A number of things have happened since our last blog entry in March and we realised that it’s about time to give a news update.
POSTHUMUS BIOGRAPHY
POST-GRADUATE FORUM held on the Onderstepoort campus
Approximately 50 postgraduate students and a few staff members of the Faculty of Veterinary Science attended the event. Both speakers' presentations were very informative and interesting and lead to the students asking several questions afterwards. We hope to have similar events on the Onderstepoort campus in future.
7th International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists (ICAHIS)
Antoinette Lourens and Susan Marsh had the privilege to attend the 7th ICAHIS conference held during May in Boston, Mass. Erica van der Westhuizen, retired head of the Jotello F Soga library, joined them as attending the ICAHIS conference was an event in the life of a veterinary librarian not to be missed! The conference was part of a greater health sciences information meeting which incorporated the Medical Library Association’s 2013 Annual Meeting, the 11th International Congress on Medical Librarianship and the 6th International Clinical Librarian Conference. The theme of the conference was “One health: information in an interdependent world”.
The program included presenters from 30 countries who delivered over 180 papers and almost 300 posters. Exhibitors exposed the delegates to new technology, publications and services and plenty opportunity was available to expand and strengthen our international partnerships by networking with colleagues in the veterinary as well as related biomedical fields.
Antoinette delivered a presentation during one of the ICAHIS sessions, titled ‘Toward the One Health Philosophy: The Hans Hoheisen Story’. Her paper focused on the history of the establishment of the University of Pretoria Faculty of Veterinary Science’s Hans Hoheisen Wildlife Research Station (HHWRS) and how a project to combine the HHWRS library collection with the UP Libraries’ collection gave researchers and students at the HHWRS, the Hluvukani Animal Clinic and the Mnisi Community Programme access to a wide selection of information sources. She emphasised the result of strengthening research and training within the one-health philosophy context.
After the conference we undertook a private visit to a veterinary library colleague, Vicki Croft, who is Head of the Animal Health Library, Washington State University, Pullman. She arranged a visit for us to the University which included a visit to the Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital, the Paul G Allen School of Global Animal Health Center, the Bear Research, Education and Conservation Center, the Animal Health library, the Holland and Terrell Libraries’ Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections section as well as the Owen Science and Engineering library.
Charlie Powell, public relations and information officer of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, took us on a narrated tour through the facilities which included a spacious reception area, facilities for small and large animals, equine and exotic animals, clinical pathology labs, a diagnostic area, a pharmacy, seminar rooms and an administrative area. The tour was very interesting and we were impressed with the Paw Wall and Glass Donor Recognition Wall in the reception area which were used to recognise friends, alumni and organisations for their generous donations to the hospital.
During our visit to the Paul G Allen School for Global Animal Health, virologist and assistant professor Hector Aguilar-Carreno, welcomed us, showed us the facilities and gave an overview of the School’s history and research done on global infectious diseases.
The Bear Research, Education and Conservation Center was the highlight, where doctoral student Heidi Keen informed us of their current research and we had the privilege of coming into close contact with the (sedated) bears under the watchful eyes of professors Charlie Robbins and Heike Jansen.
The library tours made us feel at home and we could share common interests and best practices. Prof Steve Hines, Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning and Professor, Veterinary Microbiology & Pathology of the WSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine, met with us in the library to share his library experience with us. It was clear that the library played an important role in their daily activities and that they regarded it as an essential resource.
Throughout the conference and during our visit to the WSU libraries, it became clear that paper collections were shrinking, moved to off campus storage facilities and library space was converted into areas for group learning or discussions and access to electronic information.
This was truly an enriching experience and we are grateful towards the people who made it possible for us to attend.
COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP
On 12 June our library staff attended a Collection Development Workshop held at the Merensky library on the Hatfield campus.
It was a workshop intended for all library staff involved in one of the library’s core responsibilities, collection building. Information specialists, acquisition librarians, cataloguers, circulation staff, interlibrary loan staff, shelvers and binders were present. The event included presentations from external and internal experts and time was made available for discussions and feedback. Topics included
· Evaluation & benchmarking of a collection
· Collection building
· Tools to use for good collection building
· Databases and consortia
· Marketing of a collection
· Weeding of a collection
The workshop proved to be informative and well organised and provided input for the on-going challenge of relevant quality collection building.
SARIMA – Research Management for Research Librarians
The Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association will be presenting a training event during 8 and 9 July on “Research Management for Research Librarians”. The event will be hosted by the University of Cape Town and held at the College of Medicine of South Africa, Rondebosch, Cape Town. Two of our staff members, Tertia Coetsee and Marguerite Nel will attend the training event. The purpose of the event is to give an overview of the basic principles of research management, bibliometrics, the role of research librarians in advancing scholarship and the importance of collaboration between research managers and research librarians.
