TOPIC: FIELD TRIP REPORT

STUDENT NUMBER: 202000453

NAMES: KHOSA KGAOGELO.

MODUE NAME PRACTICUM

MODULE CODE: HINCO42

Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION:.......................................................................................................................3
2. THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF SOUTH AFRICA (SAHRC)..............................4
2.1. SAHRC Library..................................................................................................................4
3. RECORDS MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT:........................................................................5
4. BIBLIOGRAPHIC AND DESCRIPTION DEPARTMENT......................................................6
4.1. CATALOGUING..................................................................................................................6
4.3. BUDGET ALLOCATION....................................................................................................7
4.4. HOW BOOKS ARE BOUGHT..........................................................................................7
5. THE MARKET THEATRE.........................................................................................................7
6. RECORDS MANAGEMENT SECTION...................................................................................7
7. National library of south Africa:............................................................................................8
8. Lesson learnt:............................................................................................................................9
9. Relevance of the lesson to my personal growth as a student mentee........................9
10. Conclusion:............................................................................................................................9
11. RECOMMENDATION.............................................................................................................9
12. REFERENCES:.....................................................................................................................10
13. APPENDICES:......................................................................................................................10
 1. INTRODUCTION:
On the 28th to the 30th of march 2023 fourth level information studies undertook a
field trip to Gauteng where they were going to visit the information centres in the
province. The information centres that they visited are the human rights commission
of south Africa, national library of south Africa, market theatre and the bibliographic
and description department of city of johanessbrg libraries. Therefore, the purpose of
this report is to outline the events that took place during the field trip as well as to
give an overview of the lessons learnt throughout the trip. Furthermore, the report
will relate everything learnt theoritaclly and compare it to everything learnt practically
during the field trip.

Section A: 28TH MARCH 2023

2. THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF SOUTH AFRICA (SAHRC)

Comparison between what was learnt theoretically and what was learnt practically at
the human rights commission of south Africa:
 2.1. SAHRC Library
According to Rabatseba (2023), the human rights commission has a special library
that deals with law information sources. At the same It was taught to students
theoretically during a module called administration and management of information
centres that there are different kind of libraries which are public library, private and
special library. It was also taught to students theoretically that libraries have different
sections which includes client service, information service and reference service.
Practically at the human rights commission of south Africa, Rabatseba (2023)
explained that the library at the human rights commission of south Africa has two
sections which are information service section and client services. At information
services section, it is where they deal with cataloguing and classification.
Hypothetically, during organisation of knowledge (HINA031) and advanced
organisation of knowledge (HINA032), students were taught that information sources
are catalogued before being placed on the shelves and similarity Rabatseba(2023)
mentioned that they catalogue information sources as well.

Below follows the sections of the human rights commission library as rabatseba
(2023) stated:

1.1.1. Acquisitions sections:

This is a section whereby the library acquires journals, magazines, books, law
reports, continuations, commissions report, databases subscription and more.
Theoretically during a module called management and administration of information
centres, we were taught that in the acquisition section of the library, that is where
they acquire materials of the library based on the information needs of the users.

1.1.2. Cataloguing section:

The law library at the human rights commission uses marc 21 to catalogue their
information sources. This is similar to what was taught to us during the module of
advanced organisation of information sources. We were taught that marc 21 which is
an abbreviation of machine readable catalogue is used to catalogue books but in the
past, card catalogues and book catalogues. Furthermore, the library uses DDC
which is an abbreviation Dewey decimal classification to classify their information
sources. This is like what was taught to us theoretically in a module called advanced
organisation of information.
The library is subscribed to the following catalogues: LexisNexis, JSTOR,
organisation of south African law cases.

1.1.3. Client services.

This is a section whereby they provide training to staff members on how to retrieve
information as well as providing information services to the users. This is similar to
what was taught theoretically where it was mentioned that the client service in a
library is where the librarians are working with the users.

Rabatseba(2023) explained that the users of the law library is the staff members and
if an item is lost, it is a must to replace it.

3. RECORDS MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT:

According to Ngwasheng (2023) the records management department is responsible
for managing the records under south African human rights commission. They
provide the records management services according to the act of 1996.

Ngwasheng (2023), outlined the duties and responsibilities of a records manager

and It was mentioned that they design a file plan that is approved by NARSA.
Correspondingly, in records management module we learnt that all the file plans are
approved by national archives and records of south Africa. They liase with
businesses and companies to ensure proper management of records. Likewise,
during the records management module, it was explained that it is important for
companies to manage records effectively and efficiently because poor records
management practices leads to poorly ran organisation.

In addition, Ngwasheng(2023) mentioned that the records management department

is responsible for maintaining records throughout their life cycle. Academically or
rather theoretically, it was taught that records have a life cycle which starts from the
day they are created, used until they are disposed or sent to the archives.

What was not covered theoretically compared to practically:

Theoretically, it was never taught that one of the duties of a records manager is to
develop quarterly reports. In contrast, ngwasheng(2023) mentioned that, one of their
duties at the records management department is to develop quarterly reports.
Theoretically we were taught about the offside storage, but were never given
example, however at the huma rights commissions of south Africa, we were taught
that there is an offside storage where records are taken.

Although we were taught about databases, we were never taught that oe can
subscribe to hear the news about the parliament proceedings and minutes from the
parliament meeting. However, the law library at the human rights commission is
subscribed to receive minutes from all the parliamentary meetings. Theoretically, we
were never taught about digitization, and at the huma rights commission , we were
practically taught that digitisation is the process where materials are moved from
print format to digital format.

Section B: 29TH March 2023

4. BIBLIOGRAPHIC AND DESCRIPTION DEPARTMENT:

What was covered theoretically compared to what was covered practically:

Bibliographic and description department is the acquisition wing for all the libraries in
city of Johannesburg. The libraries are 96 in total and the bibliographic and
description department is responsible for purchasing materials for all these 96
libraries and catalogue them.

4.1. CATALOGUING.
According to Monyama(2023) the bibliographic and description department is
responsible for cataloguing materials in the library. The materials are catalogues
using marc 21. Theoretically we were taught during organisation of knowledge, we
were cataloguing information sources using marc 21 which has a lot of field that
writes information about information sources in a language that the machine can
understand. Monyama(2023) further mentioned that they also classify their
information sources using the Dewey decimal classification. Theoretically, during the
same module of advanced knowledge organisation, Dewy decimal classification is
the manuals we were using to classify information sources.

4.3. BUDGET ALLOCATION:

The bibliographic description department received its funding from the municipality
and sometimes from the province. They receive a budget every three years which
should be used to buy books. If they don’t finish the budget, the money is retracted.

4.4. HOW BOOKS ARE BOUGHT:

There is a tender biding every three years where book sellers apply and dedicate
themselves to supplying books. The winning bider will get a chance to supply books
to the acquisition department. Sometimes, the bibliographic and description
department go straight to the book sellers to purchase books on their own.

What was not covered theoretically:

Theoretically it was not that the acquisition department can exist on its own without
other library section, yet at the bibliographic department section of the national
library, it was brought to our attention that they are independent of other library
sections.

Section C: 30TH MARCH 2023

What was covered theoretically compared to practically:

5. THE MARKET THEATRE.

6. RECORDS MANAGEMENT SECTION:

Villa(2023) indicated that the records management section at the market theatre is
responsible for the management of records such as photographs, student studying
photography’s records and all the records in the theatre. Theoretically in documents
and records management (HINB041), it was taught that the role of a records
manager is to manage the records and villa(2023) proved that to be true. They are
busy with a digitisation project that is called African digital humanities which is a
program that deals with the digitisation of material from physical to electronic format.

Windy brow theatre:

A contemporary opera play was acted on stage at the market theatre. The name of
the play was vor deiner tur. The play was exploring the theme of online dating, race
and socio economic differences between two lovers who are world apart. The play
ended on a note where the actors were about to meet each other. It left the audience
wondering as to who will go to whose country because the guy is unemployment and
the girl has social anxiety.

7. National library of south Africa:

The national library of south Africa is a library that resulted when the south African
public library in cape town and the library in Pretoria combined to form what is
presently known as the national library of south Africa. The library exists to collect,
store and preserve the south African documentary heritage. Through the legal
deposit act 54 of 1998, every publisher in south Africa send the copy of the published
material to the national library of south Africa. The library has a preservation
department where information sources are preserved. Book bindary, book
restoration, book conservation and treatment and book repairs are all done at the
conservation section . The process of deacidification takes place at the preservation
section. Deacidification is a process where acid is removed from the information
sources.

What was not covered theoretically compared to practically.

Theoretically, we were taught about preservation during a module called

management and administration of libraries and information centres. However we
were not taught that in a library, preservation could have its own section or sub
section. We were also taught nothing about the process of digitisation the only thing
that we were taught was the formats in which information sources comes in. These
formats includes print, and digital. However, at the national library of south Africa we
were taught about the process of digitisation.

The windy brows play was not related to my academics as LIS student.

8. Lesson learnt:
I learnt about the new technologies that have been introduced in the library and are
altering the professional work and services in the library. I learnt that these
technologies are making the library functions to be easier. For example, at
bibliographic description department, they use marc 21 to catalogue their information
sources. This is a development or rather a milestone in LIS because back then, in
the libraries, we would use book catalogues which comes with a lot of disadvantages
than the disadvantages.

Upon seeing, Sfiso the librarian assistance, I immediately knew that artificial
intelligence has reached the libraries. Theoretically, in a module called information
systems and networks, we were taught that there are three levels of artificial
intelligence. The general artificial intelligence, where the machines aren’t smarter
than human but mimicking the intelligence of human beings. Another level is where
the machines are smart like humans and the other is where the machines are
smarter than huma beings. Presently, sfiso the librarian robot is not smarter than
human beings but as times unfolds, he might be.

9. Relevance of the lesson to my personal growth as a student mentee:

It would be a huge mistake if I do not mention how ngwasheng(2022) touched my

heart. His personal journey has taught me humbleness more than anything. How he
graduated during covid-19 and became unemployed until he studied records
management. I for one, have always been uncertain about this career until I saw that
it doesn’t necessarily mean that studying LIS you will work in the library. That made
me to expand my horizons and see that LIS is a beautiful career to be in because it
is diverse.

10. Conclusion:
The report reflected on outline the events that took place during the field trip. It
further gave an overview of the lessons learnt throughout the trip. Furthermore, the
report related r everything learnt theoretically and compared it to everything learnt
practically during the field trip.

11. RECOMMENDATION:

It is highly recommended that the national library of south Africa to borrow out books
people since some people stay far from the library and would like to read overnight.
Another thing is to ensure that the library shorten their presentation when delivering
their presentations because their presentations becomes so long that end up loosing
concentration. Another area to be improved is that the national library of south Africa
should have plugged or activated the librarian robot so that we would have seen it in
action.

12. REFERENCES:

1. Khubeka, P. 2023. Cataloguing. 29th march 2023. Bibliographic department

Gauteng
2. Manyama, G. 2023. Acquisition. Bibliographic department.30 march 2023.
Gauteng.
3. Ngwasheng M. 2023. Records management 29 th march 2023. Human rights
commission. Johannesburg
4. Rabatsela B. 2023. Law library. 29 th march 2023. Human rights commission.
Johanessburg

13. APPENDICES:
Appendix A:

Appendix B:
Appendix C:
Appendix d