Editorial

Abstract

 It is always a challenge bringing out the year’s second issue of SAJLIS, usually targeted for the end of the year – winding down for the year and the ensuing festive period usually causes a hiatus in the activities of authors and reviewers. Notwithstanding this, the Editorial Team tries its best to bring the issue out early in the New Year. Despite this challenge and the need to meet its quality standards, the journal managed to bring to the final stages of publication in this 81(2) issue, five research article submissions and a book review. It is heartening to note that included in this issue are contributions from practitioners actively researching in their work environments, higher degree students publishing under the mentorship of their professors, first-time authors, and also those publishing in SAJLIS for the first time. The journal welcomes this diversity, especially in the context of scholarly publications in a small discipline such as LIS which could easily be dominated by a particular category of author.The issue, dominated by the higher education academic library context, includes contributions on research data management services; e-book usage; measuring the application of information literacy skills; the use of e-learning resources by higher education students; and the use of e-learning technologies to enhance information research and learning skills.Research data management services and research support services generally are among the new buzzwords in higher education libraries globally as these libraries seek to support the strategic goals of their parent institutions relating to knowledge production in a competitive higher education environment. In this context, Elisha Chiware and Zanele Mathe share innovative initiatives in research data management services being undertaken at a South African university.At a time when e-book usage by higher education users is being curiously watched, Shelley Wilkin and Peter Underwood use a systematic review of literature on research about the usage of e-books in academic libraries to beg the question as to whether e-book usage is a ‘tame’ solution or a ‘wicked problem’.Assessing information literacy skills has always been a challenge for libraries. Janine Lockhart reports on pedagogical efforts at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology Library in assessing the impact of a learning intervention in information literacy on students’ academic performance.In an interestingly statistical piece, Neil Evans and Jerry le Roux “present a new and compelling method to help understand some of the important needs, perceptions and expectations of users of existing electronic learning resources” at the University of Zululand, South Arica.Sibusisiwe Mgquba and Peter Underwood, in their paper, attempt to establish how an academic library may use e-learning to enhance the information research and learning skills of students.In an issue dominated by higher education themes, it is appropriate to close with a critical review of a locally published title on “addressing research challenges” among “developing researchers”. Stephen Mutula provides an absorbing and objective review of an edited volume by Elias Mathipa and Mishack Gumbo that seeks to address the challenges of postgraduate students in their research journey