An article written by one of our colleagues, Tertia Coetsee, on research collaboration among a group of post-graduate students of the Phytomedicine Programme of the Dept of Paraclinical Sciences was recently published in Ariadne, a British open access magazine that aims to keep librarians abreast of current digital library initiatives. Refshare, a feature of Refworks was used to enhance collaborative research among the students where reading lists and core documents could be shared.
Article Title: "RefShare: A Community of Practice to Enhance Research Collaboration "
Author: Tertia Coetsee
Publication Date: 30-January-2011 Publication: Ariadne Issue 66
Marguerite Nel, one of our Technical Services staff members, published an article with co-author Ina Fourie of the University of Pretoria’s Dept of Information Science on the information behaviour of veterinary practitioners in South Africa in the Mousaion journal, an accredited journal published biannually by the Departments of Library Services and Information Science of UNISA:
Article Title: "An Exploratory study of the information behaviour of veterinary practitioners in South Africa "
Authors: Marguerite Nel; Ina Fourie.
Publication: Mousaion 28(2) 2010 pp 107-133.
The University of Pretoria Library Services is subscribed to the electronic version of the Mousaion journal and staff and students of the University of Pretoria can read an electron copy of the article.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
New developments in 2011
We are looking forward to an exciting 2011. With a new strategic plan in the making for the UP Library Services (UPLS) for the period 2011-2015 we as a faculty library need to re-evaluate and re-align our operational plans for 2011 accordingly.
As part of a UPLS peer-review exercise that started in 2010, a review panel will visit our library in February to ascertain the quality of our facilities and services. The review panel also has access to the library’s web site and a comprehensive report drawn up for the purpose of the peer-review. We believe that this will be a fruitful exercise and that it will contribute towards an even better service for our clients.
One of the most exciting events on our calendar this year will be a study visit to the USA by one of our staff members. Marguerite Nel who was one of the participants of the Research Libraries Consortium Academy sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and held during 2010 in Stellenbosch was selected as part of a group of nine academic librarians throughout South Africa who will be visiting the USA for a period of 10 weeks. The purpose of the visit is to develop the skills of academic and research librarians supporting researchers at their institutions. During her visit she will attend a development course at the Mortenson Center of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, attend the National Conference of the Association of College and Research Librarians in Philadelphia and do an internship for six weeks at the research library of the University of California-Davis. We are looking forward to welcoming her back with new knowledge and skills that will help us enhance our service to our research clients.
Good news for some of our clients will be that the University has recently acquired a campus wide licence for Endnote, another software tool for managing references and bibliographies. Requests for the installation of the software on your computer can be done through the IT help desk.
The library has also subscribed to InCites, a Thomson Reuters product which is a powerful citation-based research evaluation tool that can be used to measure an institution’s research productivity and benchmark output against peers worldwide. Library staff will undergo training in this product during February and March.
As part of a UPLS peer-review exercise that started in 2010, a review panel will visit our library in February to ascertain the quality of our facilities and services. The review panel also has access to the library’s web site and a comprehensive report drawn up for the purpose of the peer-review. We believe that this will be a fruitful exercise and that it will contribute towards an even better service for our clients.
One of the most exciting events on our calendar this year will be a study visit to the USA by one of our staff members. Marguerite Nel who was one of the participants of the Research Libraries Consortium Academy sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and held during 2010 in Stellenbosch was selected as part of a group of nine academic librarians throughout South Africa who will be visiting the USA for a period of 10 weeks. The purpose of the visit is to develop the skills of academic and research librarians supporting researchers at their institutions. During her visit she will attend a development course at the Mortenson Center of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, attend the National Conference of the Association of College and Research Librarians in Philadelphia and do an internship for six weeks at the research library of the University of California-Davis. We are looking forward to welcoming her back with new knowledge and skills that will help us enhance our service to our research clients.
Good news for some of our clients will be that the University has recently acquired a campus wide licence for Endnote, another software tool for managing references and bibliographies. Requests for the installation of the software on your computer can be done through the IT help desk.
The library has also subscribed to InCites, a Thomson Reuters product which is a powerful citation-based research evaluation tool that can be used to measure an institution’s research productivity and benchmark output against peers worldwide. Library staff will undergo training in this product during February and March.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Open Access celebrations
With one of the focus areas of the library being the promotion of open access to research done at the University of Pretoria, the library is once again during this week participating in the worldwide Open Access celebrations.
The University of Pretoria’s repository UPSpace which houses the OpenUP collection, currently appears amongst the top 300 (position 296) Institutional repositories on the Ranking Web of World Repositories.
An interesting article was published on how the rankings of open access repositories are done.
OpenUp is one of the collections within UPSpace that houses the full text of published research articles authored and co-authored by UP staff and students.
You can learn more about OpenUP by reading or downloading the library's OpenUP brochure,watch a YouTube video on the benefits of Open Access and learn more about what you as a researcher can do to promote open access at your institution.
The University of Pretoria’s repository UPSpace which houses the OpenUP collection, currently appears amongst the top 300 (position 296) Institutional repositories on the Ranking Web of World Repositories.
An interesting article was published on how the rankings of open access repositories are done.
OpenUp is one of the collections within UPSpace that houses the full text of published research articles authored and co-authored by UP staff and students.
You can learn more about OpenUP by reading or downloading the library's OpenUP brochure,watch a YouTube video on the benefits of Open Access and learn more about what you as a researcher can do to promote open access at your institution.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research in Open Access format
The Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research, one of the premier veterinary science journals in the Jotello F Soga Library’s collection is published in Open Access format from 2010 onwards on the OP Journal’s dedicated website
The journal is published through OpenJournals Publishing,a proud division of AOSIS (Pty) Ltd (African Online Scientific Information Systems) situated in Tygervalley, Cape Town. According to their website, OJP is the first African publisher to offer publication in print, as well as Open Access in PDF, HTML and XML. Articles will be freely available upon publication. Articles from several past issues are also available electronically and information on the print journal is provided.
As the publisher promotes the archiving of journal content on multiple platforms, accessibility of new researched knowledge and teaching is improved. Articles can be easily retrieved through search engines and other electronic indexing platforms. This will ensure a stronger online presence of the journal and its articles. Susan Veldsman, Director of the Scholarly Publishing Unit of ASSAF (Academy of Science of South Africa), confirmed that the Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research will in the near future be added to their open access journal platform SciELO SA.
The journal is published through OpenJournals Publishing,a proud division of AOSIS (Pty) Ltd (African Online Scientific Information Systems) situated in Tygervalley, Cape Town. According to their website, OJP is the first African publisher to offer publication in print, as well as Open Access in PDF, HTML and XML. Articles will be freely available upon publication. Articles from several past issues are also available electronically and information on the print journal is provided.
As the publisher promotes the archiving of journal content on multiple platforms, accessibility of new researched knowledge and teaching is improved. Articles can be easily retrieved through search engines and other electronic indexing platforms. This will ensure a stronger online presence of the journal and its articles. Susan Veldsman, Director of the Scholarly Publishing Unit of ASSAF (Academy of Science of South Africa), confirmed that the Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research will in the near future be added to their open access journal platform SciELO SA.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Soga library staff visits Onderstepoort Primary School
It is always a thrilling experience to pay a visit to the pupils and teachers of our local Onderstepoort Primary School and spoil them with a few gifts.Five staff members of the Jotello F Soga library had the privilege to pay such a visit on Friday the 16th of July. It was a visit planned a number of months before when we had the dream of supplying every child (approximately 180 pupils) with his/her own book in support of the “Every Child a Book” campaign initiated by our professional organisation “ Library and Information Association of South Africa”. We received quite a number of books as donations for which we are very grateful and though we could unfortunately not supply each pupil with his own book, we could offer the teachers a whole crate full of interesting books which they could distribute among the different class rooms.
With the visit being close to the completion of the World Cup Soccer and all the soccer magic still in the air, we thought it a good idea to add a number of soccer balls to their gift which also included the regular chips and sweets.
The visit also coincided with Mandela Day on the 18th of July and it was good to know that we could participate in the endeavour to contribute 67 minutes of our time to creating a better world around us.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Valuable resource donated to our library
Dr Rick Last, a specialist veterinary pathologist of Veterinary Diagnostix in Pietermaritzburg and former student of the Faculty of Veterinary Science, donated a very valuable resource to our library on Tuesday, the 18th of May 2010:
Laboratory Manual. 2nd ed. / Last RD, Hill JM, Vorster JH, Bosch SJ, Griffiths, C. Vetdiagnostix. Veterinary Pathology Services.
The Laboratory Manual printed on durable high quality paper, contains much sought after information that will be very useful to our clients.As they mention on their Webpage http://www.vetdiagnostix.co.za/it is a 412 page comprehensive guide with practical hands on advice for sample collection and result interpretation and contains more than 1500 full colour images. It is regarded as an essential source for veterinarians, veterinary students and nurses and animal health technicians that will guarantee reliable, cost-effective laboratory results.
Laboratory Manual. 2nd ed. / Last RD, Hill JM, Vorster JH, Bosch SJ, Griffiths, C. Vetdiagnostix. Veterinary Pathology Services.
The Laboratory Manual printed on durable high quality paper, contains much sought after information that will be very useful to our clients.As they mention on their Webpage http://www.vetdiagnostix.co.za/it is a 412 page comprehensive guide with practical hands on advice for sample collection and result interpretation and contains more than 1500 full colour images. It is regarded as an essential source for veterinarians, veterinary students and nurses and animal health technicians that will guarantee reliable, cost-effective laboratory results.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Impressive statistics on the use of Veterinary material in UP's digital repository
We were thrilled to see that statistics distributed by the Web manager of our Dept of Library Services, Christelle Steyn, indicated that the SA National Veterinary Repository and the Veterinary Science communities of the library’s digital repository UPSpace, were amongst the 5 Communities accessed most from 4 Jan 2010 – 10 March 2010.
See statistics below.
Top 5 Communities accessed:
1. Engineering, Built Environment & Information Technology http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/71
2. Economic & Management Sciences http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/1682
3. Education http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/63
4. South African National Veterinary Repository http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/3809
5. Veterinary Science http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/78
Top 5 Sub-communities accessed:
1. Architecture http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/72
2. Southern African Transport Conferences http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/5201
3. Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/8641
4. Research Articles (Jonathan Jansen ) http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/111
5. HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/11004
See statistics below.
Top 5 Communities accessed:
1. Engineering, Built Environment & Information Technology http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/71
2. Economic & Management Sciences http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/1682
3. Education http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/63
4. South African National Veterinary Repository http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/3809
5. Veterinary Science http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/78
Top 5 Sub-communities accessed:
1. Architecture http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/72
2. Southern African Transport Conferences http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/5201
3. Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/8641
4. Research Articles (Jonathan Jansen ) http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/111
5. HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies http://repository.up.ac.za/upspace/handle/2263/11004
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