served range from 25,000 to 55,000

they are universities

they conduct research as a KPA

All the libraries view UoTs as more demanding

of LIS than technikons

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Staff morale in 66% of the libraries was low

• High rates of personnel turnover

• Job-hopping

• Complaints

All met employment equity targets

Only 34% of those surveyed analysed needs per campus to determine staffing

66% indicated that the design and population of their current organisational structures were based on job retention for then existing staff – thus ignoring matching skills with jobs or needs

Human resources…./ 2 findings

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66% of the libraries were working on re-aligning organisational structures with institutional objectives

…./ 3 findings

Human resources

Staff morale in 34% of the libraries was higho Taking advantage of

new opportunities and

o Personal growth from diverse cultures

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…./ 4 findings

Funding for library collections increased since the merger in 66% of those surveyed

For some, funding stagnated in the past few years

COLLECTIOCOLLECTIONS OF NS OF

INFORMATIINFORMATION ON

RESOURCERESOURCESS

Financial resources

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…./ 5 findings

All the libraries allocated 60% of the budgets to development of e-resource collections, and

40% to print

COLLECTIOCOLLECTIONS OF NS OF

INFORMATIINFORMATION ON

RESOURCERESOURCESS

Financial resources

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…./ 6 findings

Financial resources

66% of the libraries were not satisfied with budgets received:

o No formula for allocationso Expressed needs not provided foro Allocations had been decreasing

by the year

34% were satisfied with the budget allocated.

OPERATIONOPERATIONAL AL

BUDGETSBUDGETS

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…./ 7 findings

Financial resources

66% of the respondents had not received funding specifically for library development since the merger

However, all the libraries had seen development in one or more of

o integration of information literacy training into curricula

o statistics collection and analysis

LIBRARY LIBRARY DEVELOPMEDEVELOPME

NTNT

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…./ 8 findings

Financial resources Library development

LIBRARY LIBRARY DEVELOPMEDEVELOPME

NTNT

o establishment of an institutional repository

o library e-learning for staff

o setting up of e-tutorials

o focused staff development and training

o alignment of library services with university goals

o postgraduate service with librarians especially for the purpose

 

…./ 9 findings

Infrastructure

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34% had realised an extension of a library and its renovation into a modern academic library

66% of the libraries had not realised any improvement in infrastructure since the merger

None of the libraries perceived existing infrastructure as adequate.

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Whether library mergers enhanced the efficiency of library services

…./ 9 findings

66% of the participants answered in the affirmative

* More diverse collections

* A diverse skills base

* The library is regarded by the

institution as a strategic partner in teaching, learning and research* “We do things smarter and better”

For 34%, there was misalignment between resourcing the libraries and the expectation of fulfilling objectives

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There has not been improvement in the provision of human or financial resources to 66% of the libraries since the merger

Only 34% of those surveyed has seen improvement in the provision of human and financial resources since the merger

None of the surveyed libraries had seen improvement in the infrastructure

CONCLUSION

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CONCLUSION

The majority of the libraries plan to re-engineer their environments to

o Better align organisational structures, services and

o human resources deployment with

the demands of provision of service to a university of technology

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RECOMMENDATIONS

Institutions should include libraries in their submissions for infrastructure for research support

With respect to research support, the government expects institutions to have appropriate ‘research infrastructure in terms of library holdings’ (CEPD 2001: 68). They acknowledge that building research capacity and infrastructure may take time and depends on availability of resources.

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…/2 Recommendations

Institutions should include libraries in their submissions for redress projects; e.g. IEF grants

Government acknowledged that successful implementation of the National Plan for Higher Education was dependent on securing adequate funding for restructuring and re-engineering, in particular, for redress purposes.

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…/3 Recommendations

Government should introduce mechanisms to ensure alignment of resource provision to institutions with their set outcomes. Otherwise, mergers will continue to be perceived as a stumbling block to development in higher education rather than an enabler that they were meant to be.

Libraries must not let up on trying to get support for improved funding, re-engineering and infrastructure development

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Questions/Comments?

agyeimv@tut.ac.za

“Merger policy is seldom merger practice” Jonathan Jansen