Not looking back: the experience of an advantaged user in Lesotho

Pulane Lefoka is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Education, National University of Lesotho which is a small, landlocked kingdom surrounded entirely by South Africa. Ranked by the UN amongst the poorest countries in the world and with one of the highest rates of HIV-Aids infection, academics in Lesotho know the value of education in alleviating poverty and improving life chances.

The mission of Lesotho’s Institute of Education is to promote educational development through research, in-service teacher training and curriculum guidance. Staff provide a range of high quality services to Lesotho’s Ministry of Education and collaborate in international research projects.

Pulane Lefoka’s expertise in areas such as tertiary and non-formal education, primary school teacher training and the impact of ICTs in African villages has earned her widespread respect over the last fifteen years. As an academic author and a keynote conference speaker, Ms Lefoka’s research has been cited by UNESCO, the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development.

Underpinning scholarly research everywhere is access to quality information resources such as reference tools, reliable data and up-to-date peer-reviewed literature. The research community is global and the ability to produce top results requires access to the latest global research. Nowadays most resources are electronic and can be delivered directly to the researcher’s desktop in Luxembourg, Latvia or Lesotho through their institution’s library.

“I was introduced to the ERIC database (Educational Resources Information Center) around 1994”, said Pulane Lefoka. “I found the exercise difficult and I felt more comfortable using hard copies which could be found in the library, borrowed and used at leisure in the comfort of one’s office. However, I soon came to realise that the comfort zone did not have the latest publications. In contrast, the database contained research published within the previous month. I had to try online resources”.

And so Pulane Lefoka began her journey into the online world and hasn’t looked back since. “The advantages of using eIFL.net licensed resources are numerous. The idea of having only hardcopy resources seems a world away, as I now have access to much more up-to-date information. Searching for material is more convenient, for example, I no longer have the problem that I go to the library shelf and find that the book is already out on loan”.

“Additionally, researchers can choose from a large pool of recent publications at their own convenience and in their own offices. Thus, the library has in fact moved to where the researchers are; to access information, it really does not matter whether one is working from one’s own desk or from the library”.

“The fact is”, continued Pulane Lefoka, “the sky is the limit with electronic formats for as long as one has access. I would like to commend the systems librarians who have trained and empowered us researchers. I now regard myself, not only as empowered, but also as an advantaged user!”.

Lesotho Library Consortium

The National University of Lesotho was a founding member of the Lesotho Library Consortium, known as LELICO. Member libraries are dedicated to sharing costs and resources especially for electronic information, interlibrary document delivery and collection development. With financial and technical assistance from eIFL.net, membership of LELICO has grown to twelve libraries in the government, business, education and NGO sectors. Users benefit from affordable access to approx. 8,000 journals and reference works through eIFL.net licences, therefore advancing the research, learning and development of civil society and communities in Lesotho.

August 2006