Library Science and Librarianship in Swaziland: An overview

Speaker : Dr.ThiyamSatyabati Devi, Sr. Assistant librarian (Cataloguing Head), University of Swaziland, Kwaluseni Campus, Private Bag No 4. M201, Swaziland, Southern Africa.

About the Talk : Library science is an interdisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and other areas to libraries; the collection, organization, preservation, and dissemination of information resources; and the political economy of information. There is no generally agreed-upon distinction between the terms library science, librarianship, and library and information science, and to a certain extent they are interchangeable, perhaps differing most significantly in connotation. Libraries have existed since ancient times, but only in the second half of the 19th century did library science emerge as a separate field of study. With the knowledge explosion in the 20th century, it was gradually subsumed under the more general field of information science. By the second half of the 19th century, Western countries had experienced such a proliferation of books of all sorts that the nature of the librarian's work was radically altered.

I will in my presentation indicate the historical background of traditional and modern libraries and librarianship in Swaziland. The various types of libraries including National libraries, Public Libraries, Academic libraries, School libraries, and Special libraries. It will also cover the state of Bibliographic control and services, professional organizations, library education, and Automation. Highlight the basic problems in the development of the library in the country. Suggestions for the improvement of the present situation along with recent moves by the government to improve the state information activities are also pointed out.

About the Speaker : Dr.ThiyamSatyabati Devi is currently working as a Senior Assistant Librarian (Cataloguing Head) in the University of Swaziland, in Southern Africa. She carries with her a rich experience and expertise of having worked with the prestigious institute INFLIBNET (Information and Library Networked ) Centre an IUC of UGC prior to joining this institute as a Project Scientist with the bulging project "UGC-INFONET Digital Library consortium" in India. She authored more than 45 articles. She attended a number of seminars and conferences. She has worked on a project on Bibliography Compilation of Manipuri Literature under SahityaAkademi, New Delhi. She is an International Advisory board member of TAV Dr. TAV Murthy Festschrift Volume, 2012-13 and foreign Advisory Board member of the Journals e-Library Science Research Journal (LSRJ). She is the reviewer of the Journals "Issues in Business Management and Economics" and "Sky Journal of Education Research". She is also an examiner of Ph. D. thesis of Bharatidasan University, Tiruchirappalli. She is the member of the National and International associations including LIASA She can be e-mailed at satya115@rediffmail.com/sdthiyam@uniswa.sz

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