Dr Jotello F. Soga tribute:30th World Veterinary Congress

Report from SABC news: Oct 2011
The 30th World Veterinary Congress in Cape Town has paid a special tribute to the first South African veterinarian, Dr Jotello Soga for his leading role in eradicating rinderpest. Soga graduated from Edinburgh University in the United Kingdom in 1886. He died in 1906 at the age of 41.

Jotello Festire Soga was the son of Tiyo Soga, the first black South African to be ordained as minister in the United Presbyterian Church in December 1856. Soga became the first South African to become a qualified veterinarian in 1886 at the age of 21.

Former American journalist Jesse Lewis has described Jotello Soga as a veterinarian who played a leading role in eradicating rinderpest, a merciless killer of cattle that threatened South Africa in the late 19th Century. Lewis who is also a short film maker of South African history says Soga's name should not end with his death.

It is very special that Dr Soga who is a South African travelled and qualified as veterinarian about 120 years ago
"Dr Soga has been dead for over 100 years, and I think he is a role model, a beacon for young South Africans of all races and culture to explore veterinary science as a career and for them to achieve that excellence, I think he is a model to show all South Africans of whatever colour that they too can contribute meaningfully to South Africa's future."
In 2008 the University of Pretoria's Faculty of Veterinary Science marked its 100th anniversary by naming its Library in Dr Soga's honour. The South African Veterinary Association has an annual award known as the Soga Medal for community service.

Professor Banie Penzhorn says: "It is very special that Dr Soga who is a South African travelled and qualified as veterinarian about 120 years ago, that is why we like to commemorate his contribution to veterinary science in South Africa."

The 30th World Veterinary Congress under the theme, "Caring for Animals, Healthy Communities" ends today with a visit to the Khayelitsha Animal Clinic.

30th World Veterinary Congress, Cape Town 2011

Celebrating the 250th anniversary of the veterinary medical profession in the world, a history session was included in the program of the 30th World Veterinary Congress, held in Cape Town in October 2011. The Jotello F. Soga Library librarians participated in this session by presenting a paper (see details below). Libraries have a most important role in preserving and documenting historical developments so this paper was definitely a highlight. To read the full text click on the link given.

The authors focused on the importance of making valuable and scarce veterinary information available on an open access platform such as an institutional repository, to ensure the preservation of the veterinary history of a country.

http://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/568

http://hdl.handle.net/2263/17556

The digital preservation of the history of veterinary science in South Africa

authors: Amelia Breytenbach, Antoinette Lourens and Susan Marsh
Jotello F.Soga Library, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria

ABSTRACT

The history of Veterinary Science in South Africa can only be appreciated, studied, researched and passed on to coming generations if historical sources are readily available. Material and sources with historical value in any country are often difficult to locate, are often dispersed over a large area and not part of the conventional book and journal literature. The Faculty of Veterinary Science of the University of Pretoria and its library have access to a large collection of historical sources. The collection consists of photos, slides, documents, proceedings, posters, audiovisual material, postcards and other memorabilia. Other institutions in the country are also being approached if relevant sources are identified in their collections. In 2006 the University of Pretoria’s institutional repository, UPSpace, was launched. This provided the Jotello F Soga library with the opportunity to populate the repository with relevant digitised collections of diverse heritage and learning resources that can contribute to the long term preservation and accessibility of historical veterinary sources. These collections can be utilised not only by historians and researchers in South Africa but also Africa and the rest of the world.


Description:

Paper presented at the 30th World Veterinary Congress: 'Caring for animals: healthy communities', Cape Town, South Africa, 10-14 October 2011.

The Dept of Library Services becomes a member of BioMed Central (a Science, Technology & Medicine open access publisher)

The Department of Library Services has become a member of BioMed Central (a Science, Technology & Medicine publisher) and will as such cover the costs of the articles researchers publish in BioMed Central’s accredited Open Access journals for the next year. Stellenbosch University is the only other current member of BioMed Central in South Africa.

Prepay Membership enables the University of Pretoria to cover the whole cost of publishing for our researchers when publishing in BioMed Central’s accredited Open Access journals. No additional fees will be paid by individual researchers. This is an advance payment system whereby the Department of Library Services pay up-front for accepted articles authored by UP researchers to be processed and published. Upon publication, the full Article-Processing-Charge (APC) for the journal in question, minus a loyalty discount, will be deducted from the UP account.

What are the benefits of Prepay membership?

Full support to UP researchers and Open access to their research:

• UP researchers do not have to pay anything directly for publishing in BioMed Central’s Open Access journals;
• UP researchers are automatically recognized as full Members through IP address or password recognition;
• Without any cost-barriers researchers are encouraged to choose accredited Open Access journals when publishing their research.

For questions about the BMC membership, please contact Elsabé Olivier (Manager: Open Scholarship, UP Dept of Library Services) e-mail elsabe.olivier@up.ac.za or telephone 012 420 3719.

BioMed Central Journals on
Web of Science (ISI)

 BMC BIOCHEMISTRY
 BMC BIOINFORMATICS
 BMC BIOLOGY
 BMC BIOTECHNOLOGY
 BMC CANCER
 BMC CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDERS
 BMC CELL BIOLOGY
 BMC COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
 BMC DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
 BMC EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
 BMC FAMILY PRACTICE
 BMC GASTROENTEROLOGY
 BMC GENETICS
 BMC GENOMICS
 BMC HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
 BMC IMMUNOLOGY
 BMC INFECTIOUS DISEASES
 BMC MEDICAL EDUCATION
 BMC MEDICAL ETHICS
 BMC MEDICAL GENETICS
 BMC MEDICAL GENOMICS
 BMC MEDICAL INFORMATICS AND DECISION MAKING
 BMC MEDICAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 BMC MEDICINE
 BMC MICROBIOLOGY
 BMC MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
 BMC MUSCULOSKELETAL DISORDERS
 BMC NEPHROLOGY
 BMC NEUROLOGY
 BMC NEUROSCIENCE
 BMC OPHTHALMOLOGY
 BMC PEDIATRICS
 BMC PLANT BIOLOGY
 BMC PSYCHIATRY
 BMC PUBLIC HEALTH
 BMC STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY
 BMC SYSTEMS BIOLOGY
 BMC VETERINARY RESEARCH

Retrospective issues of JSAVA available as full text

Issues of the Journal of the South African Veterinary Association are now retrospectively available in full text from volume 1(1) 1927-volume 67(4) 1996 through SABINET Gateway’s African Journal Archive. The digitisation process is not completed yet and some of the issues are still lacking.

The African Journal Archive Project is a retrospective digitisation project of full-text journal articles published in Africa. The project is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Veterinary Science represented in UPeTD high ranking

The Ranking Web of World Repositories which was released recently ranked UPeTD (University of Pretoria electronic Theses and Dissertations) at number 162.

According to webalizer which keeps track of the UPeTD statistcs, UPeTD has received 26437086 hits during the last year (Aug 2010 to July 2011). http://upetd.up.ac.za/webalizer/

A Veterinary Science Masters Dissertation of V Naidoo, done under the supervision of Proff G E Swan and J N Eloff, Dept of Paraclinical Sciences in 2004, was listed in the fourth position in the list of top 20 items accessed in UPeTD. The dissertation had 5515 hits during the period.

Naidoo, Vinasan
Screening of four plants commonly used in ethnoveterinary medicine for antimicrobial, antiprotozoal and anti-oxidant activity
http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-03082005-091015/

Open access wildlife information

Iain M W Boardman, Chief Executive of the Wildlife Information Network, Royal Veterinary College, London made the following recent announcement on our worldwide veterinary librarians listserv:

Wildpro Multimedia, the veterinary and scientific information resource created by our Not-for-Profit organisation, has been put in the public domain. This is an enormous milestone for us and I want you to share this resource with all your colleagues and students.

The Wildpro® Multimedia Website ~ an electronic encyclopaedia and library ~ contains a vast amount of scientific information that has been collated over 20 years and for the first time is freely available to wildlife professionals, academics and other interested parties. The information is likely to be particularly valuable in remote developing countries, where access to libraries and similar information resources is very limited.

Visit the Website at www.wildlifeinformation.org

(The Wildlife Information Network (WIN) is a charity dedicated to making information on the health and management of captive and free-ranging wild animals, and emerging infectious diseases, available to wildlife professionals and decision-makers worldwide. WIN was set up in 1992 and became a registered UK charity (No. 1048059) in 1995. It is now part of Twycross Zoo, East Midland Zoological Society a registered charity No. 501841)

Marguerite back after her 10 week long USA study visit

We welcomed our colleague Marguerite Nel back from her USA trip on Tuesday 3 May and cannot believe that a month has already passed since then. We were thrilled to have her back and she enthusiastically shared her experiences with us.

Her six week internship at the University of California, Davis was one of the highlights of her trip and proofed to be very informative and enriching. She especially enjoyed her time at the Carlson Health Sciences Library which among others serves the School of Veterinary Medicine. The UC Davis staff spoiled her thoroughly and she enjoyed loads of hospitality.

Something that specifically impressed her during her library visits was that due to clients’ changing patterns of use of paper and digital collections, physical paper book and journal collections made room for study areas, space for group discussions and workstations to link to the vast amount of online information libraries had to offer.

More information about Marguerite’s visit can be read in the May 2011 edition of our library newsletter, InfoMania.