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PurposeThe study examined the personal information management (PIM) challenges encountered by faculty in six universities in Ghana, their information refinding experiences and the perceived role of memory. The study tested the hypothesis that faculty PIM performance will significantly differ when the differences in the influence of personal factors (age, gender and rank) on their memory are considered.Design/methodology/approachThe study was guided by a sample survey design. A questionnaire designed based on themes extracted from earlier interviews was used to collect quantitative data from 235 faculty members from six universities in Ghana. Data analysis was undertaken with a discrete multivariate Generalized Linear Model to investigate how memory intermediates in the relationship between age, gender and rank, and, refinding of stored information.FindingsThe paper identified two subfunctions of refinding (Refinding 1 and Refinding 2) associated with self-confidence in information re-finding, and, memory (Memory 1 and Memory 2), associated with the use of complimentary frames to locate previously found and stored information. There were no significant multivariate effects for gender as a stand-alone variable. Males who were aged less than 39 could refind stored information irrespective of the memory class. Older faculty aged 40–49 who possess Memory 1 and senior lecturers who possess Memory 2 performed well in refinding information. There was a statistically significant effect of age and memory; and rank and memory.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was limited to faculty in Ghana, whereas the study itself has implications for demographic differences in PIM.Practical implicationsIdentifying how memory mediates the role of personal factors in faculty refinding of stored information will be necessary for the efforts to understand and design systems and technologies for enhancing faculty capacity to find/refind stored information.Social implicationsUnderstanding how human memory can be augmented by technology is a great PIM strategy, but understanding how human memory and personal factors interplay to affect PIM is more important.Originality/valuePIM of faculty has been extensively examined in the literature, and limitations of memory has always been identified as a constraint. Human memory has been augmented with technology, although the outcome has been very minimal. This study shows that in addition to technology augmentation, personal factors interplay with human memory to affect PIM. Discrete multivariate Generalized Linear Model applied in this study is an innovative way of addressing the challenges of assimilating statistical methodologies in psychosocial disciplines.

This study examined personal information creation and storage practices in digital and print media by faculty in selected universities in Ghana. A sample survey research design guided the research and quantitative data were collected from 235 faculty members of six universities in Ghana. Qualitative data was also collected from 18 willing faculty members, and was guided by an interview schedule. Faculty reported that they created their information in an organized manner and that they created information mainly in digital formats compared with manual. The task at hand determined the information facility created and search words that are semantically related to the item are used in finding/re-finding electronic information. Faculty reported that they acquired their information literacy personally, and information literacy explained re-finding of digital information but not non-digital information. The demographic variables in the study did not explain finding/re-finding of stored information: gender (β = −0.113, p = 0.280) and age (β = 0.038, p = 0.545). This study establishes clearly the pattern of information literacy activities for faculty in the universities in Ghana.

This study examined the cloud computing-based personal information management practices of online faculty in selected universities in Ghana. Using the qualitative research design, online faculties from six universities were selected and interviewed. Data collected was analysed thematically, bringing out faculty's perception and use of cloud computing services in managing personal information. The study revealed the implementation of the three basic cloud computing models-infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS). Online faculty had positive perceptions about the use of cloud computing services for their teaching, research, and management of their electronic information. It was, however, revealed that online faculty faced challenges in using cloud services due to their inadequate computing and technical know-how. The study recommended computer and digital literacy training for online faculty to enable them to use the various cloud services available for managing their personal information.

Purpose-the aim of the study was to examine transformations in academic library spaces in Ghana Design/Methodology/approach-the qualitative approach was adopted for this study. Data was collected using Google Forms. A total of 98 librarians from five academic libraries in Ghana representing less than 10% of all librarians in academic libraries in Ghana. Data collected was analysed using the R 4. 0 programming Software and presented using charts and tables. Findings- Eighty-one percent (81%) of the participants agreed that their libraries were moving from ‘book-centered’ to ‘technology supported and learning centered’ libraries engineered by emerging technologies and the changing demand of academic library users. Again, it was revealed that librarians had moderate to low skills in providing advanced technological support to users in creating, capturing, editing, and sharing multimedia (video, audio, text, images) for their research, teaching, and learning purposes. Finally, results from the multinomial regression analysis with p values showed that availability of IT utilities, usability and skills of librarians were significant revealing that they have effects on the levels of library space transformation. Practical implications- The capabilities of librarians should be improved form undertaking basic computing task to providing advanced support to their users. Stakeholder and academic library management should encourage their young librarian to further their education and engage in continuous professional development programmes. Libraries should develop strategies to secure the necessary funding to implement IT facilities. Originality-The study used quantitative methods to study transformations in academic library spaces, a grey researched area in Ghana.