DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN LIBRARY AND INFORMATION STUDIES

Introduction
Until fairly recently, the need for doctoral programmes in East Africa was not considered critical. The reason being that practically all university based training of information professionals was carried out overseas. However, with the recent establishment of degree programmes in the region, a need for doctoral programmes has become necessary. In view of this development, a need has been felt by the School of Information Sciences at Moi University to launch a D.Phil. programme in Library and Information Studies.

The Programme follows the North American doctorate model. It comprises course work, research and thesis writing. It is a direct response to the numerous requests received by the department over the last few years from information professionals in the entire Eastern Africa region. It is hoped that the programme will address manpower shortage problems in university teaching, research and consultancy as well as leading information systems and agencies in the region.

The curriculum has been developed taking into account the varied and growing needs of the information systems in Kenya and the Eastern Africa region. To ensure dynamism, the programme has taken on board all emerging concepts and paradigms in information management.

 Objectives

The programme is designed to prepare students to develop the highest level of scholarship, research capability, creative thinking and leadership in information management.

The specific objectives are to:

Train highly qualified manpower for advanced level teaching and research.
Develop information management capacity for the information profession.
Develop information consultancy capacity to meet the growing and changing needs of the information industry;
Offer opportunities for higher learning to the nation's information manpower to enable it to be more creative, innovative and valuable to the profession.

The programme will normally be conducted by coursework, examination and research. A candidate will be required to take at least 60 units of coursework, seminars and thesis; comprising 21 units of course work and 39 units of thesis research. The coursework will comprise at least 12 units of level 9 courses and the rest from level 8 courses.

A candidate with deficiencies in the field may be advised to take some M.Phil. courses (level 8 courses) to make up for the deficiencies, or to enhance the candidate's knowledge and specialised skills. Such remedial courses will be examined and the candidate will be expected to pass them. All coursework shall be done in the first year of study. The coursework, research and thesis work distributed throughout the D.Phil. programme shall be as follows:

COURSE STRUCTURE:

Year One

First Semester

Code	Title	Units
INS 901	Contemporary Issues in Information Management	3
INS 902	Advanced Strategic Management for Information Proffesionals	3
LIS 800	Research Methods	4
LIS 802	Information and Communication Theory	3
LIS 999	Thesis(Proposal Development 2)	3
LIS 801	Metadata Architecture,Standars and Applications	3
LIS 911	Disaster Management I Library & Information Center	3
LIS 813	Networking and Advocacy for Information Managers	3

Second Semester

Code	Title	Units
LIS 903	Information and Consultancy and Brokerage	2
LIS 904	Seminars	2
LIS 905	Ethical Issues in Information Management	2
LIS 999	Thesis(Proposal Development 2)	2
Electives
LIS 814	Project Management in Information Professionals	2
LIS 815	Quality assurance in Information Management	2
LIS 816	Education and Training for Library for Information Studies	2

Year Two

Code	Title	Units
INS 999	Thesis(Field Work)	18
INS 999	Thesis (Writing)	18
LIS 808	Information Policy Studies	3
LIS 809	Leadership in Information Management	3