Another open access journal in biomedicine and the life-sciences

Earlier this year mention was made in the Economist that eLife, an open-access journal for the best in science communication, will be launched towards the end of 2012. Now, eLife has published its first four research articles. To read the full announcement with a link to the full text articles, visit http://www.elifesciences.org/12-1015/

Jotello F Soga Library joins the Department of Library Services’ centenary celebrations

The Department of Library Services had its centenary celebrations on 12 October.

It took place in the Learning Centre of the Merensky Library on the Hatfield campus.

The event was attended by current and retired staff and included the cutting of the Centenary cake by Mr Robert Moropa, current Library Director and Prof Eggie Gerryts who retired as Director in 2004.

A staff mosaic created by staff of the library’s digitisation office was unveiled and the book “The Merensky Story” was launched.

The event was concluded with tea in the foyer of the auditorium and the place was abuzz with old friends chatting along.

At our own library we had colourful balloons and a beautiful flower arrangement, a display of books from different periods of the library’s existence and sweets and water bottles to give to students who borrowed books.

We are proud to be part of the Merensky legacy and are looking forward to another century of success.

The e-book collection at the Jotello F Soga library is growing

Our e-book collection is gradually growing and includes titles on platforms such as Science Direct, Springer, e-Brary and Manson. View a list of available titles with publication dates 2010 +

Tertia Coetsee publishes an article in Ariadne

Congratulations to Tertia Coetsee with the publication of a research article in the latest issue of Ariadne.

Tertia graduated with a distinction from the 5th Carnegie Library Leadership Academy, hosted in November 2011. Her research report 'Enhancing Collaboration and Interaction in a Post-graduate Research Programme' which she completed in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Academy has been accepted for publication in Ariadne.

Tertia describes a community of practice for post-graduate students where RefShare is deployed for digital storage and retrieval, alongside Blackboard for the purposes of communication. She also describes the role of the information specialist in the programme.

The article is cited as follows:

Tertia Coetsee. "Enhancing Collaboration and Interaction in a Post-graduate Research Programme". July 2012, Ariadne Issue 69

Draft Veterinary and Para-Veterinary amendment bill

Information about the Parliamentary Committee Meeting held  31 July 2012 on the draft Veterinary and Para-Veterinary Professions Amendment Bill hosted on the Parliamentary Monitoring Group Website may be of interest to our clients.

The library recently bought the Veterinary Medicine archival journal collection on the Wiley platform. This allows us access to the full text of articles from the very first volumes of the following journals:

Anatomia, Histologia, Embryologia

Australian Veterinary Journal

Equine Veterinary Education

Equine Veterinary Journal

Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics

Journal of Animal Physiology and Nutrition

Journal of Small Animal Practice

Journal of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care

Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine

Journal of Veterinary Medicine Series A (now known as Transboundary and Emerging Diseases)

Journal of Veterinary Medicine Series B (now known as Zoonoses and Public Health)

Journal of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics

Reproduction in Domestic Animals

Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia

Veterinary Clinical Pathology

Veterinary Dermatology

Veterinary Radiology & Ultrasound

Veterinary Surgery

We believe our clients will welcome this, as no more photocopying or scanning of older articles will be necessary.

It was with great joy that we welcomed our colleague Tertia Coetsee back on Wednesday 2 May from her ten week long overseas study visit which she undertook with a group of South African university librarians.

Her visit kicked off with a study program at the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs, Univ of Illinois, Urbana Champaign which lasted from 21 Feb to 10 March.

During this time the librarians also visited, among other libraries and institutions, the OCLC (Online Computer Library Centre) in Dublin, Ohio, which is the world’s largest library cooperative and creator of the World Catalogue.

From 10 March – 30 March the group split up and spent time at various host institutions throughout the USA. Tertia had the privilege to spend her time at the Veterinary Medical & Health and Life Sciences library of the Purdue University. During this time she had the opportunity to attend various meetings and library events, meet many of the staff members and gained a lot of insight in the librarians’ role in supporting researchers at their university.

From 30 March – 4 April a mid-term meeting was held for all the participants in San Francisco and they had the opportunity to report on and share their experience with the rest of the group.

From 4 – 27 April they returned to their host institutions to continue their program after which they returned home.