Background

B.1 Curriculum Review Process

Busitema University Library received funding from the Engineering Information Foundation (EiF) of the New York, United States. The grant focuses on enhancing communication and the use of information in engineering. Thus, the goal of the project was to incorporate information seeking in the engineering curriculum as essential component in delivering engineering education at Busitema. This will be achieved through implementing a disciplinary-based information literacy e-curriculum for teaching engineering courses as a novel approach to online teaching and learning, where the responsibility for teaching engineering courses is shared between the lecturer and the librarian rather than being limited to the lecturers.

The development of the action plan started with convening a Curriculum Review Committee workshop that constituted the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Academic Affairs and innovation, the Academic Registrar, the deputy Director Quality Assurance, the faculty academic leadership, and the Engineering Librarians. During a two-day workshop, the Committee developed a working document that flamed the first draft of the action plan. Building on the working document and the discussions from the workshop, the Project PI drafted the first version of the Action Plan which was shared with the Curriculum Review Committee members for scrutiny and review.

Through a series of five workshops and eight follow up meetings, the pedagogical skills of lecturers and librarians were enhanced; and brough together lecturers and librarians to prepare e-courses, in organizing e-education content on the learning management system, and e-curriculum delivery. By the end of this exercise, we are certain that online learning for engineering students will receive higher approvals. Lecturers will be facilitators who empower students to become more autonomous learners; librarians will be the coaches who develop within students a capacity to evaluate and choose information; and in turn, engineering students will experience a teaching and learning that is more engaging, interesting, and rewarding.

Thirteen engineering programmes will be reviewed to include disciplinary-based information literacy e-content; capacities of 47 engineering lecturers and 3 librarians in pedagogical skills will be developed and improved; 650 engineering students' information seeking skills and academic writing will be improved, and an open educational toolkit for developing engineering-based IL curriculum will be developed and shared on the project Webpage.

B.2 Faculty of Engineering and Technology

The faculty offers three 2-years graduate, eight four-years undergraduate, and four two-years pre-undergraduate academic programmes to 650 students. The graduate programmes are: Masters in Agricultural Mechanization and Irrigation Engineering, and a Master of Computer Forensics; and a one-year Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Forensics. The undergraduate programmes are Bachelor of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Bachelor of Computer Engineering, Bachelor of Agricultural Mechanization and Irrigation Engineering, Bachelor of Science in Agro-processing Engineering, Bachelor of Science in Water Resources Engineering, Bachelor of Science in Polymer, Textile and Industrial Engineering, Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering, and Bachelor of Electrical Engineering. The diploma courses are: Diploma in Ginning and Industrial Engineering, Diploma in Agricultural Engineering, Diploma in Computer Engineering, and Diploma in Electronics and Electrical Engineering.

As stated in the University Strategic Plan 2020/21 to 2024/25, teaching and research at the Faculty of Engineering and Technology is geared towards value addition and competitiveness in critical national development priorities of human capital development and improved livelihood. The faculty is leader in irrigation, mechanization, agro-processing, ICT in Agriculture and climate change, engineering materials for low-cost packaging and natural fibres, renewable energy, and rice intensification research.

B.3 Engineering Library @ Busitema Campus

The Engineering Library at Busitema Campus is a state-of-the-art building located a few meters from the Main gate. Constructed with funding from the African Development Bank, the Library is a two-storey building measuring 1,400 square meters of space with a seating capacity of 800 users/ 400 readers following COVID-19 standard operating procedures. The library architecture and design symbolize a place of learning, gathering and exploring - responding to the evolving information-seeking behaviors of engineering learners in an academic environment, interdisciplinary scholarly communication practices, information technology, and online pedagogy. The Engineering Library is an academic cornerstone – incorporating silent open reading spaces, individual and group study and discussion rooms, collaboration and interactive technologies, digital learning spaces, staff welfare and workrooms/ offices, inclusive places of convenience, and well distributed and balanced daylighting.

The library is open 07:00 am to 10:45 pm, Monday to Friday; and 08:00 to 06:00 pm, Saturday, Sunday & Public Holidays, with no breaks during the semester time. During recess term the opening hours are reduced based on the faculty’s activities and student population on Campus. The recess term library opening hours are discussed by the Library Management Committee, presented and approved by the University Top Management before communicated to the students. This is to ensure that the library and the faculty’s activities are well programmed and aligned. 

The Engineering Library has nine library staff that includes the Custodian who scouts the library building to ensure the safety of the library materials, staff and the users; while the Systems Librarian supports the development, delivery and sustainability of the library’s e-infrastructure.

There are several public service points: The Reference and Information desk located at the entrance, and adjust to the right is the bag collection and cloak room while on the left is entrance to the University Librarian Office, Pantry, Board Room, Deputy University Librarian/ Campus Librarian Office and the staff sanitary services. Beyond the entrance is the reading space designed with a Hallway stretching up the second-stored floor – similar to the Library of Congress’s Reference Section. The Reserve Textbook collection is shelved at the Circulation point with open shelves running between the reading space; and opposite is the Technical Services and the Digitization Sections.

The First Floor has open reading spaces, a closed access collection, group discussion rooms, and the Archival and Periodicals Section. The Second Floor has the Learning Center with desktop computers connected to the internet; a wall-mounted projector for presentation and conducting trainings for staff and students. The Learning Center is managed by a Library Assistant, under the supervision of the Systems Librarian. There is also collaborative group discussions rooms and a closed access collection.

Despite the excellent building, the library experiences multiple power and internet blackouts which greatly affects the delivery of library and information services to the users; low productivity of staff because most of the work depends on the availability of good internet connectivity and constant power supply. Further, the library is faced with a shortage of library personnel, and while they possess the necessary library and information science education, they do not have the pedagogic skills and knowledge of the university curricula that are necessary for librarians to be able to guide and mentor both academic staff and students or organise curriculum related activities or facilitate research.