Mid-year post

Since our last entry at the beginning of January a lot has happened and we’d like to share a few news snippets.

Book launch

During February we hosted a book launch for Prof William Beinart & Dr Karen Brown for their book “African Local Knowledge & Livestock Health: diseases and treatments in South Africa”.

William Beinart is Rhodes Professor of Race Relations and a Fellow of St Antony's College, University of Oxford. He played a leading role in setting up the African Studies Centre at Oxford and was its director from 2009-13. He has published widely on environmental and rural issues in South Africa and was commissioned by Oxford University Press to write a book entitled Twentieth Century South Africa which has been an academic best seller. His main environmental publications include “The Rise of Conservation in South Africa” and “Prickly Pear: the social history of a plant in the Eastern Cape” with Luvuyo Wotshela. He has also written extensively about the political and social history of the Transkei and researched land reform issues.

Karen Brown was a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine at Oxford and is now a researcher at the African Studies Centre. She has published a number of articles on environmental and veterinary history in South Africa, covering subjects such as silviculture, wildlife conservation, the evolution of veterinary science in South Africa, entomology and tsetse control. Her book “Mad Dogs and Meerkats: A History of Resurgent Rabies in Southern Africa” was published by Ohio University Press in 2011. She also co-edited “Healing the Herds: Disease, Livestock Economies and the Globalization of Veterinary Medicine” which looked at the history of veterinary medicine from a global perspective.

A presentation on their book by the authors and an interesting discussion afterwards lead to a memorable evening enjoyed by everyone who attended. The audience included staff and students of the Veterinary Science Faculty, researchers from the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute and other interested parties. Prof Pete Irons, Head of the Department of Production Animal Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Science, made some concluding remarks.

Information literacy training

We completed the information literacy training for the 2nd year undergraduate veterinary science students during February and March and the assessment results indicated that our labour was not in vain! Next year we are planning to implement clicker training to ensure that we improve on engaging the students and creating a more interactive learning experience.

First issue of Infomania

We published the first issue of our newsletter Infomania in May which you can read online here

Final LibQual feedback

Final feedback for the LibQual survey that was done during August 2013 was communicated by the Department of Library Services’ Assistant Director: Marketing & Quality Assurance Mrs Elsabé Olivier in June this year. You can view the feedback here

A journal publication by one of our colleagues

We are very proud of our colleague Tertia Coetsee who published an article on “Key professional principles for South African academic librarians” with Sandra Weiner from the Purdue University library. The article was published in the Mousaion: South African journal of information studies, a journal of the Department of Information Science and the Department of Library Services at the University of South Africa. Coetsee, T. & Weiner, S. A., 2013, ‘Key professional principles for South African academic librarians’, Mousaion: South African journal of information studies 31(3), 110-126.

A visit from students of the University of Limpopo

On 19 June approximately 28 Information Studies students from the University of Limpopo visited our library. The visit was requested by their lecturer Mr Lefose Makgahlela. They endeavour to expose their students in their final year to as many different libraries as possible and asked that we give them an overview of our library and take them on a guided tour. The other half of the group visited the library of the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute where Mr David Swanepoel addressed them. We experienced the students as very motivated and interested and believe that they have benefitted from the visit.

A “Relationship building workshop”

On 26 June four of our library’s information specialists attended a relationship building workshop facilitated by Dr Madeleine Nolte, Head of Student Support at the University of Pretoria. The workshop was presented at the Merensky library on the Hatfield campus and was arranged by Lindiwe Soyiswapi and Hilda Kriel. Dr Nolte specialises in student relationships and leadership development. The workshop was presented around the theme of “How to woo your professor” and challenges and practical advice on successfully managing interactions with your clients and applying effective communication skills were covered. Antoinette Lourens, information specialist for Production Animal Studies and Centre for Veterinary Wildlife Studies gave a presentation on what wooing clients meant to her. Danie Malan, information specialist for Economics, Financial Management and the African Tax Institute also shared his impressions.