Responding to the information needs for research success : the role of the research librarian
Paper presented at the Annual LIS Research Symposium, 24-25 July 2014, at UNISA Science Campus, Florida
Roles of the Librarian in a Research Library in the Digital Era: Challenges and the Way Forward
This article describes the roles of librarians in a research library, particularly in the digital era. Librarians' roles vary from the custodian of resources to providers of a diverse nature of activities ranging from collection development, organization of knowledge, information services, preservation and conservation, and management. Librarians perform the aforementioned functions traditionally by using printed tools ranging from collection development tools (e.g., publishers' catalogues, books in print, Ulrich, bibliography); cataloguing tools (e.g., classification schemes such as Library of Congress Classification [LCC] and Dewey Decimal Classification [DDC]); information services (e.g., bulletin, notice board, flyers); preservation and conservation (e.g., clean shelves, use of acid free boxes); and so forth. The traditional ways of performing these functions is being eroded by modern technology. This calls for changes in the products and services of research libraries to the research community served. These changes and the roles that librarians play are discussed in this article. Also enumerated are the challenges, such as dwindling budgets, capacity building, inadequate facilities, among others, of optimizing innovative ways of achieving more enhanced services. Some suggestions that could move the profession forward are also proffered.
Hill country sheep production. I. The influence of age, flock, and year on some components of reproduction rate in Romney and Border Leicester × Romney ewes.
Data from 7,091 straightbred Romney and Border Leicester × Romney ewes grazed at the Whatawhata Hill Country Research Station over the period 1959 to 1967 have been used to obtain estimates of flock and age-of-ewe effects on reproduction rate and its components and of year-to-year variation. The ewes were from six groups: a Romney control (RCR) flock, a Romney flock in which ewes were mated either to Romney (RER) or to Border Leicester rams (REB), and flocks of first-cross (F1), second-cross (F2), and third-cross (F3) Border Leicester × Romney ewes mated to first-cross Border Leicester × Romney rams. The ewes' ages at lambing varied from 2 to 5 years and no selection was practised. The ratio of number of lambs weaned per ewe present at lambing increased from the RCR (0.84) to the F1 (1.07), then declined with interbreeding to the F2 (0.92) and further to the F3 (0.87) ewes. Similar changes were evident for the percentage of ewes lambing, of multiple births, and of lambs surviving to weaning. Over...