Staff matters

Johannes Moropotli resigns

This year was unfortunately the year in which our much loved colleague Johannes Moropotli had to leave us.

Johannes Moropotli retired at the end of April 2014 after 33 years and one month’s service at the library. He started working as messenger at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, Agricultural Research Council as early as 1970. He joined the veterinary library in April 1981 when it was still housed in the old main faculty building.

At his farewell function attended by colleagues, family and friends on 16 April, we took a trip down memory lane reminiscing highlights of Johannes’ time at Onderstepoort.

Erica van der Westhuizen, head of the library until August 2009, had the following to say:

“Johannes and I come a long way. In fact he was part of my 28 years of OP life from the beginning. When I started here in Nov 1981 as head of the faculty library he was already there, an essential part of the 3 person library team.

Johannes’ post in those beginning years was “bode” or library messenger. With his trusty bicycle (it lasted in more or less working order till quite recently!) he was a well-known fixture in the OP environment. Those early years were cosy at the faculty – staff and students were fewer than today so we got to know our library clients rather well!

In those pre-computer and pre-internet days lecturers and researchers got their information in paper format. It was Johannes as library messenger on his bicycle who delivered all their articles in brown cardboard files. Prof le Roux was the Dean in the early 8o’s and he would complain if his file looked a bit shabby!

Those were the days of Johannes’ sporting achievements, namely as Comrades marathon runner. With encouragement and support from Prof Koos Coetzer he was our pride and joy – there wasn’t another UP library who could boast of such an achievement! In fact, when a book was published to celebrate UP’s centenary, the Vet Library was especially mentioned for its Comrades runner!

Johannes’ fitness was a great help with our move in 1987 from the old library to the Sir Arnold Theiler building. We were still only 3 staff members and we had to undertake the move of books and equipment on our own, using the feed trucks kindly provided (and fortunately driven) by the Faculty.

Those were indeed interesting times!

As the computer age and the role of the internet in information provision expanded, Johannes’ role took on extra dimensions - from messenger to electronic information provider to information creator in the e-environment. Today Johannes can look back on his important contribution in providing an effective information service. From the electronic distribution of publications to faculty and students including external users, some even beyond SA’s borders, to the digitization of the first research accounts on animal diseases in Africa as published in the early SA veterinary journals. It is Johannes’ help in digitizing the OP Journal of Veterinary Research which has made this important early research accessible worldwide.

Johannes, na 44 jaar is dit nou tyd vir die welverdiende rus. Ons se baie dankie vir al jou harde werk, jou volgehoue vriendelikheid en geduld met al die vrouens van die biblioteek en jou lojaliteit. Geniet jou aftrede, ons beste wense vergesel jou!

Erica Makulu”

In her speech the library’s Deputy Director: Client Services, Lindiwe Soyizwapi, referred to recent interviews for Johannes’ post and the high standards that were set because it was felt that Johannes was almost irreplaceable! All the colleagues agreed that Johannes’ personality made him such a pleasant person to work with and that his smile and positive attitude will always be treasured.

It was a proud Johannes who delivered the last speech before everyone enjoyed refreshments and further conversations.

We will miss Johannes dearly but wish him well and pray that he may have a blessed retirement with his family.

Lucas Mmalefahlo joins the library staff

Fortunately Lucas Mmalefahlo joined our staff from 1 July to fill the empty space Johannes has left. We would like to extend a very warm welcome to Lucas and we believe he will enjoy his time with us as he has already settled in well.

Maria Mtsweni gets rewarded for 20 years’ of service

We are very proud of Maria who has completed 20 years’ of service at the University of Pretoria.

Maria began her career at the Department of Library Services in February 1994 when she started working at the Basic Medical Sciences & Dentistry library on the Prinshof Campus. She was initially responsible for journal shelving and photocopying. Her position changed in 2002 when she obtained a National Diploma in Library & Information Practice from the then Technikon South Africa. With her newly acquired skills she started working at the circulation desk in 2003 and in 2007 accepted the additional responsibility of interlibrary loans. In November 2010 she stated working at the Jotello F Soga library.

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.

2014 is upon us!

By now the library staff are all back from holiday and are already functioning at full strength. The new year promises to be busy but exciting and we have our first training session for the new Veterinary Nursing Diploma students behind us. Last year passed by so quickly that we never reported on some of the important happenings on our blog! Read more about these such as the library’s LibQual survey during August and the Open Access week celebrations during October, in our November newsletter. This year we started off with a brand new look and feel of the library catalogue that we trust our clients will get used to quickly. One of our most important database platforms,Web of Knowledge, which includes CAB Abstracts, Web of Science and Medline also has a new look and feel. Good news is that the Zoological Record database (1978 – present) is added to the Web of Knowledge platform from this year and clients can do one search on all these databases simultaneously. We are also proud to announce that the library’s seminar room on level 5 is in the process of being upgraded and we would like to encourage our clients to make use of this facility. The seminar room can accommodate approximately 12 people.

News update

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

The 10^th edition of the Posthumus publication “Past veterinarians in South Africa”, volumes 1 and 2 has been added to the University of Pretoria’s institutional repository UPSpace. This is an alphabetical list containing short biographies of all deceased South African veterinarians up to 1990 which was compiled by the late veterinarian PJ (Bill) Posthumus before his death.

POST-GRADUATE FORUM held on the Onderstepoort campus

On 25 April 2013 a Postgraduate Forum was held in the small auditorium of the Paraclinical Building, Onderstepoort campus. It was a combined event of the University of Pretoria’s Graduate Research Hub on the Hatfield campus and the UP Department of Library Services (UPLS).  During the event Dr Kwezi Mzilikazi (Head: Graduate Support Hub) gave a presentation on: “Dissertation: traditional thesis versus published papers compilation - exploring the importance of publishing as a Masters and PhD requirement for graduation”. Sunette Steynberg (Information Specialist: UPLS) spoke about “Finding your journal to publish in:  a discussion about accredited journals and the Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports”

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.

7^th International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists (ICAHIS)

Antoinette Lourens and Susan Marsh had the privilege to attend the 7^th 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 11^th International Congress on Medical Librarianship and the 6^th 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.

2013 characterised by good news

For the JF Soga Library, 2013 has thus far largely been characterised by good news!


Wireless

The University of Pretoria is in the process of establishing WiFi hot spots at all its campuses.

The Onderstepoort campus was first in line and hot spots have been allocated on both the 4th and 5th floors of the library. Visitors and library clients with mobile devices can now easily connect to the internet by following instructions on the UP Wireless Network webpage

BioMedCentral membership
The library decided to continue its BioMedCentral membership for 2013 and UP researchers can therefore continue to publish in accredited BioMedCentral open access journals.

Hendriette Jansen van Vuuren, the Open Scholarship Administrator at the Merensky Library is available to answer queries.

South African Library Week (16 – 23 March 2013)

Our library joined the South African library community in celebrating South African Library Week with the theme “Educate yourself @ your library”. We launched our own library competition and wanted to know from clients what the library meant to them. The clients surprised us with quite a number of entries and it was fun to read through it and spoil them with daily prizes. Visit our facebook page to see who the winners were.

7th International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists (ICAHIS)

During May Antoinette Lourens and Susan Marsh will attend the 7th ICAHIS conference in Boston, MA.

The theme for the conference which will be combined with conferences of the Medical Library Association (2013 Annual Meeting), the 11th International Congress on Medical Librarianship (ICML) and the 6th International Clinical Librarian Conference (ICLC) is: ‘One Health: Information in an Interdependent World’

One of the sessions of the ICAHIS section will be devoted to library One Health initiatives in different countries. During this session Antoinette Lourens will deliver a paper on the library’s endeavour to support research and training at the Faculty of Veterinary Science’s Hans Hoheisen Wildlife Research Station (HHWRS) in Mpumalanga. The HHWRS can be seen as a One Health research and experiential training platform for national and international undergraduate and postgraduate students of the faculty.

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.