UJ Librarians News

IATUL 2011 presentations

2011-12-05T16:36:00.001+02:00

Libraries for New Generation Learners, 27 October 2011
The annual IATUL Seminar was held in Melbourne and jointly sponsored by IATUL and La Trobe University Library and featured both International and Australian perspectives on the seminar topic.

Presentations

Useful Articles for Librarians

2011-11-21T12:34:00.001+02:00

I'm receiving everyday e-mails with links to useful blog posts, reports. I don't have any more time to read, to bookmark them or just save. So today I just decided to post on the blog a few that of interest and I will remember at a later stage, where to find and read:

Embedded Librarianship: new research is published by David Shumaker
LILAC (Librarians’ Information Literacy Annual Conference) 2011 Presentations
Reality-based Librarianship for Passionate Librarians
Standards for Libraries in HE revised
Research Supervisors and Information Literacy
Student Induction, Libraries, Prezi, and Interactive Maps (blog post, practical examples)
Latest Project Information Literacy Report Now Available (Oct 2011 report)
Know Thine Audience. At Sustainable Scholarship Conference, academic librarians and publishers discuss why understanding readers is more essential than ever in the digital age.
Marketing Academic Libraries, by Ned Potter.
Guide to Reference Services
Google Scholar Citation open to all
Interview with Steven Bell — Keeping Up With the Things That Matter for Academic Libraries

Pavlinka Kovatcheva, UJ Faculty Librarian: Sciences
Follow me on Twitter: ujlibscience
UJ Sciences Librarian Portal

Internet Librarian International 2011 Conference

2011-11-12T19:59:00.004+02:00

Recently I attended the Internet Librarian International Conference in London, 26-28 October 2011. I also presented on the 28th October in C204: New Skills for the New Normal.

New Roles & Skills for the New Normal: the multi-skilling academic librarian in action.

The presentation focuses on how the role of the academic librarians changes from traditional, to technological & social, to mobile and embedded librarian. To adapt to the changing environment the librarians need to adapt and develop new skills and play new roles. I'm providing some practical examples from my experiences.

Overall the ILI 2011 was a very successful and enlighting conference.

If you want to learn more about the ILI topics, discussions, links to presentations, etc. these are some useful blog posts, tweets, slide share presentations, statistics, etc.:

ILI 2011 official presentations website

The Library is everywhere: some key themes that emerged at ILI 2011 (2 pages)

Technology Trends to watch (Brian Kelly)

Thoughts from the ILI 2011 (blog post by Gary Green)

Closing Panel: The new normal needs you (blog post by Emma Cragg)

ILI 2011 presentations, blogs, etc. by scoop.it!

ILI 2011: Lanyrd.com (The social conference directory)

Networking at ILI 2011

#ILI2011 Twitter archive (view what we talked & shared on Twitter in regard to ILI 2011)

Visualising the ILI 2011: Twitter archive

Librarians: agents of Social change (SLA Europe blog post)

Productivity for Librarians (blog post by Jo Alcock)

Evidence base blog post

Internet Librarian International: Day 1; Day 2 (blog posts by Karen)

Future Ready panel discussion at SLA Europe event, 26 Oct 2011

Being Future ready in uncertain times (SLA blog)

Academics do not have full understanding of Open Access

Those who did not attended the ILI 2011 Conference can have a good grasp of what was discussed, emerging trends, practical tips and new networking possibilities

Pavlinka Kovatcheva (pkovatcheva@uj.ac.za)

Infographic: Anatomy of a Librarian

2011-05-05T09:22:00.002+02:00

Have a look at this interesting article:

Infographic: Anatomy of a Librarian

Peer Review Guide for Researchers

2010-04-03T10:03:00.002+02:00

The Research Information Network has published in March 2010 a Guide to provide researchers with an understanding of the peer-review process and some of the current issues surrounding the debate about peer review.

Download the Peer Review: Guide for researchers (16 pages)

Read more about the Guide

Scientific Information in the Digital Age: Access and Dissemination

2009-10-13T11:07:00.004+02:00

Greetings from Trieste, Italy. I'm attending the workshop on Scientific Information in the Digital Age: Access and Dissemination @ the ICTP (International Center for Theoretical Physics)
Visit the web page for more information and video casting of the presentations

Visit the Workshop web page.

A Vision of Students Today

2009-08-19T20:36:00.001+02:00

I have seen this video sometime ago, and today I have spot it on Twitter. Do we understand the students today? Find out for yourself.

A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto

2009-04-02T20:42:00.001+02:00

A must see video. (You Tube is blocked on Campus)

Google Docs in Plain English

2009-04-02T18:15:00.001+02:00

Now is the best time to start sharing: Library newsletter on "Google docs"

Web Search Strategies in Plain English

2009-04-02T18:10:00.001+02:00

Social Bookmarking in Plain English

2009-04-02T18:06:00.001+02:00

UJ Sciences Librarian on delicious: http://delicious.com/tags/sciencelibrarian

Video: RSS in Plain English

2009-04-02T17:59:00.001+02:00

Twitter in Plain English

2009-04-02T17:54:00.001+02:00

Follow me on Twitter: UJ Sciences Librarian (Kingsway Campus) daily life.
http://twitter.com/ujlibscience

Blogs in Plain English

2009-04-02T17:49:00.001+02:00

Wikis in Plain English

2009-04-02T17:46:00.001+02:00

Check this out

New Developments in support to Teaching, Learning & Research

2009-01-25T15:45:00.004+02:00

Two NEW Developments have been announced lately. I have made posts on my

UJ Sciences Librarian Blog:

"ticTOCs" will help you keep your lecturers, researchers and yourself up to date with Journals Table of Content ALERTs. Read MORE....

The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online!

This is the largest ever publication of Darwin papers and manuscripts, totalling about 20,000 items in over 100,000 electronic images. Read MORE ... OR click HERE for access.

If you know of any NEW resources that can help with librarians work in support to learning, teaching and research, please let us know.

UJ Library: End-year function

2008-12-03T09:34:00.005+02:00

Who does not love end-year functions? It marks the end of the academic year and the start of the long summer holiday, Christmas shopping and the New 2009!

The library staff did enjoy their time off from work and have the most fun out of it.

Dancing competition

Small talk ladies?

The tables were nicely arranged

Meet the Social team

Congratulation for organising this event.

To all library staff have a good holiday and Happy New Year!

Faculty Acknowledge Blogs Contribute to Scholarly Communication

2008-12-03T09:23:00.005+02:00

Faculty Acknowledge Blogs Contribute to Scholarly Communication

By noreply@blogger.com (Eric Schnell) on communications

One of my more recent hot topics is the need for librarians to expand how we define our own scholarly communications to keep up with changes in the practice of librarianship. A new report by the Ithaka Group being distributed by ARL explores how (non-librarian) faculty / scholars are making use of digital scholarly resources in the course of research. In the report entitled Current Models of Digital Scholarly Communication, authors Nancy Maron and Kirby Smith detail the various digital resources that expands the definition of what is a scholarly resource. Such resources include electronic-only data, e-journals, and blogs.

The report states that blogs are “being put to interesting use by scholars” and contribute to scholarship by providing a forum for discussion. Faculty acknowledge that blog postings allow scholars to share research findings and open up a dialog that can help to further shape and refine their ideas. Blogs can add a layer of commentary to published literature and can give frequent updates of researchers’ opinions rather than just facts and can also attract well established, well known writers in specific disciplines.

While any scholar can use digital communications tools to post their ideas and share them with others, old traditions of establishing scholarly legitimacy through credentialing, peer review, and citation metrics still remain paramount. Although there have been many innovations such as open peer-review, many scholars still choose not to take advantage of these new innovations and continue to publish traditional articles.Issues of informality and not having a traditional peer-review process are still keeping blogs and scholarly social networks from being accepted as creditable scholarly communication. Still, blogs still can offer faculty / scholars the lowest cost model for quickly communicating their ideas and to receive quick feedback.

IQity Blog

2008-10-28T17:14:00.005+02:00

I'm introducing you to IQity Blog. The main focus of this blog is on Education Technology.

This week the IQity bloggers are attending the National School Boards Association: NSBA's T+L Conference in Seattle and you can follow through their posts the latest news from the presenters.

The IQity Blog latest post are:

- Which Educational Goals Should Be important?

- Technology-Savvy Students

- Web-Based Learning

P.S.: Link to this blog is available through "Useful Blogs".

IFLA Report, May 2008: Access to Libraries and Information

2008-10-20T11:44:00.001+02:00

Access to libraries and information: Towards a fairer world (IFLA/FAIFE World Report V. 7)

This is the 4th in a series of reports from IFLA/FAIFE on the state of intellectual freedom around the world. In this report, representatives from 116 countries provide information about intellectual freedom issues in their country. An encouraging sign is that this report contains reports from a number of countries that were not represented in prior reports.

In addition to providing basic statistical information related to libraries, including details about Internet access, the report provides information at the country level about anti terrorism legislation, freedom of information laws, violations of freedom of access to information as well as violations of freedom of expression. In addition to the country reports, several commissioned articles are part of the report as well. These provide extended background information on topics related to intellectual freedom, such as censorship in Arab countries, the USA Patriot Act and its impact on libraries, and the role of libraries in fighting corruption in Russia (Current Cites)

Library Management Systems Study: March 2008

2008-10-20T11:27:00.003+02:00

JISC & SCONUL Library Management Systems Study (March 2008)

Although published earlier this year, this report is just beginning to get attention outside the United Kingdom. While some would say that there is little new in this report, the value of this report is that it provides an additional perspective; one that confirmations what we see happening in North America is, in fact, a global phenomenon.

In the report, we find that like the US and Canadian LMS markets, the UK market is dominated by four vendors with relatively little product differentiation among the various systems. Libraries are slow to adapt ERMS (Electronic Resource Management Systems) and remain unconvinced of the value of federated search products. Additionally, libraries are not using the information they gather about user preferences in ways that help enhance the position of the library as their patron's first choice for resource discovery.

Finally, local OPACs are losing ground as preferred information discovery systems with the end result being the potential for the traditional LMS to become just a back-end system to other, more global and encompassing, resource discovery systems (Current Cites)

Elsevier Library Connect Newsletter: 6:3 August 2008

2008-09-18T14:29:00.003+02:00

This Elsevier "Library Connect" issue theme is "e-Learning".

"If anyone knows eLearning, it’s Generation Y, right? We thought it only fitting to launch Library Connect’s new Next Gen section in this issue, since next-gen’ers can practically eLearn with their eyes closed."

* Spotlight
Hear from Next Gen librarians as they discuss their experiences with eLearning.
- eLearning: Libraries increasingly help steer the ship, By Erika Bennett, Reference Librarian, Harold Abel School of Psychology, Capella University, USA
eLearning has traveled a long distance in a very short time. One can’t deny that, so far this Millennium, its impact has been enormous. In 2007, the Sloan Consortium reported that 3.5 million American college students (20%) were enrolled in an online course. The rise in online enrollments from 2005 to 2006 alone was 10%.
- eLearning 2.0, By Guofu Qian, Systems Librarian, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies Library, China.
What is eLearning 2.0? This term refers to ways of thinking about eLearning which have been inspired by the emergence of Web 2.0. In my opinion, eLearning 2.0 is an eLearning environment based on Web 2.0 technologies. The most important characteristic of eLearning 2.0 is collective intelligence, which is also a core characteristic of Web 2.0.In the world of eLearning 2.0, eLearners can share their knowledge and experience by creating blog, wiki, photo, video and audio content freely and easily. This function gives eLearners an opportunity to become eTeachers, and vice versa. The bottom line? Web 2.0 technology makes all sorts of eLearning platforms easy-to-use.

* Librarians speak out
- How is your library implementing eLearning?

* Also in this issue
- Tsinghua University Library case study: Developing a virtual learning environment By Lin Jia and Wang Yuan, Tsinghua University Library, China
" eLearning can help students become active learners, and libraries should play a greater role in this process of transformation."

- Dr. Bakary Diallo explains how the African Virtual University is furthering higher education through hybrid offerings, Interview by Risa Blumlein, Library Marketing Intern, Elsevier, USA
"Coupled with frequent power outages, digital illiteracy, poor connectivity in some areas, lack of computer and telephone access, high operational costs of telephones and unfavorable ICT policies, the AVU (African Virtual University) had to refocus its strategy as one that would take cognizance of the different levels of technological and educational development throughout the African continent."

Access Elsevier Library Connect issues on:
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/librariansinfo.librarians/lc_home

Current Awareness Articles

2008-09-17T14:00:00.004+02:00

Selected links to various materials received by e-mail (Aug-17 Sep 2008) from D. Nicholson, WITS, Copyright Services Librarian ( see below her e-mail, if you would like to subscribe to her e-mail alert):

WWW/References/Resources/Search Engines/Directories/Google

The biggest World Wide Web university’s database
http://www.ullbe.com/
Google to bring internet to Africa
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-09-15-google-to-bring-internet-africa

WAN Communique on the Proposed Google-Yahoo Deal
http://www.wan-press.org/article17866.html

Google is digitizing newspapers
http://digitaleccentric.blogspot.com/2008/09/google-newspaper-digitization.html

World Wide Web Reference (very good, list with useful links)
http://www.wwwreference.info/
Student Research Resources (very good, list with links)
http://www.studentresearch.info/
Quick Reference Research (very good)
http://www.refdesk.com/instant.html

Alltheweb.com (Search Engine)
www.alltheweb.com

CompletePlanet (Deep Web Directory)
http://aip.completeplanet.com/index.jsp

The ‘Deep Web’: Surfacing Hidden Value
http://www.brightplanet.com/resources/details/deepweb.html

Searching Patents:
WIPO Patentscope
http://www.wipo.int/patentscope/en/
European Patent Office
http://ep.espacenet.com/advancedSearch?locale=en_ep
Google Patents
www.google.com/patents

Patent Information in Brief
http://www.wipo.int/patentscope/en/data/patent_information.html

Open Access/Open Source

- Institutional Repositories (IR)

Publishers allowing the depositing of their published version/PDF in Institutional Repositories
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/PDFandIR.html

The evolving impact of institutional repositories on reference librarians
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServlet;jsessionid=6F15A54DE4BC3EF612B233E19E33EE64?Filename=Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Articles/2400330305.html
3 articles on IR in developing countries
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2008/09/3-articles-on-irs-in-developing.html
World Archives Project
http://community.ancestry.com/wap/download.aspx

Open Access repositories begin to reap benefits for South African Science as CSIR research goes global http://blogs.uct.ac.za/blog/gray-area/2008/07/29/csir-research-goes-global

South African Libraries and Archives
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/rsalibs.html

How Open Repositories Enable Universities to Manage, Measure and Maximise their Research Assets http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/14990/

Seven Academic Open-Access Repositories Compared
http://www.icommons.org/articles/oa-academia-in-repose

Many publishers do allow authors to deposit their works in institutional repositories. See: Sherpa/Romeo - http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index.html

Directory of Open Access Repositories
http://www.opendoar.org/

- Open Access
Open Educational Resources
http://deoracle.org/online-pedagogy/emerging-technologies/open-educational-resources.html

Open Access – What is it?
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/scholcomm/openaccess.html

Directory of Open Access Journal growth rate nearly doubles in the past year
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com/2008/08/doaj-growth-rate-nearly-doubles-in-past.html
Open Access anxiety in the publish or perish world
http://www.plos.org/cms/node/397

Open, closed or ajar? Content access and interactions
http://interactions.acm.org/content/?p=1147

Newfound Press Business Plan, 2008-2011 (Open Access publishing)
http://www.lib.utk.edu/newfoundpress/nfpbusinessplan.pdf
Open Access – FAQs
http://www.researchonline.mq.edu.au:9080/vital/access/manager/Faqoamq

Open Access in South Africa
http://www.sivulile.org/

Open Access: Good for Business!
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com/2005/09/open-access-good-for-business.html

Open access and the last-mile problem for knowledge
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/07-02-08.htm#lastmile

Scholarly Publishing

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography
http://www.digital-scholarship.org/sepb/toc.htm

CreateChange – Digital Scholarship
http://www.createchange.org/
Researchers benefit from Sharing
http://www.createchange.org/modes/researchers.shtml
Bringing down the barriers (digital scholarship)
http://www.createchange.org/modes/bringing.shtml

Increasing Impact of Scholarly Journal Articles: Practical Strategies Librarians Can Share
http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v09n01/mullen_l01.html

Peer reviewing: privilege and responsibility
http://www.textjournal.com.au/april08/johnston_krauth.htm

Scholarly Electronic Publishing weblog
http://digital-scholarship.org/sepw2/2008/08/05/scholarly-electronic-publishing-weblog-august-5-2008/

Library/Faculty

Ithaka’s 2008 report on its 2006 faculty and librarian surveys
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2008/08/ithaka-2008-report-on-its-2006-faculty.html
http://www.ithaka.org/research/faculty-and-librarian-surveys

World Library & Information Congress (IFLA) – Quebec 2008 - Papers
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/Programme2008.htm

Law/ Intellectual Property/ Copyright

Laws for Using Photos You Take at Your Library ((USA)
http://www.infotoday.com/mls/sep08/Carson.shtml

Access To Knowledge Conference Begins Addressing New Challenges With New Ideas
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1214

eIFL Handbook on Copyright and related issues
http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-ip/issues/eifl-handbook-on

(ACA2K) African Copyright and Access to Knowledge Project Blog
http://www.aca2k.org/index.php?option=com_idoblog&view=idoblog&Itemid=69

The impact of copyright on access to public information in African countries: a perspective from Uganda and South Africa
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla74/papers/087-Nicholson_Kawooya-en.pdf

African Copyright and Access to Knowledge Alliance
www.aca2k.org (see Blog)

If you know of any persons who may benefit from this information, please ask them to email Denise.Nicholson@wits.ac.za with their name, name of institution/organization and contact details.

Open Access Day - October 14, 2008

2008-09-17T13:23:00.004+02:00

Celebrate Open Access Day on 14 October 2008.

Visit Open Access Day web page on: http://openaccessday.org/

What Is Open Access?
Open Access is a growing international movement that uses the Internet to throw open the locked doors that once hid knowledge. Encouraging the unrestricted sharing of research results with everyone, the Open Access movement is gaining ever more momentum around the world as research funders and policy makers put their weight behind it.

Why Does Open Access Matter?
"Open Access helps scientists make the discoveries we need to improve health, provides the opportunity for their work to be more easily read and cited, enables integration of research with other resources, helps funding bodies evaluate the research they have funded, and ensures that the digital record of medicine can be preserved." Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust London, UK

"Universities, who support and produce research, can’t keep up with inflating journal prices and are forced to cut subscriptions. With Open Access, instead of cutting off access to information to professors and students, we are able to provide that knowledge without increasing the college’s costs." Diane J. Graves, University Librarian Trinity University (Texas)

"The critical aspect of Open Access for me is that increased discoverability and browseability will lead to greater efficiency of conducting research. Any savings in efficiency translate quite directly into savings for taxpayers and time savings for researchers. That ultimately means more discoveries, sooner, for less money." André Brown, Ph.D. Student University of Pennsylvania

How UJ Library can acknowledge this day?

- During the week of 13th of October we can promote Open Access Journals, Books and Institutional Repositories portals;

- Make promotional brochures

- Use the library and subject web pages , blogs as platforms

- Have a lecturer on the importance of Open Access

Useful links:

- Creative Commons: Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved."

- Directory of Open Access Repositories: OpenDOAR is an authoritative directory of academic open access repositories. Each OpenDOAR repository has been visited by project staff to check the information that is recorded here. This in-depth approach does not rely on automated analysis and gives a quality-controlled list of repositories.

- Directory of Open Access Journals: Welcome to the Directory of Open Access Journals. This service covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals. We aim to cover all subjects and languages. There are now 3651 journals in the directory.

- OA Librarian Blog

- Open Access News

- Open Students (very good)

- Open Science Directory

- Open J-Gate Journals

- PLoS Biology

- BioMedCentral

SAOUG AGM & "Wireless Africa" talk: September 2008

2008-09-17T12:52:00.006+02:00

On 10th of September 2008 in CSIR, Pretoria the South African Online User Group (SAOUG) had its AGM and talk "Wireless Africa: Towards Sustainable Development in Rural Villages" by Kobus Roux.

The presentation is available on:

http://www.saoug.org.za/Kobus_Roux,_Wireless_Africa_2008.ppt.

The new chair for SAOUG is Madelein Van Heerden from CSIR. Congratulations!

Three new members were included in the committee.

Pavlinka Kovatcheva from University of Johannesburg Library was also re-elected.

End of the year workshop!!!!!

You are cordially invited to Southern African Online User Group (SAOUG) end of year meeting

Stress management Workshop and Lunch

Date: Tuesday 11 November 2008

Venue: 13 5th street, Foxwood House, Houghton

Time: 08:30-late afternoon

Cost: R100.00 for members; R750.00 for non-members

For additional information and booking contact Christa Fourie:
E-mail: christaf@saonlineinfo.co.za

Visit SAOUG web page for more information: http://www.saoug.org.za/index.htm

GAELIC Newsletter: September 2008

2008-09-17T09:56:00.004+02:00

The GAELIC September Newsletter is quite informative. These are the main topics:

* NEW STAFF MEMBER

Welcome to Carole Willis who joined FOTIM as the new GAELIC Programme Manager Contact details for Carole:carole@fotim.ac.za, 011 786 4185

* STRATEGIC PLANNING

The GAELIC Governing Board members have for some time been aware that the structure of GAELIC requires a facelift, and so after much discussion the new structure was accepted at their meeting in July. Although the goals of GAELIC will remain the same, the plan is to move away from a focus group structure and concentrate more on our strategic objectives.

INNOPAC Project group

Read the GAELIC STRATEGIC PLAN' IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY FOR 2008 on:

http://www.gaelic.ac.za/docs/strategicplan2008.pdf

View the Structure Diagram on:

http://www.gaelic.ac.za/docs/structure2008.pdf

* FOCUS GROUPS

In light of the new structure that has been decided by the Board, the Focus Group structure will no longer be in effect. The emphasis will change from these specialised group areas to the 3 major objective areas of the new strategic plan. Some of the groups will automatically fit into an objective area while others might find that their previous focus areas are now split over 2 objectives. Some groups will find that they have been "put on ice" for the time being as their focus is not currently relevant.

Read the September 2008 Focus Group update on:

http://www.gaelic.ac.za/docs/focusgroupupdate_sept2008.pdf

* THE WAY FORWARD

In support of the new approach, 3 teams have been formed. They each comprise the following member structure:
- Members of Focus Groups who have expertise in that particular Objective
- Members of the GGB to champion the team;
- A Convener (at the level of Library Director) to guide each group.

* REPORTS BACK:

Strategic Objective 1: Innopac Project Workshop

Investigate and implement a joint integrated Millennium system This area is the most functional at the current time and the members of the Innopac Project Team have just finished presenting the results of the system survey that was conducted. Results of this survey will be sent to individual institutions for viewing in the near future.In July a very successful workshop was held to assess the results of this survey and to discuss the way forward. Some of the questions that were posed include…who is responsible for training? What is the role of the user group? How to ensure ownership of the processes? Read more on:
http://www.gaelic.ac.za/docs/innopacprojectreport_aug2008.pdf.

Strategic Objective 2: Virtual Learning Environments (VLE)

Build capacity through identification and provision of training needs and services for the optimal utilization of resources,Virtual Learning Environment:

- Is Higher education keeping up with the expectations of our students?

- Students are increasingly 'transliterate', communicating across a range of technologies. Can academics keep up?

Read more about this challenge in UK Higher Education: Grappling with the digital divide:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=403135&c=1

And where are the GAELIC libraries in this problem? Well if you support the VLE Survey that was sent out earlier in the year and is about to be sent out again with a slightly amended approach, we will be able to assess this situation within our member institutions.

P.S. Dr Anette van Vuren is Operational Manager in VLE group

Strategic Objective 3:

Improve cost efficiency through joint procurement and resources sharing

P.S. Hannie Sander is Convenor of this group

* NEWS AND VIEWS

- IUG-SA 2008, Theme: "Innovate or mummify"

Don't forget to diarise the 12th-14th November as these are the dates when the annual IUG-SA is happening on the NNMU North Campus in Port Elizabete. The theme of the conference is "Innovate or mummify" or how to maximize the Millennium products to make the most of the library system. Some of the subjects under consideration are Statistics, using Macro's and templates, Millennium ILL, Collection Development & reporting tools, Cataloguing challenges of FRBR, Copyright management and course packs, New releases and System enhancement requests to name just a few. Please note the cut off date for early bird registration has been extended until 30th September. For more details and registration go to:

http://www.seals.ac.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=25

- Don't forget the Directors Symposium happening on the 12th November.

Under discussion: What is expected of the library in the research environment? eResearch and the challenges facing libraries to deliver.

* NOTABLE:

- IFLA

Well IFLA has come and gone again and for those lucky people who went to Canada this year we hope you came back inspired and motivated and ready to share your new insights with the rest of us. Next year the event takes place in Milan, Italy and of note is that a proudly South African Librarian is to head IFLA next year. Ellen Tise of Stellenbosch University is the incoming president for 2009.Read about it in Library Journal: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6478649.html?rssid=220

Visit GAELIC website for more information: http://www.gaelic.ac.za/

Researchers' use of academic libraries and their services

2008-09-17T09:03:00.003+02:00

Researchers' use of academic libraries and their services: UK experience
(http://www.rin.ac.uk/files/libraries-report-2007.pdf
Appendixes: http://www.rin.ac.uk/files/Appendix_0.pdf)

This study was designed to provide an up-to-date and forward-looking view of how researchers interact with academic libraries in the UK. Harnessing empirical data and qualitative insights from over 2250 researchers (Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Physical sciences and Life Sciences) and 300 librarians, the RIN (Research Information network) and CURL (Consortium of Research Libraries) hope that the results will be useful in informing the debate about the future development of academic libraries and the services they provide to researchers.

Some of the results are:
The rise of e-research, interdisciplinary work, cross-institution collaborations, and the expectation of massive increases in the quantity of research output in digital form all pose new challenges. These challenges are about how libraries should serve the needs of researchers as users of information sources of many different kinds, but also about how to deal with the information outputs that researchers are creating.
* Pressure Points
- The majority of researchers in all disciplines have adapted readily to the widespread availability of digital content, accessible directly from their desktops.

- But while nearly all researchers think funding the library should be a high or top priority for their institution, librarians indicate that it is not always easy to secure top-level support.

- Limited funding emphasises the tension between competing demands for library resources: many researchers perceive that libraries give greater priority to support for teaching and learning rather than to research, something that many librarians acknowledge.
* A sense of Place
- There has been a sharp fall over the past five years in the number of researchers who visit their institution’s library regularly. This is most pronounced in the sciences, but in all disciplines there is clear evidence of declining attendance.

- Researchers are choosing to access digital information from their desktops, primarily from their office but also from their homes.

- Only in the arts and humanities do a significant majority of researchers put a high value on the services provided in library buildings.

- More must be done to facilitate the use of other libraries’ offerings and to promote the use of reciprocal access schemes for both printed and digital content.
* Researcher Behaviour
- Most researchers use digital finding aids to locate both digital and print-based resources.

- Print finding aids are used by very few researchers, and these are mainly in the arts and humanities.

- This highlights the need for libraries to ensure that they provide online high-quality meta data for their holdings, and that they address cataloguing backlogs.
* New ways of working
- As users of digital information, researchers place a very high value on electronic journals, but a much lower value as yet on libraries’ provision of other kinds of digital resources.
- There is an urgent need for librarians and the research community to work together to clarify the roles and responsibilities of key players – at national as well as institutional level - in managing these outputs.
* New ways of providing
- A significant part of the study focuses on the roles librarians play in support of the research process, and the related expectations of researchers. Both groups expect that libraries will have a key role as custodians and managers of digital resources.
- Multi-institutional developments such as Virtual Research Environments will continue to grow.
* Visibility, sharing, openness
- Feedback from researchers is very positive, but many information resources that could be useful to researchers remain under-used currently, mainly because they exist only in hard copy or are inadequately catalogued.
- Researchers’ awareness of new developments in scholarly communications, particularly issues to do with open access to research outputs, is low.
* Library-research community relations and the future promotion of library services
- For librarians, liaison with the research community presents a number of problems, arising from the transience of many of the individual relationships that can be formed, the increasing tendency for researchers to use library services remotely, and researcher independence.

- There are significant differences between researchers and librarians in attitudes, perceptions and awareness of key issues. Many believe that communication channels need to be improved but achieving this is not easy.

- There is a danger that the role of libraries may be diluted as researchers, particularly younger ones, turn to the social networking space to share research-based information.

- The successful research library of the future needs to forge a stronger brand identity within the institution.

For more information on RIN visit: http://www.rin.ac.uk/about

Reference in Transition: a scenario for the future librarians

2008-09-05T05:32:00.005+02:00

I found this article through iLibrarian blog. Stephen Abram has written an exciting piece on the fate of reference with Evolution to Revolution to Chaos? Reference in Transition in September issue of Searcher Magazine.

He talks about the biggest challenge the libraries need to face and provides a scenario for the future of the reference - the information commons, the learning commons, the embedded librarians, the remote librarians, etc. He says that "we have to change our own personal behaviors and styles to adapt and reach beyond merely adding websites, technologies, and content to our toolkits. For this change, we have to place ourselves in all of the spaces inhabited by our users. We have to introduce complementary in-person and virtual contact. We have to be everywhere they are, since that’s the user expectation, and adapt to the tools that match their needs — IM, texting, smartphones, social networks, and the rest. And we’re seeing strong resistance from many of our colleagues. Can we do it? Remember, the dinosaurs didn’t go extinct because the climate changed. They disappeared because they couldn’t adapt quickly enough to the changes happening around them!"

"Reference and research services, the front line of library service, are dealing with a far-less-predictable future. The asynchronous, asymmetrical threats facing us are very real hydra monsters challenging our roles in many ways, all having some truth. The fate of reference has come into clearer focus in Web 2.0/Library 2.0 discussions and debates. The emphasis has moved from understanding and learning the technology to understanding end-user behaviors in context. Policies have moved from serving library management needs and library workers’ preferences to where end-user needs trump librarian insights and personal search preferences. If this attitude hadn’t changed, we’d be in real trouble now — although, admittedly, you still occasionally encounter dinosaur tracks and hear the roar of distant mastodons. A plethora of new end-user research — from usability through personas and from hit analyses to ethnographic and behavioral studies — focus on workplace needs, scholarly behavior, learning styles, and entertainment and demonstrate a material shift in the library user firmament."

Google Chrome Browser now live

2008-09-05T04:45:00.003+02:00

On 2nd of September 2008 Google has released a new product: Google Chrome Browser. So far there are mixed reviews and experiences. Google on Google Chrome - comic book step-by-step guide was released to help people learn more about the browser. In competition to Firefox & Explorer, this product is coming strong on the market. Use these links to learn more about this browser and what competitors and public has to say about it.

* 10 things we'd like to see in Chrome

* Google's Chrome: 7 Reasons for It and 7 Reasons Against It

* Review: Google Chrome lacks polish under the hood
Read more on: CNET News - 3387 related articles »; InformationWeek - 125 related articles » & PC World - 40 related articles »

Latest from the blogosphere

2008-08-05T22:08:00.007+02:00

It has been a while since I blogged last. This is what I have found on the iLibrarinan blog, that could be of interest:

50 Awesome Search Engines

Laura Milligan at BestCollegesOnline.com puts together a mega-list of 50 Awesome Search Engines Every Librarian Should Know About. If you’re looking for a departure from your usual search engine, or just want to add more resources to your search toolkit, you’ll want to check this one out. I have tried the "reference searches" resources and some of them will provide you with quick useful information.

A New Look for Delicious

The Delicious social bookmarking website has undergone a transformation to a sleek new design which is much easier on the eyes. What has change:

- “Speed: We’ve moved to a new infrastructure that makes every page faster.

- Search: We’ve completely overhauled our search engine to make it faster and more powerful.

- Design: Finally, we’ve updated the user interface to improve usability and add a few often-requested features (such as selectable detail levels and alphabetical sorting of bookmarks). Check out the What’s New page for an overview of the changes.

Have a look at my sciencelibrarian on Delicious to see all these changes. I'm really impressed with the new "makeover" as it is much easier to spot the tagged information.

70+ Open Courseware Resources

Christina Laun at CollegeDegrees.com has compiled The Ultimate Guide to Using Open Courseware: 70+ Apps, Search Engines and Resources for Free Learning.

Pirated and Open Source Books

These are quite a few projects with Open Source books which have been made free by their copyright holders. If you are a student or a professor about to choose your readings for the fall semester, you may want to consider some of these choices: Textbook Revolution ; Global Text Project etc.

Ten Social Networking Tips for Libraries

The LibrarianInBlack puts together some stellar tips for libraries who are contemplating establishing a presence within social networking communities. Each tip is expertly explained to help libraries maximize the power of social networking websites, check out the full story for more on these recommendations:
- Do your research.
- Keep your information current.
- Use a photo of a real live person.
- Feel free to have an alias.
- It’s not all about all your friends.
- Suss it up.
- Turn on notifications.
- Have fun!
- Know no fear.
- Deleting accounts is okay.

50 Steps to Developing a Consistent Social Media Practice

If you’ve been considering implementing social media such as blogs, podcasting, social networking, etc. in your library or organization, you’ll want to check out Chris Brogan’s 50 Steps to Establishing a Consistent Social Media Practice. He determines fifty activities that you can pursue to help develop a well-rounded social media presence online.

100+ RSS Tools

Christina Laun from the OEDb puts together the The Ultimate RSS Toolset: 100+ Online Apps and Resources.

50 Blog Topic Ideas

Social media guru Chris Brogan creates an inspirational list of 50 Blog Topics Marketers Could Write For Their Companies, and I can definitely see a lot of useful ideas for library.

Library-Related APIs

Thinking about creating a library mashup? Roy Tennant at TechEssence.info puts together a list of useful library-related APIs or Application Programming Interfaces that you may find helpful. Here are a few of his recommendations to get you started: Library of Congress Subject Headings ; WorldCat Search Service ; Amazon ;Google Book Search API

50 Ways to use Social Media to Improve Marketing

Chris Brogan discusses 50 Ways Marketers Can use Social Media to Improve Their Marketing.

70 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube

Open Culture spotlights 70 educational video collections on YouTube originating from media outlets, cultural institutions, universities and non-profits.

Elsevier Library Connect Newsletter: Vol.6, no. 2, 2008

2008-06-15T09:09:00.003+02:00

This "Library Connect" issue explores how libraries and publishers are seeking to understand and serve upcoming generations — in particular Millennials, the generation born from about 1979 to 1994. This generation includes Net natives — people who’ve always known the digital world and embrace its latest offerings.

Features
- Commons, chat and collaboration: How we’re connecting with Millennials at Murdoch University Library
- The future of the undergraduate library: Asking questions with too many answers and too many opportunities
- Millennial disconnects with publishers and libraries
- Undergrads’ research habits, motivators and attitudes:What studies tell us:
The 2006 study revealed key findings:

1: Today’s undergrads are achievement-oriented
- Of students interviewed, only 40% proactively conducted course-related research, but 100% engaged in online study daily or a few times per week.
- “The mean frequency was 4 or 5 times per week and the mean duration was 1.5 hours per search session, implying about 6.7 hours per week spent searching [for course-related information].”
2: Today’s undergrads are selective and like to control their time
- 100% of students interviewed in 2006 used Google and listed it in their top three starting points. Recent research (CIBER, 2008) commissioned by the British Library and JISC states that search engines have become the primary brand Millennials associate with the Internet and are ubiquitously used by this generation.
- But all students interviewed by Elsevier also used their university library websites or catalogs, and they didn’t feel overly positive towards Google.
3: Today’s undergrads are practical
When asked what constitutes a good source of information, students interviewed in 2006 gave the following answers, listed by popularity:
> Recommended by friends
> Its reputation
> Prior personal experience
> Ease of use
> Provides links to other reliable sources
4: Today’s undergrads spend time in libraries
- Regarding their use of the university library, 100% of 2006 interviewees reported visiting the library and 80% reported doing so more than once a week. The majority reported consulting librarians but “only to retrieve books or for inter library loans” and did not consider them a source of recommendations for information sources
5: Today's undergrads are social but prefer to do research at home
Of students interviewed in 2006, 60% preferred to do research from home. When asked to rank their reasons for being on campus, after “to attend a seminar or lecture and studying for exams,” the second and third most popular reasons given were socializing with friends and playing sports.
In conclusion, the research illustrated that today’s undergrads may exhibit a different persona than preceding generations, yet are displaying rather traditional information-seeking behavior. Just as social applications like Facebook don’t make people genuinely more social, the availability of tools such as Google doesn't make today’s undergrads more adept researchers or equip them to skip the very real and challenging work required to earn a degree.
More interesting articles:
* How we're moving to a primarily digital library
* How we’re redesigning academic libraries to keep them as the center of campus
* How we're transforming our library spaces and mindset
* Librarians Speak Up:How is your library innovating to support Millennials?
* Looking to help researchers stay connected? Try TopCited (www.topcited.com) and 2collab (www.2collab.com)
* Q: Why does Elsevier request transfer of copyright?

If you have missed Elsevier "Library Connect" previous issues got to:
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/librariansinfo.librarians/lc_home

What's new @ JSTOR

2008-06-08T16:53:00.002+02:00

The latest (4th June, 2008) from JSTOR Publishers:
* The first journal to be released on the new JSTOR platform is available now, The Willson Bulletin, Life Sciences Collection; Release content: Vol.1-116, 1889-2004 (full-text through the UJ Databases)
* Platform updates during the week of 9th June:
- The "Page of First Match" will be restored. Selecting this option will once again take users to the first page upon which a search term appears, rather than the first page of the article.
- The ability to jump to search term locations by page will be restored. Users will see the "Your search term occurs on ..." indicator at the top of each article page.
- Tumbnail images on the "Images in JSTOR" tab will be restored.
- An error that caused dificulties with the Adobe Reader Find and Search functionality in downloaded PDFs will be corrected.
- Several bugs with searching Author names, Phrase searching, Wildcard searching, and Fuzzy searching will be corrected.
* Future updates:
- PDFs with OCR errors: Approximately 5-10% of PDF versions of articles in the JSTOR archives are currently missing supporting OCR coordinates and await reprocessing on the new platform.
- Terms & Conditions pop-up boxes
- EZPoxy Reminder

Information Resources: Options and Opportunities for end-user

2008-06-08T13:46:00.003+02:00

Bianca Saporiti, Ovid's Regional Sales Manager was invited to the UJ Library to present a talk on "Information Resources: Options and Opportunities Available for the End-user Today". Librarians and lecturers from the UJ Humanities Departments were present on Friday, 6th of June.

What a better way to start a presentation if not to look back at where the Universities has started:
* Kant, the German 18th century philosopher who established the tradition of critical analysis, influenced thought so extensively that he is regarded as the founder of the University of Reason. Critical thought - consists of mental processes of discernment, analysis and evaluation
* Humboldt and the German Idealists gave us the modern university, replacing the University of Reason with the University of Culture – an institution whose purpose was jointly teaching and intense research. Culture meaning the patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. The purpose of the University of Culture was to form ‘citizens’, provide them with national self-knowledge, i.e. national culture.
* Internationally the University of Culture has given way to the University of Excellence – with each of its various parts functioning excellently and all divisions of the university being asked to demonstrate their excellence. Excellence is demonstrated by ratings or rankings which are overseen by university management. The University of Excellence is connected with professionalisation –the professional is judged by his/her peers. The purpose of the University of Excellence is to provide ‘cultural literacy’, common information to its students.

Over the past two decades global culture and society has moved from the Gutenberg galaxy – read print - into the world of cyberspace. Academia is now caught up in the fast-changing and dynamic world where e-information and e-learning is altering and evolving not only the role of the university, but its professionals/professors and how they impart knowledge to the students.
Most university students, aka the users - don’t care where their information comes from as long as it is useful and easy to get to. The appeal of the open web is its simple, integrated ‘one search’ solution. Users have increasingly become ‘googlized’ in their pursuit of easy and ‘good enough’ information rather than searching out traditional and authoritative references as suggested and/or recommended by instructors/professors.

The primary mission of an academic library is the provision of content for research and teaching. Academic libraries make resource decisions with an eye to optimizing access to content that is relevant to the curricula of their particular institutions thus, aiding and abetting the core efforts of the faculty to educate. The introduction of e-resources in the mainstream of the learning culture in universities has exposed end-users to more sources of information than ever before.
The information resources and tools the Academic Libraries provide to their users are :
- Library catalogue, OPAC
- Print books and e-books
- Print journals and e-journals
- Abstract & Index Databases, e-only access
- Full text Databases – e-only
- Open Access full text – both e-books and e-journals
- Course reserve packs
- Federated search engines for single access point to all e-information
Some points of discussion were:
* Researchers have developed an intense demand for published information.
* There is too much information for faculty and researchers to chose from.
* Demand for information has become more urgent – younger generation of researchers reared and nurtured by the Internet.
* The scale of international, multidisciplinary research dictates greater cooperation amongst researchers, the result of which is a greater exchange of ideas, and published papers.
* Fragmentation in disciplines has resulted in an increase of interest in specialised sub-discipline monograms.

What we had to say?

From the discussion it came out that students need to be trained on the importance of the library and the sources of information which are made available to them; The Library need to adapt and change to the needs of its users; The Library need to teach students how to evaluate information from the Internet and how to find through the Library peer-review sources. The Faculties needs also be introduced to the latest developments in the library and its resources. Collaboration between Faculty and Library should be a common practice.

P.S. Thank to Ronel Smit for organising this interesting presentation.

Institutional Repositories: The way forward for Libraries?

2008-06-08T13:05:00.008+02:00

At the SAOUG conference, there were number of papers on Institutional Repositories (IR). In post dated 6th of June I have some information on IR papers. I have found some additional information "googling" - links to interesting articles and presentations, upcoming workshop on IR, direct links to South African repositories, etc. It is time for us to learn more as it is a reality at UJ and we all will be involved one way or another.

INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORIES: Articles, Presentations, Workshops...
Institutional Repository Workshop - University of Pretoria, 1 - 3 October 2008, University of Pretoria
Main Articles: 'South African Repositories: Bridging Knowledge ...
Main Articles: 'Targeting Academic Research with Southampton's ...
Institutional Repositories: Partnering with Faculty to Enhance ...
Institutional Repositories Hidden Treasures
Institutional Repositories « spineless?

USEFUL LINKS TO INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORIES @:
* University of Johannesburg
- UJ Electronic Thesis and Dissertations Database: http://etd.rau.ac.za/
- UJ Institutional Repositories: http://ujdigispace.uj.ac.za/
* South Africa

(according to ROAR and openDOAR )
African Higher Education Research Online
CSIR Research Space
DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology
Durban University of Technology Institutional Repository
Rhodes eResearch Repository
Stellenbosch University Electronic Theses & Dissertations

University of Cape Town Computer Science Research Document Archive
University of Cape Town Lawspace
University of Johannesburg Electronic Theses & Dissertations
University of Pretoria Electronic Theses & Dissertations
University of Pretoria Institutional Repository (UPSpace)
University of the Western Cape Electronic Theses & Dissertations

* Africa
http://www.opendoar.org/countrylist.php
* Worldwide
ResearchNow

SAOUG: Day 2, 5th June 2008

2008-06-06T21:21:00.006+02:00

The SAOUG Conference Day 2, 5th June.

Yet another day of interesting presentations from fellow librarians and of course, the Keynote speaker Geoff Hoy from TENET. How librarians view the IT Techies and how they view us - the librarians. Make you think of the stereotypes we all fall victims to. Times change, so we are. Some of us become 2.0 librarians and use these tools to better the services in the library and get closer to the so called "google generation". But the librarians need to start working in partnership with their IT departments, as there are many pitfalls for which we are not trained.

Number of presenters talked about the Open Source Institutional Repositories. World-wide the paradigm is to make research collections available online and improving the access to information, which is of great value for research. Since the facilitation of access to information is a primary function of academic or research libraries, they can take the initiative to implement a digital research repository in order to manage, organise, preserve, distribute and offer access to research conducted by the members of the institution. If an institution supports open access, wants to increase the usage and visibility of research conducted at that institution and want to preserve all research output digitally, an institutional repository (IR) is the answer.

In SA there are currently 12 repositories. How to get started with creating IR?

- Analise the need of your organization (survey-questionnaire; presentations to researchers)

- Compile a plan & proposal

- Evaluate various IR software (DSpace, etc.)

- Develop, Design & Install your repository (management approval)

- Test your repository

- Market and promote your repository

- Develop policies and procedures (preservation, copyright, etc.)

- Sell the idea to the academics ( demonstrations; how easy is to submit material to repository)

- Provide training

- Register your repository

- Communicate, collaborate & share with others; start populating; make it more visible.

Other interesting development comes from CSIR. They are busy building a "Knowledge commons" suite of physical and virtual knowledge spaces. This spaces will be conductive to learning and knowledge transfer through planned sharing - which will enable better practices within the CSIR. What is knowledge commons - tacit knowledge sharing, person-to-person contact, collaboration across organisation boundaries.

A new initiative at this conference was "speed vending". All delegates were divided in groups and allocated to different vendors for a specify time, then the groups moved to the next vendor. The vendors were given exposure and opportunity to market their products and services to a large number of delegates.

At the afternoon session some of the points discussed were:

- E-scholarship strategy (web portals, digitised collections and self-generated e-publications); UPSpace

- Digital scholarship and the role of the University library - The influence of modern information technology in education and research have resulted in digital or e-scholarship. The key focus areas at UP library are: e-Research; e-Learning; e-Resources; Open Scholarship; Digitisation; Web/Library 2.0; Repositories and the Library Web.

- African Journals OnLine (AJOL). Africa needs access to its own scholarly publications, and must also contribute to the international academic community. Primary due to difficulties accessing them, African published research papers have been under-utilised, under-valued and under-cited in the International and African research arenas. The Higher Education needs to provide both the "Y" generation and "non-computer literate" with access to information.

At the closing of the SAOUG Conference, the Chair Dr. Glenda Myers provided a summary of the conference papers and thanked all participating vendors, delegates and the committee for their help to make a success of this conference. Future workshops and groups will reflect the needs specified by the delegates at the "round table topic discussions" held on 4th June.

We have been entertain and inspired at the end by Christof Appel, Fewture Consulting.

Thank you SAOUG, SLIS & OSALL for the interesting and well organised conference. We learned a few new tips; We learned that we are not far from the mark in providing services to clients; We learned that if you can do it we can do it to; we learned that change can be good; We all interacted and share experiences and thoughts, made new friends and connections.

SAOUG: UJ staff

2008-06-05T21:56:00.004+02:00

Geoff Hoy & members of UJ Library
Thuli and Zanele
Front: A. Liebenberg

Behind: Ebsco representatives
Sophie, Zelda and Henrietta
Retha and Lizette

SAOUG: Meet some of the vendors

2008-06-04T23:15:00.003+02:00

This year, 28 vendors and publishers are represented at the SAOUG. The delegates have an opportunity to talk and learn about new developments and implementations.

Above: Nature Publihing

Below: Market IQ

Colleen Mills from Ebsco Publishing

Petro van der Berg from Ebsco, Christa Forie from SA Online Information Services & Pavlinka Kovatcheva from University of Johannesburg

SAOUG: Day 1, 4th of June 2008

2008-06-04T16:23:00.005+02:00

Today, 4th of June is the 1st SAOUG Conference day.

The highlights of the day were:

Keynote speaker: Derek Law, University of Strathclyde talked about "Changing Users: Have they or Should we?". The Librarians need to build systems around users behaviour, especially power browsing. The "google generation" expect libraries to change and embrace the technological challenges. The options for libraries are:

- Building e-Research Collections and contributing to the Virtual Research environment;

- Managing Institutional Repositories

- Provide value added content

- Trainings, etc.

The "Teleporting from Boring to Cool" presentation from University of Pretoria, provided the innovative way in which the librarians reached to their users by creating virtual world of "avatars" on Second Life; Creating Facebook profiles, etc. They are trying to reach to their users on all possible levels.

the overall discussions today were on trainings in the libraries - "Training end-users in the Mining industry","The training monster" - WITS Health Library experience; the "Changing roles of the libraries and librarians with emphasis on the technology".

Lunch time we had a "Round table discussion lunches" on various topics - Library 2.0, End user training, Institutional Repositories, Life after Graduation, Mentoring, etc. People with similar interest discussed what is the way forward and the need for SAOUG to facilitate future workshops or discussions groups.

Afternoon sessions were on topics such as: Alerting & Reference services; How do you make a computer think like a human?; Legal practice bill and its impact on the profession and SA Legal Information Institute.

We had such an exiting day and looking forward the next.

SAOUG events in pictures

2008-06-03T18:00:00.005+02:00

Delegates at the SAOUG during tea break

Workshop in progress

Dr. Glenda Myers, WITS, Prof. Derek Law, University of Strathclyde &

Geoff Hoy from TENET

Pavlinka Kovatcheva, University of Johannesburg & Susan Scheepers, University of Pretoria - the two bloggers

Welcome at the SAOUG/ SLIS/ OSALL Conference

2008-06-03T13:02:00.005+02:00

Welcome to the Ninth Southern African Online User Group Conference, 3-5 June 2008, CSIR, Pretoria.

Today, 3rd of June is the Pre-Conference day.

Workshop A: Evidence-based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP) has just finished. Dr. Glenda Myers, from WITS Health Sciences Library presented a very interesting and interactive session on: EBLIP- "What, Why, How, Who & Where".

What is the Evidence-Based Librarianship? The A. Booth definition was accepted as the one that represent the best emphasis on users: 'Evidence-based information practice is an approach that promotes the collection, interpretation and integration of valid, important and applicable user-reported, librarian observed, and research-derived evidence. The best available evidence, moderated by user needs and preferences, is applied to improve the quality of professional judgements". The focus is on the USER. We should remember that the same evidence can be used differently depending on circumstances and the user population.

Why should librarians care about the Evidence-Based Practice? We care, because how do we know that we are right?

Are the librarians still relevant to the Google generation? The librarians need to adapt and learn new skills: Leadership competencies, Technological competencies, Managerial Competencies and Research competencies; to have knowledge of Information resources and Information access.

The Evidence-Based Practice process involve: define problem (formulate question), find evidence, appraise evidence, apply results of appraisal, evaluate change and redefine problem.

We completed the workshop with reading two different research articles and evaluating them.

To follow the progress of the Conference go to SAOUG blog: http://saougnews.blogspot.com/

I'm off to the next workshop. Will keep you posted.

Wiley-Blackwell Library Newsletter: May 2008

2008-05-23T14:49:00.002+02:00

Keep abreast with the latest Wiley-Blackwell News (May 2008)

* Latest News in Select Subject Areas featuring:

Life Science Medicine & Health Environmental SciencePsychiatry Business & Economics Literature

* View New Titles Online From Wiley-Blackwell

- Journals - First issues of new journals now online

- Journal Backfiles - Blackwell backfiles reach 5.3 million pages

- Online Books - Spotlight on Life Science and Earth Science

- Reference Works - New works and sample content
* Platform Update - July 1, 2008.
All journal content on Blackwell Synergy merges into Wiley InterScience:

As of July 1, 2008, all Blackwell journal content—including all full-text HTML and PDF versions of articles from current issues, backfiles, and issues published online before print—will be incorporated into Wiley InterScience.
Over the weekend of June 28th and 29th, 2008, there will be a period when both Blackwell Synergy and Wiley InterScience will be unavailable while we transition and re-index data.

After July 1, 2008, Blackwell Synergy will no longer be available online.

Some important things to remember:
Subscriptions for Blackwell journals on Synergy will migrate to Wiley InterScience, with the terms of all existing licenses honored

- These access options will continue to function seamlessly:

• IP authentication

• Athens authentication

• Username and password access
- These access options will not be supported by Wiley InterScience in 2008 (support for these is in development for 2009):

• Shibboleth

• Third-party federated access management systems
From August 2008 onwards, usage data for Blackwell journals will be available on Wiley InterScience, presented in a separate report but in the same format as that offered for Wiley journals. For complete details, go to: interscience.wiley.com/transition
The Newsletter is AVAILABLE ONLINE AT: www.wiley.com/go/wiley-blackwell/librarynews

* Conference Schedule - For the Americas, Europe, and Asia

Get started with Social Networking in your Library

2008-05-22T17:09:00.001+02:00

"Five Weeks to a Social Library" is the first free, grassroots, completely online course devoted to teaching librarians about social software and how to use it in their libraries. It was developed to provide a free, comprehensive, and social online learning opportunity for librarians who do not otherwise have access to conferences or continuing education and who would benefit greatly from learning about social software.
I have found this post through the Social Networking Librarian blog.

clipped from www.sociallibraries.com

About Five Weeks to a Social Library

Submitted by meredithfarkas on Sat, 2006-09-30 16:32.

About the Course

From the administrators

Five Weeks to a Social Library is the first free, grassroots, completely online course devoted to teaching librarians about social software and how to use it in their libraries. It was developed to provide a free, comprehensive, and social online learning opportunity for librarians who do not otherwise have access to conferences or continuing education and who would benefit greatly from learning about social software.

OvidSP New Interface: Now @ UJ

2008-05-22T00:28:00.004+02:00

Finally we have the new Ovid/SilverPlatter (OvidSP) interface.
The following Bibliographic databases are available on OvidSP platform:
- Analytical Abstracts (1 user at the time), Coverage: 1980 - 2008
- Parasitology (1 user at the time), Coverage: 1973 - 2008

- The Philosopher's Index, Coverage: 1940 to June 2007

- Wison Index to Legal Periodicals, Coverage: 1983 - 2008

- Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, Coverage: 1985 - 2008
Access is available through the UJ Library Databases

Interface characteristics:

* Basic Search:
OvidSP's Basic Search is a natural language search. Enter your search terms and click the Search button. OvidSP posts results to your search history. In addition, OvidSP's Basic Search tab makes it easy for you to apply limit criteria to your searches.

* Advanced Search:

When you select the Advanced Ovid Search tab, keyword searching is the default search type of the command line. The Advanced Ovid Search tab offers these search types: Keyword Author Title Journal

* Find Citation:
OvidSP's Find Citation tab lets you submit fielded data to retrieve specific journal article citations.
* Search Fields:
From the Search Fields tab, you can view all indexed fields of a database. You can also browse for other fields to search in the index display. OvidSP displays the fielded index with the term you entered.

* Search Tools:
OvidSP provides tools that let you discover more about the relationship between terms and subjects within the context of the database in which you are searching.
* Search History
Under each search option, there is an Search History tab. It keeps you aware of all searches you have done during that session.
* Saved Searches/Alerts
You need to create your personal account
* Help Options:
You have three options to learn more about the databases:
- Help (if you are, for example on the Basic Search screen and have problem, click on Help for instructions)
- Database Field Guide - provide information on the database you currently search
- Display Knowledge - a list of 347 available answers (RSS feed programs compatible with OvidSP; Is there a way to enter multiple email addresses for eTOC email alerts?; Setting up eTOCs for other users, etc.)

* Log off - don't forget to "log off" each time you finish your search. Keep in mind that we have an 1 users licence.

Open Source PDF Creator

2008-05-08T01:41:00.002+02:00

PDF Creator: Instead of paying for a program that can generate PDF files: use this convenient tool instead. It easily creates PDFs from any Windows program ( Power Points, Publisher, Word, etc.)
I have found this Open Source PDF Creator on Monday and decided to download it. I always have the need to convert documents in PDF and every time I run to our IT for assistance. But, now I can do it myself and it is very convenient to have it.
To download starts with the following steps:
* Click on the "green" Download PDF Creator
* Scroll down the page and Click on: Download (PDF Creator - Dec 2007 release)
* Then select the file to download from the Table
Once downloaded the PDF Creator will appear as a PRINT option. Once you click on PRINT (the original document), select "PDF Creator" option to convert the document in PDF. It will ask you to save the new document and then the conversion will start. It tooks seconds for the document to be converted. It is very easily done and will save you a lot of memory space, if your document is originally big.
I hope this will be a good solution to those who do not have PDF option on their computers.

Lumifi Research Widget

2008-05-08T01:39:00.001+02:00

Search Lumifi on any research topic

Open Source Software in Education

2008-05-08T01:31:00.003+02:00

Interesting article on Open Source Software in Education was introduced in "iLibrarian" blog (7/5/08)

Shaheen E. Lakhan and Kavita Jhunjhunwala write about open source software in online learning for the April-June 2008 issue of Educause Quarterly. They discuss the history of open source, its implementations in the educational sector including virtual universities and education portals, and its impact on learning.

8 Top Alternative Search Engines

2008-05-08T01:25:00.002+02:00

"iLibrarian" blog posted on 7th of May information on 8 alternative Search Engine:

Looking to go beyond Google for Web search? If so, you’ll want to check out these eight search engines listed by Web Worker Daily as viable alternatives to the search heavyweight including interfaces which allow you to search web forums, video, images, and people. Here are their suggestions:
* Addict-o-matic
* Redzee
* Omgili
* Dogpile
* Truveo
* Blinkx
* QnA search
* ZabaSearch

RSS Awareness Day

2008-05-03T21:55:00.004+02:00

1st of May has been named RSS Awareness Day. A good initiative, as many people still don't know "What is RSS" and "How to use the RSS feeds" to keep up with the latest information, such as news feeds, journals' table of content, newsletters feeds, websites of interest, etc.
What is RSS?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format used to deliver information from websites and pages that get updated regularly. An RSS document (which is called feed) contains either a summary or the full content from a website.The main benefit of RSS is that it enables people to stay connected with their favorite websites without having to visit them. Once you subscribe to a particular RSS feed, you will automatically receive updates from the website that publishes the feed, whenever they release new content.
To read more CLICK on the TITLE of this post.

iLibrarian Blog

2008-04-19T20:23:00.001+02:00

Have a look at the latest posts from "iLibrarian Blog". Direct link is also available under "Useful Blogs". This blog is one of my favourites, as it provides very useful tips to new and exciting developments over the web.

* 10 Gmail Tips and Time-Savers

* State of America’s Libraries 2008 The ALA has published the 2008 State of America’s Libraries report. (Click on Academic Libraries)

* Seven Ways to Get the Most from Your RSS Reader

* Why do people participate in social applications?

* CIL2008 Presentations
CIL 2008 presentations (Computers in Libraries conference 7-9 April )(http://www.infotoday.com/CIL2008/0

Keep an eye on Slideshare for more:
Transparency, Planning & Change: See-Through Libraries - Michael Stephens and Michael Casey
Technology Training for Library Staff: Creativity Works! - Sarah Houghton-Jan Harnessing New Data Visualization Tools - Darlene Fichter

SAOUG Conference: 3-5 June 2008

2008-04-18T18:27:00.003+02:00

Most of you have heard that the SAOUG conference will be on 3-5 June 2008. The registration is now on. Visit http://www.saoug.org.za/ to register and view the prelimenary details of papers and workshops.

The keynote speakers are:

* Derek Law - Head of the Information Resources Directorate, University of Strathclyde.

* Geoff Hoy - Geoff has been associated with UCT libraries for many years, and is now involved with TENET, the tertiary education network which is used by all tertiary academic institutions in South Africa.

* Christof Appel - Christof has presented in the UK, USA, Dubai and South Africa. He has wowed audiences with his entertaining and thought provoking business presentations.

The following workshops will be presented on 3rd of June:

- EVIDENCE-BASED LIBRARY AND INFORMATION PRACTICE (EBLIP): The Basics: What, Why, How, Who and Where

- Practical Presentation Skills for trainers

- THE DEEP END: PLANNING A DIGITAL STRATEGY FOR YOURSELF

These are some of the papers that will be presented on 4-5th June:

- Changing Users: Have They or Should we?

- Training End Users in the Mining Industry

- The Training Monster

- Changing Roles of Libraries and Librarians with Emphasis on the Technology (Working Title)

- Getting Executive Buy-In: The Value of Technology Demonstrators

- Don’t Throw the Baby out with the Bathwater: A Case Study Regarding a News Alerting Service in the Engineering Industry

- Establishing an Online Reference Service

- Life after Graduation Day: The Reality of the Information Industry

- The Institutional Repository Toolbox: How to Successfully Implement an Institutional Repository

- Databases, Institutional Repositories (IR) and Organizational Workflows

- Establishing a Knowledge Commons at the CSIR

- African Journal OnLine: The Journey towards African Learning Translating into African Development

- Digital Scholarship and the Role of the University Library

Other interesting initiative is: ROUND TABLE DISCUSSSION BOX LUNCHES. The topics are:
- Patent Searching Support Group (Facilitator: Louise Mitchell)
- End User Training: Best Practice
- Institutional Repositories
- EBLIP (Evidence Based Library and Information Practice)
- Life after Graduation: the Gap between Theory and Practice
- Mentoring
- Library 2.0

The social event:

Wednesday evening – 4th June : 17:00 – 22:30

Barnyard, Menlyn Shopping Mall for the following show: The Musical tribute to the King – Elvis Presley. “Put on your Blue Suede Shoes, get ready to Shake Rattle and Roll because this show promises to rock both young and old in true Elvis spirit.”

As a member of the SAOUG committee, I hope you will come and have an experience of a lifetime.

UKSG Serials-eNews

2008-04-18T17:51:00.003+02:00

Some of the topics in the UKSG Searials-eNews in the latest, 18 April 2008 Newsletter are:

UKSG Conference, 7-9 April 2008 (official webpage: http://www.uksg.org.uk/events/conference08)

Catch up with what has been going on at the UKSG 2008 conference via Serials-eNews, the UKSG website and blog. Main reports of plenaries are on the blog, available via the hyperlinks in the introductions. This issue covers the six plenary sessions, with links to reports and comment on the conference blog. You can read about one of the breakout sessions, and others will be featured in the next couple of issues.

In Plenary Session 3, three speakers covered different aspects of usage data and user behaviour. David Nicholas posed the question that we are still working as if content is king, when we should be looking at the consumer as king - their behaviour is very different depending on who they are. Access is no longer the outcome - we need to go beyond making sure that access is easy and quick, rather we should be profiling behaviours in order to find best practice and see what works and what does not. This point was picked up by Ian Bannerman in his presentation which urged caution about the current state of, and reliance on, usage statistics and his concerns about the proposed usage factor work.......Herbert van der Sompel (LANL) gave an excellent presentation on the work they are doing in the MESUR project - a systematic effort to define, validate and cross-validate a range of usage-based metrics of scholarly impact by creating a semantic model of the scholarly communication process.

The focus of Plenary Session 4 was firmly on the challenges of large-scale digitisation in the third plenary.

The Plenary Session 5 addressed innovation and the challenges that confront us when technology enables new behaviours that require business models adapt to trends. Geoffrey Bilder at CrossRef highlighted the potential for the web to function as a database, linking related items such as an author on Amazon and a concept on Wikipedia. Peter Murray-Rust on the faculty at the University of Cambridge pointed out the issues inherent when publishers attempt to package data sets as if they were print journals.

Other NEWS:

* CrossRef and Plagiarism detection service

CrossRef and iParadigms, LLC are launching the CrossCheck service to which can be used to help verify the originality of scholarly content. Following the recent pilot of CrossCheck, the service is scheduled to go live in June. For more detail, read Key issue by Amy Brand, Director of Business and Product Development, CrossRef, in the March issue of Serials.

* CAB eBooks goes live

CAB International's (CABI) book collection can now be purchased digitally with the launch of CAB eBooks. By developing its own web-based portal, CABI can now provide customers with digital copies of its publications dating from 2000 to 2008. More than 140 titles in the applied life sciences are now available in the front-file collection (2005 - 2008), growing to 200 titles by the end of 2008. In addition, CAB eBooks is fully integrated with CAB Abstracts, the online bibliographic database. Each chapter is indexed and abstracted individually to ensure that specific slices of information can be easily retrieved. The e-books are available as a complete package or in six separate subject collections: agriculture; animal and veterinary sciences; environmental sciences; human health, food, and nutrition; leisure and tourism; and plant sciences.

* OCLC releases EZproxy 5.0

OCLC has released a new version of EZproxy, the software solution for serving library users remotely, that offers new features. More than 2,500 institutions in over 60 countries have purchased EZproxy software to provide libraries a solution for authenticating remote user access to licensed databases

* The Library of Congress Experience

The Library of Congress has launched a new project called the Library of Congress Experience, putting more exclusive Library of Congress content online and making material accessible in new ways, both in person and online. Touchscreen kiosks giving access to the digitised content are situated throughout the halls of the Library of Congress for visitors to use. This new content is also available online. To use the 'Interactives' online, it is necessary to download a free version of Silverlight, the Microsoft technology that enables the zooming and other exploratory activities. A companion website features the same interactive exhibitions with additional educational resources that teachers and librarians can use with young people.

Click on the TITLE to view the newsletter

Bates latest InfoTips: April 2008

2008-04-18T17:25:00.003+02:00

I have received yesterday this April Newsletter alert from Mary Ellen Bates/Bates Information Service. This is what tips for searching she gave:

Yahoo:

"In an act of faith that Yahoo! will survive its possible absorption into The Borg, otherwise known as Microsoft, I'll mention one interesting Yahoo! search tip. If you enclose your search terms in [square brackets], you will only retrieve pages that have those words in that order. Mind you, this isn't a phrase search -- those two words may be anywhere in the page, but the first term must appear before the second. So, for example, the search [subprime crisis] will retrieve pages with "subprime mortgage crisis", "subprime lending crisis" "the subprime mortgage industry is in crisis right now" and so on. It will not retrieve "there is a crisis in subprime mortgages", however".

Conference Tagging

"I mentioned Technorati.com in my March 2008 InfoTip, but I had one of those epiphanies today and thought up another use for this blog-search tool. When bloggers attend a professional conference, they often talk about the sessions they find particularly noteworthy. In fact, they will sometimes transcribe the speaker's PowerPoint presentation along with their own thoughts. Conference organizers are now encouraging bloggers to use a standard tag to identify blog posts about the conference, so that anyone can search for blogs about that conference. What that means is, if you can identify the appropriate tag, you can search for all blogs with that conference tag, and get at least a sense of the key themes and most thought-provoking sessions. See, for example, the blog entries that were tagged with CIL2008, the agreed-upon tag for the Computers in Libraries conference"

Click on the TITLE to read more about this and the previous Bates Newsletters.

Scirus.com Updates

2008-04-18T16:48:00.005+02:00

Scirus.com New Interface

For those of you who are still not familiar with Scirus.com - this is the Best Science & Technology Search Engine, an Elsevier product.

The Scirus development team worked closely with Elsevier's User-Centered Design Group to create a new user interface design. The clean, refreshed interface will enable you to find the precise scientific, scholarly, technical and medical data you need more quickly and easily than ever before.

One of the main aims of the re-design was to take powerful, but less frequently used features from the Scirus Advanced Search page and make them more accessible as post-search refinement options. This change will give Scirus users the power of Advanced Search, without the complexity, in a single click.

Features of the re-design include:
* Visibility: More search results are immediately visible ''above the fold'', by improving the use of screen real estate
* Intuitiveness: Highly appreciated features are moved to areas of the screen most suitable for the human eye, following accepted HCI guidelines
* Exposure: The full range of content sources is further exposed and highlighted through the use of new navigator functionality
* Ease of use: Batch selection of items for export, print or saving has been greatly simplified

Scirus Topic Pages continue to grow
Scirus Topic Pages is a freely accessible wiki-like platform where topic experts, upon invitation, create synopses of the state of research around particular topics and also recommend links to relevant reading material. The Scirus search index complements these recommendations by suggesting relevant articles and web pages based on topic-title keyword analysis.
Examples of the latest Topic Pages include:

- "Obesity and the Brain" by Dr. Angelo Del Parigi

- "Laboratory determination of Listeria monocytogenes virulence" by Dr. Dongyou Liu
After implementing the Editorial Policy for the management of the Scirus Topic Pages platform in January, the Scirus team has now finalized a Creative Commons license, which allows users to share and adapt the information on the Topic Pages freely for non-commercial purposes. Both the Editorial Policy and the licence can be viewed from links at the bottom of the Scirus Topic Pages homepage.

ScienceDirect Database News: March/April 2008

2008-04-18T14:52:00.005+02:00

Read about the latest on ScienceDirect Database:

* New functionality added to ScienceDirect to meet researchers' needs!

New to ScienceDirect are features that make the platform more user friendly and deliver better, clearer results in fewer clicks.

Preview tabs

Researchers like to quickly evaluate articles before reading them. They will find preview tabs that provide quick access to the important article assessment components: the abstract, figures/tables and references. These tabs are on the results page, the Table of Contents page and the Article page.

Reference information

Before researchers have to scroll to the foot of articles to view reference information, which hinders reading.
Now it is possible for researchers to view reference information within the body of a paper when their cursor moves over a reference marker.

Article Toolbox

Once a researcher has evaluated and read an article, they often want to email it to their peers. A new article toolbox brings together all of the article-related functionality including "Cited By", "E-mail Article", "Save as Citation Alert", "Citation Feed", "Export Citation", Add to My Quick Links", "Add 2Collab" , etc., into one easy-to-find location. Researchers can now take further action quickly and easily with little extra effort.

New Navigation options

Looking for something specific? A new navigation pane on the left of the screen will make that easier by allowing you to refine results using four filters: “content type”; “source title”, “date” and “topics”. By enabling filtering you will be able to refine your search results without having to return to the search form.

Ratings

Researchers are interested to know how other experts rate articles they read. Due to be launched in phases over the coming months, the integration of article comments and ratings from Elsevier's social collaboration site, 2collab enables researchers to evaluate papers according to colleague-driven comments and ratings of articles right on the article page.

For more information visit the ScienceDirect Info site.

* New Major Reference Works available on ScienceDirect

New and available Reference Works visit theScienceDirect Info site.

ScinceDirect database have received a number of new functionality since 2007 and I would like to say that all of them brought an improved look and feel. ScienceDirect has been updated with the latest technological innovation to help researchers find the information quickly and successfully.

Enjoy the latest improved features. Tell us how you feel about them. Make a comment.

Elsevier: Library Connect Seminar in SA

2008-04-18T14:40:00.002+02:00

Elsevier is delighted to announce the upcoming Library Connect Seminars in South Africa!

When: Wednesday, 29th October, 2008: Pretoria

The programme will include:

- International speakers as well as Elsevier participants to discuss issues of concern for information specialists.

- You will also hear about new developments of ScienceDirect and Scopus.

Start of programme: 10.00 am
End of programme: 17.00 pm
Audience: Library staff
The One-day participation fee including lunch and refreshments are free of charge!

We will send you the invitation with the Agenda and the registration form in order to secure your attendance at a later date. Your Elsevier team look forward very much to welcome you.

Free Databases @ EbscoHost

2008-04-12T21:31:00.003+02:00

While reading through UKSG Serials E-News in early April, I found that EbscoHost offers three free databases. After contacting Ebsco representatives, we have these databases ADDED to the UJ Library EbscoHost list (find them at the end of the list).
* GreenFile
GreenFILE offers well-researched but accessible information covering all aspects of human impact on the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles include content on the environmental effects of individuals, corporations and local/national governments, and what can be done on each level to minimize negative impact. Topics covered include global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. GreenFILE is multidisciplinary by nature and draws on the connections between the environment and a variety of disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology.The database provides indexing and abstracts for approximately 295,000 records, as well as Open Access full text for more than 4,600 records.
* Teacher Reference Center
Provides indexing and abstracts for more than 270 of the most popular teacher and administrator journals and magazines to assist professional educators.
* Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA)
Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts,(LISTA) indexes more than 690 periodicals, plus books, research reports and proceedings. Subject coverage includes librarianship, classification, cataloging, bibliometrics, online information retrieval, information management and more. Coverage in the database extends back as far as the mid-1960s. It is EBSCO Publishing’s intention to provide access to LISTA on a continual basis at http://www.libraryresearch.com/.

DO YOU KNOW!
EbscoHost have added some new options for searching. If you are either in the Basic or Advanced Search Screens, you can select from the option "Specific Databases" a SUBJECT group databases to search:
- General/News databases
- Computer Science/Engineering Databases
- Earth/Environmental Databases
- Health Sciences Databases
- Life Sciences Databases
- EJS E-Journals

EbscoHost 2.0: New Interface comming in July 2008

2008-04-12T21:22:00.002+02:00

This post is just an alert about the upcoming next generation EbscoHost user interface in July 2008. According to information from their website the new interface is " based upon results gathered from extensive user testing. EBSCOhost 2.0 offers a clean new look and feel, for a technologically sophisticated, yet familiar search experience, with the built-in flexibility to provide individual user customization options".
Click on the post TITLE for details and screen shots on the functionality of the redesign. Click on any of the icons and see what is coming soon:
- Basic Search Screen 2.0
- Advanced Search Screen 2.0
- Result List 2.0
- Branding 2.0
- My EbscoHost 2.0
- Image Quick View 2.0
- Visual Search 2.0
- Improved Bibliographic Functionality
Click on the link to view the new User Guide and relevant FAQ:

http://0-support.ebsco.com.ujlink.uj.ac.za/ebscohost2/

Open Science Directory: New Open Access Initiative for Developing Countries

2008-04-12T20:59:00.004+02:00

EBSCO has recently joined forces with Hasselt University Library, Belgium, and the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange programme of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO to develop a global Open Science Directory which is available via the Internet at no charge. The Open Science Directory provides developing regions with a comprehensive search tool for all open access and special programme journal titles. The Open Science Directory offers immediate access to approximately 13,000 scientific journal titles, with an objective of 20,000 titles midway through development.
Access to scientific literature is very important for the scientific work in developing countries. As a result of different projects a large collection of e-journals is now available for researchers in developing countries. The number of Open Access Journals is growing steadily as we can see in the Directory of Open Access Journals (http://www.doaj.org/). Major UNO organizations like WHO, FAO and UNEP have their specific programs for the scientific institutions in low-income countries. Finally a lot of universities, institutes and other organizations are supporting access programs. The most important are INASP, eIFL and eJDS.
The Open Science Directory is creating a unique access point to all the journals contained in the different programs.
Searching Options:
* From the home page, click on Open Science Directory
* The Portal is an A-to-Z journals list ( as in UJ A-to-Z)
* You can either search directly for specific journals
OR
* Select - Journal Collections - to view all Providers of the Journals, with links to the title lists
* Select - Subjects - to view the journals per specific subject area
* Select - Search - to view the Advanced search screen
* Select - Custom Google Search - to search either Scholar Google (academic articles) or Google Custom Search (Search in: DOAJ - OpenDOAR - HINARI - OARE - AGORA - INASP - eJDS - Ingenta Connect)
* Select - Links - to have access to journals portals, useful websites to different organisations
* Select - About the Site - to view more information about this site
Once you access the journal of interest, there is an option to search within this journal for articles.
I hope you will find this Open Science Directory very useful.

New interface @ JSTOR

2008-04-12T19:39:00.009+02:00

Welcome to the new JSTOR interface!

From the first sight I looked at the new JSTOR website I loved it. It is wonderful that JSTOR finally took under consideration the users needs. To make it easy to use, more tools and capabilities for users have been integrated. Now, with just one click you can have the full-text article.
I have looked at the training presentation from JSTOR and these are some of the TIPS on what is new and how to do a successful searching. One new feature to consider using is MyJSTOR. It will help you personalise your searches and export citations to RefWorks or EndNote (see below for more information).

Home page features:
• Basic search box
• News & Notices
• Links to translated information
• Menu bar, Login, Help, and Contact Us list

SEARCHING
Basic search interface:
• Searches all full-text data for articles
• Search can be limited by discipline
• Select a recent search option
• Search for links to recent content outside of JSTOR by checking the box
Advanced search:
• Enter multiple terms/keywords
• Select to search in full-text, article title, author, caption, or abstract options
• Select AND, OR, NOT, or Near 5, Near 10 and Near 25 words

• Limit to type (article, review, editorial & other), publication date range, language (8 options), limit to specific journal title, or discipline(s) - you can select more than one discipline.

Article search results:

• Click on "Page of first match" to read the article first page, Click on "Article information" to view the article bibliographic information, the References list & articles citing this article, if you need to view the full-article Click on "PDF" option.

• Option "Go to page" of search results to navigate ahead
• Search results can be displayed: 10, 25, 50 and 100 per page
Images in JSTOR tab:
•Search is run again on image captions
•Page thumbnail is a link to that page
Search: Refining Article Results
•Enter term in box and select to “search within these results” or "modify" the search strategy.
•Results can be sort by relevance or publication date (oldest to newest; newest to oldest)
Search: Results: Viewing Article
•The search terms are highlighted
•Available buttons for going back to search results, previous result, and next result
•Link to view list of page with search term(s)

BROWSE
Browse (provide exact year coverage, for each options)
- by Discipline (Disciplines are listed alphabetically)
- by Title (Jump to the required journal title)
- by Publisher. You can find the following information:
• Journals listed under Publisher’s names
• The Publisher name is a link to information about the publisher, contact details and which journals are covered in JSTOR
• The Journal title is a link to the information and to browse the journal content
Browse: Navigation: List of all Volumes
• Journal information
• Box to search within this journal
• Issue thumbnail imageBrowse: Navigation: Volumes/Issues List
• Box to search within this journal
• Issue thumbnail image
Browse: Navigation: Issue Table of Contents
• Box to search within this journal
• Issue thumbnail image
• Check boxes to save citations
• Article information and PDF
• Stable URL for linking

Article Navigation: Page view:
• Citation at top of page
• Buttons to save citation, see article information, and retrieve PDF file
• Side bars to flip to next or previous page
• Links to run relevant searches within JSTOR - other articles by that author AND Scholar Google - related articles, articles citing this article, articles by that author
Article Navigation: Print or Download PDF
• JSTOR cover page with citation and links
• Print or save using PDF reader software (Adobe shown)

MyJSTOR
Citation Management: Login to MyJSTOR
• To save citations, login to MyJSTOR first
MyJSTOR Registration
To register:
• Enter required information
• Check the box to accept the JSTOR Terms and Conditions (you won’t be prompted again)
• Citations will be saved for as long as the account is kept
Citation Management: Sort Citations
• Select from date saved or publication date sort options
Citation Management: Export Citations
To export citations:
• Check the box next to the citations to be exported
• Click the “Export article citations” button
Chose export option:
• E-mail
• BibTex file
• Directly export into RefWorks, EndNote, ProCite, or Reference Manager
• Printer-friendly version

For help access Tutorials and MyJSTOR Help.
Any remarks on this new interface are welcomed.
Just Click on "Comments" under this post and type your notes.

Copyright Blog @UJ

2008-04-11T11:32:00.002+02:00

Good news!
We have in the Library another blogger. Our Copyright officer Thapelo Mashishi has created a Copyright blog: http://copyrightuj.blogspot.com/. As he says in his welcome note "this publication will provide UJ academic staff with copyright information as it relates to the University and educational environment in general". Good luck Thapelo.

Direct link to the blog is available under "UJ Librarians Blogs"

LIASA Tenth Annual Conference - 2008

2008-03-17T13:32:00.003+02:00

The Tenth Annual LIASA Conference provides an opportunity to debate, share and learn about the changing roles of LIS in South Africa, Africa and globally in the new millennium. In South Africa, different LIS sectors have experienced the South African Society in transition. LIASA is entering into its second decade of existence. Funding has been finally made available to the public libraries and will relieve some of the pressure that public librarians have carried for a decade.

Academic libraries have gone through a series of changes as a result of the mergers. How well has the LIS sector fared in contributing to a democratic South Africa, nation building and the creation of a society that values and respects diversity? How does the LIS sector position itself for the next decade in the transformed society of South Africa? What is the role of LIS on the African continent in the second decade of the new millennium? What is the role of South African and African LIS in the global space and how can it be realized?

Local and international professional colleagues and partners are invited to participate in discussions and workshops around the proposed topics.

Date: 6-10 October 2008
Venue: Cape Town, Cape Town Convention Centre
Theme: Looking ahead: the changing role of LIS

You are invited to submit proposals for papers & posters that will focus on areas related to the theme of the conference. The deadline for receipt of proposals/abstracts is 28 March 2008. Topics such as the following will be considered for inclusion in the conference programme:
* Partnerships for the future
* The future role of national libraries
* The future role of public libraries
* The future role of academic libraries
* The future role of special libraries
* The future role of school libraries
* The future role of LIS associations
* Libraries and preservation of national heritage
* Access to information and freedom of expression
* Information literacy
* Indigenous knowledge systems
* Knowledge management
* Nation building and development: the role of libraries
* Education and training
* Reference in digital environments (Instant Messaging, Text Messaging (SMS), and other emerging modes for offering reference services and Web 2.0 applications)
* Digital Library applications in e-science, e-learning, e-government, cultural heritage, etc.
* Bridging the digital divide
* Service delivery in challenging environments, especially where the infrastructure may be sub-optimal as in some developing countries, or where the user group represents particular challenges
* Electronic Theses and Dissertations: Current status and strategy
* The future role of ethics in the management of libraries
* Institutional repositories/ self-archiving
* The future role of standards in the management of libraries
* Research agenda in LIS

WorldCat @ Facebook

2008-03-15T15:49:00.004+02:00

WorldCat Facebook application now available

The new WorldCat Facebook application provides access to WorldCat searches and user-created lists from personalized pages within a Facebook account.The application includes a home screen with the WorldCat search box, as well as quick links to WorldCat searches based on topics listed in a Facebook profile as personal interests.

The application also includes:
* a built-in, advanced WorldCat search;
* a panel that allows users to invite other Facebook friends to install WorldCat;
* a "Something to Read" panel that displays books recently added to WorldCat lists; and
* a "Favorite WorldCat Lists" panel where users track their own lists or those of other WorldCat users. OCLC (eNews Issue 2, 21 February 2008) Contribution: Dr. Anette van Vuren

Google Sky @ your Browser

2008-03-15T15:40:00.001+02:00

It is Saturday morning and I have been reading "Sky and Telescope newsletter" on my e-mail, when I saw the announcement of the new Google development - Google Sky. I click on the link and the sky came directly in front of me. For those like me, who love watching the evening sky & what is out there, I'm providing some additional information on this new web tool.
Google has unveiled a browser version of its Google Sky application on Thursday, 13th March for people who don't want to download the Google Earth software. Prior, to access "Sky", users needed to download and install the "Google Earth" application - the Web-based mapping software. "Google Sky" was introduced as an additional feature to "Google Earth" (version 4.2) in August last year.This browser version of Google Sky allows you to zoom in and out the celestial bodies, search for planets, constellations and galaxies and view the sky through infrared, x-ray, ultraviolet, and microwave views. There are also galleries of some of the best pictures from the Hubble telescope and others. You can also listen to podcasts and look at historical maps of the sky.
Enjoy the exciting sky world through Google.

ISI Web of Science: New Interface

2008-03-15T11:04:00.004+02:00

The ISI Web of Knowledge databases have been given a "makeover" - a new interface!

Personally, I find this new interface user-friendly and easy to use and navigate. ISI is yet another Publisher who has implemented the RSS feeds as means to provide current information.

The availability of simultaneous search of all subscribed ISI databases will save time and provide one portal to find the latest information.

We can access the following databases:

- Current Content Conect databases

- SSCI, SCI and A&HCI

- Journal Citation Report (JCR)

The main features of ISI new interface are:

1. You have an option to either search:

>ALL DATABASES
>SELECT A DATABASE ( Science Citation Index, Currents Contents Connect & Journal Citation Report: JCR) or search
>ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ( Web search tools - Thomson Scientific WebPlus; Web sites - ISIHighlyCited.com, Biology Browser, Index to Organism Names, in-cites, ResearcherID.com, Science Watch, Special Topics & Thomson Scientific). These products and Web sites provide a variety of data and analysis relevant to research.

2. Advanced Search Option

> You have three fields where you can type your: TOPIC/KEYWORD, TITLE, AUTHOR, PUBLICATION NAME or YEAR PUBLISHED. These you select from the drop down menu next to the search box. You can add additional fields if you need more.
> To help you find the right TOPIC/KEYWORD next to the search box have an icon "magnifying glass" or TOPIC INDEX. If you CLICK on that it will take you to the next screen where you can use the browse feature to locate terms to add to your query. Instructions are available.
> You can LIMIT your search to specific years requirements - Latest (current) week, all years, latest 5 years, etc.

> On the RIGHT side of the searching screen you can find more information on the available databases, you can CUSTOMIZE YOUR EXPERIENCE - once you register you can save and manage your references, save and run searches, create alerts and RSS feeds, choose your start page. My ResearcherID is a website where invited researchers can register for a unique researcher ID number. At this site, users can:

* Update their profile information

* Build their publication list using Web of Science search services or uploading a file

* Select to make their profile public or private.

3. Search Results Screen

>Sort Results option: Publication Date, Relevence, First Author & Source Title

>Number of Results per page option (find it at the bottom of the results page): 10, 25, 50

>Refine Results option -If there are too many results you can narrow your search by typing additional keyword. You can also refine your search by: General Categories; Subject Areas, Document Type, Author, Source Title, Publication year & Language. For more REFINE search options use: Analyse Results. The system produces a report showing the values in ranked order.

>Print, E-mail, Add to Marked list, Save to EndNote options options

>If you Click on the TITLE of the individual record you can read the Abstract; have an interactive links to the Author's works; Cited by option; Related Records; Record References, View Additional Information; You can EXPORT the record to EndNote and other Reference software. Under each record you can see options: Links & Full-text.

4. Search History option

You can view your previous search results. You can combined the with the Boolean Operators (AND & OR) to narrow your results to suit your search query.

5. Marked List option
You can view a list with your MARKED records

6. My Cited Articles Alert
In order to create/access My Cited Articles List, you must sign in or register. Benefits of creating My Cited Articles List:

* You will receive an e-mail alert each time an article on the list is cited in a new article

* You will be able to receive an RSS feed to view new articles that cite articles on the list

* You can add an article to the list from its full record page

* You will be able to access your selected articles from any computer at the institution

7. My Journal List

In order to create My Journal List, you must sign in or register. Benefits of creating My Journal List:

* You can receive e-mail alerts of the latest Table of Contents for your selected journals.

* You will be able to receive RSS feeds of the latest Table of Contents for your selected journals.

* You will be able to access your selected journals from any computer at the institution.

* You can open the latest Table of Contents for your selected journals directly from the ISI Web of Knowledge home page.

8. My Saved Searches
In order to access your Search Histories saved to the ISI Web of Knowledge Server, you must sign in. Benefits of saving search histories on the ISI Web of Knowledge Server:

* E-mail alerts can be created from your saved search histories.

* RSS feeds can be created from your saved search histories.

* You will be able to access your saved histories from any computer at the institution.

* You can open saved histories directly from the ISI Web of Knowledge home page.

9. My EndNote Web (RefWorks is not available)
In order to create and access your EndNote Web Library, you must sign in or register. Benefits of creating an EndNote Web Library:

* You can add references to your EndNote Web Library directly from Web of Science and other ISI Web of Knowledge products.

* You can organize references in folders for access and use at any time--collections are retained between sessions.

* You can create formatted reference lists in a variety of publishing styles.

* You will be able to access your EndNote Web Library from any computer at the institution.

10. Help menu
Every time you need help with searches or any other menu option, click on HELP ( top right on the screen).

Collaboration, Sharing, Knowledge @ VUMA Portal

2008-03-14T15:46:00.003+02:00

I have attended a workshop, where we had been introduced to the latest project from FOTIM (Foundation of Tertiary Institutions of the Northern Metropolis) - the VUMA! Portal (http://www.vuma.ac.za). The purpose of the workshop was also for FOTIM to learn more on: How to enhance this Portal, how to promote, etc.

Below I'm giving you a short explanation about this initiative and how can be used by students and academics.VUMA is an initiative of FOTIM. The members of FOTIM are: University of Limpopo, North-West University, University of Johannesburg, Tshawane University of Technology, University of Witwatersrand, Vaal University of Technology, University of Venda, University of Pretoria and University of South Africa. The first phase of the Vuma! Portal was launched in October 2007.

To succeed at university, students are expected to show proficiency in many skills, including language and literacy, thinking skills, numeracy, communication and presentation skills, study skills, computer skills and others.

The Vuma! Portal is FOTIM’s attempt to pool the information and resources of its member institutions to support students in their university lives. Through partnerships formed with students, universities, funders and other providers, FOTIM aims to support the VUMA! Community growth as open, free environment, that gives students the opportunity to explore responsibly the many issues relating to university life and entering the workplace.

The Portal is intended to serve the collaborative needs of tertiary institutions, enabling them to enhance the learning experience of current and prospective students while creating a platform for academic collaboration and support. The Vuma! Portal space can be used by students to meet other students, seek peer advice, talk to experts and share university experiences, upload resources and contribute to a growing body of knowledge.

Build on the Web 2.0 platform, the Vuma! Portal relies on the contribution of users to grow the online space. The many tools available on the Portal are:

- blogs

- discussion forums

- polls

- wikis, aimed at encouraging collaboration and sharing

Through VUMA! students will have the unique opportunity to collaborate with students from other universities, share their views, submit content, and become active contributors in building this community.

The VUMA! Portal will be a source of advice and support to teachers and parents on the challenges and pressures facing university students, and the roles that they can play in supporting students.

The VUMA! Portal university staff facility aims to become the premier location for online collaboration amongst university staff in their professional pursuits. Its core purpose will be to create a formal and informal space focused on stimulating collaborative efforts in curriculum design, materials development, resource sharing and student support.

The VUMA! Portal space for prospective students will provide a mechanism for supporting students in making the right choices as they consider their options in higher education and future careers.

How to join the Vuma! Portal?

* From the main VUMA web page, Click on the preferred option: Students, Parents & Teachers, Prospective Students, University Staff

* Create your own account

* You can access through the Navigation option: available blogs, discussion forums, polls, etc.

* You can participate with your ideas and inputs that can help students to enhance their learning, research & thinking styles by using the various wikis.

What I like most is the option : WIKIS

There are three wikis options:
* The Study Center gives an opportunity for:
- Students to collaborate with other students on topics relevant to their studies and university life.
- Academics to add useful information under the different entries. Vuma! Portal can be used to TUTOR students.
- Librarians to add their knowledge of literacy instructions
There is already information available in this space to help students with their:

- Study Skills (learning styles, critical thinking, problem-solving, mind mapping, self-confidence, reading confidence, handling lectures, etc.)
- Exam Skills (essay style, open book exam, exam preparation, etc.)

* Life Hub ( enhance your university life)

* Writing Center (basics of good writing, avoiding Plagiarism, Writing Scientific Essay, etc.)

Many LINKS are available to useful website, under each of the entries.

P.S. You can EDIT these articles & ADD NEW CONTENT!

What should the Libraries and the Academics do?

* Participate actively in this project to enhance the quality of their students' knowledge

* Promote this initiative as widely as possible

* Make sure that LINKS to the VUMA! Portal are easy to access ( EduLink, Departments web pages, Library web page, etc.)

* The Library should provide additional trainings to students on “How to use VUMA! Portal", " Web 2.0 technological tools", etc.

This PORTAL is about: Collaboration, Sharing, building Relationships, creation of new Knowledge. There are already over 1000 subscribed users. The vision of Vuma! Portal is embedded in three year strategy.

A number of issues were raised at the workshop:
- If students contribute Lectures notes, what are the implications - Intellectual property issues?
- There will be standartisation of Information literacy materials. All participating University libraries will be involved.
- It were raised questions about links to Career Information, so students can easily find jobs after their university degree is completed

This project is open to changes and will adapt to the needs of its users.

Go and have a look at this portal, get the feel of it, test it and then give us your opinion. The initiators behind this Portal (FOTIM) will greatly appreciate your comments (mail@fotim.ac.za).

Wiley-Blackwell @ UJ Library

2008-03-14T15:37:00.004+02:00

Mathew Crook from Wiley-Blackwell visited the UJ Library on 3rd of March. We discussed the current BlackwellSynergy subscription, the upcoming integrated platform for Wiley & Blackwell titles and the available e-books collections. I have looked at the Wiley InterScience web site and added some useful links.

1. BlackwellSynergy & Wiley InterScience Journals Collections
(http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/home)- During 2008 these two collections are still separate (pricing, licensing, and access options).
- In July 2008, BlackwellSynergy will be integrated into Wiley InterScience for 6 months. We will have the opportunity to search both databases, but full-text access to the journals is only for BlackwellSynergy journals.
- Trial to Wiley InterScience will be arranged for a month during May/June for UJ user to get acquainted with the platform. - As from 2009 there will be one portfolio subscription and one unified platform to search. The new platform will have the best features of the former two.- The BlackwellSynergy journals are available full-text as from 1997+
- Full-text access to Blackwell Synergy is available through the Library Databases
- If we would like to subscribe to the Wiley journals, the current licensing agreement will be: Current print Wiley journals price + flat rate of $ 10,000 + e-access.
Here is an overview of the online journals offered by Wiley-Blackwell in 2008: * Journals on Wiley InterScience

- 472 total journals- 9 new journals- 7 transfers from other publishers- 16 offering opt-in access- 6 ending opt-in access period- 3 ceasing publication
The new journals are self sustainable. They are excluded from the current subscriptions. They are available for FREE in their 1st year of publication.

View the 2007 & 2008 Wiley new journals on:

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/aboutus/new_journals_opt-in_form.html

Wiley InterScience: BackFile journal Collections:
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/browsebycollection

* Journals on Blackwell Synergy- 927 total journals
- 797 journals included in the licensed Blackwell Full Collection
- 424 journals in the Blackwell STM Collection
- 373 journals in the Blackwell SSH Collection- 15 new journals offering free access for their first year- 56 transfers from other publishers

- 5 transferring to other publishers

2. E-Books (http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/browse/?type=BOOK) :In a previous post, I have mentioned that Wiley InterScience will reach the mark of 5000 e-books. Approximately 1500 books from the former Blackwell Publishing will be incorporated. The Purchasing options are:- for individual titles- purchase in bulkThere will be: flexi subscriptions (pay for 3 years) and once off payment. Price will be based on hard cover. Restriction: 1st time e-books customers will need to purchase 20 or more books. Number of discounts are available.

NEW! Wiley Books Series (21 series – 750 volumes)
(http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/aboutus/olb_series.html)

Wiley InterScience: Current Protocols Online: Current Protocols contains the largest collection of authoritative, peer-reviewed, regularly-updated research methods and topical overviews available. The library has in print “ Current Protocols in Cell Biology”. Electronic access will be more convenient to access as we experience problem with preserving the print.

(http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/browse/?type=CURRENT_PROTOCOL)

Wiley InterScience: Reference Works: View the available reference works per subject area.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/browse/?type=MRW

Wiley InterScience: Author Resources: Guidelines for submitting Journal articles or Books
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/authorservices

Wiley-Blackwell Library Newsletter; March 2008

2008-03-14T15:31:00.002+02:00

Keep abreast with the latest Wiley-Blackwell news, by reading through this newsletter:

* View the latest news in Key Subject Areas
* New Titles online from Wiley-Blackwell (journals, books – some highlighted titles of interest)
* Platform Updates
* Conference shedules (for librarians)
* Just for fun (statistics show….; quotes about statistics)

IFLA: Introducing ResearchTrail

2008-02-23T02:08:00.004+02:00

IFLA would like to announce a new service for information professionals and librarians – ResearchTrail.

ResearchTrail has two aims:
* To be a community and a meeting-place where those of us whose job it is to find information can interact with, collaborate with, and help the people who need that information, and also help each other.
* To provide a marketplace where businesses and individuals can find professional searchers, and info-pros looking for clients can advertise their services.

Since ResearchTrail is a free-access website, it's truly global – no matter where you live, you can interact with other information professionals, get help, and find work through ResearchTrail's marketplace.

ResearchTrail goes online in March; but you can register now at http://www.researchtrail.com/.

A week before we open, we'll send everyone who registered a personal username, so you can get a sneak preview. Then we open with a search competition (with prizes) for information professionals – to encourage as many of you as possible try us out and comment on what we're doing right and wrong and what you'd like to see there. Everyone who's registered is eligible to take part in the competition too.

ResearchTrail is built by info-pros for info-pros. We look forward to seeing you all on-site and hearing what you think.

Knowledge Management & Innovation Conference: 9 & 10 April 2008

2008-02-23T02:01:00.004+02:00

The Knowledge Management & Innovation Conference will be held on 9 & 10 April 2008.

Venue: Premier Regent Hotel, Cape Town

Presentations will be from the following organizations:

o South African National Centre for Informatics Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy - SANCIKMKE

o Development Bank of South Africa - DBSA

o Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability - RIIS

o University of Witwatersrand o Datacentrix

o Knowledge Integration Dynamics

o I-Kno

o Steve Bayhegyi & Associates

o Suritec

o IBM

o Symbiosys Consulting

Objectives

o To establish the relationship between knowledge management and organizational transformations.

o To harness expertise to effectively implement knowledge management strategies.

o To apply knowledge management principles, techniques and tools into leadership.

o To structure the storing of information using knowledge management systems.

o To learn and understand technologies that support knowledge management initiatives Audience Individuals and teams with a serious business interest in knowledge management and the knowledge-based economy. Executive who are especially interested in new ideas on how to get a better return on their investments. Knowledge managers, creative strategist, architects, and executives who seek faster, smarter, better and most cost effective ways to generate optimum knowledge performance

TO REGISTER CALL TEL: +27 11 472 5388 - FAX: +27 11 472 5304 Email: info@ingwecom.co.za

Wiley InterScience: 5000 online books in 2008

2008-02-23T01:47:00.003+02:00

Wiley-Blackwell is pleased to announce that over the next few months approximately 1500 books from the former Blackwell Publishing will be incorporated into the OnlineBooks™ program on Wiley InterScience. This milestone in the integration of content from the two publishing operations will dramatically expand the scope of the online book offering on Wiley InterScience, and enable your library and user community to search and access, on one platform, a vast repository of prestigious monographs across the sciences and humanities:

The Blackwell Publishing books will include:
* 600 books in Social Science and the Humanities
* 300 books covering many Medical disciplines, including evidence-based medicine
* 650 books in Life Science, Construction, Nursing, Food Science and Technology, Agriculture and Forestry, Aquaculture, and Applied arts

In addition, in early 2008 another 400 titles from Wiley-VCH will be added to Wiley InterScience, predominantly in physics, chemistry, material sciences and life sciences.

Your institution can license OnlineBooks for a subscription or for a one-time fee, on a title-by-title basis, with a custom starter package of 20 titles.
DOWNLOAD SPREADSHEETS:
>> List of Blackwell and Wiley-VCH books coming to Wiley InterScience
>> All Wiley InterScience OnlineBooks - Full Title List with Pricing Information

SLIS Workshop on Reference Interview: 18 March 2008

2008-02-23T01:28:00.004+02:00

Grab your diary and immediately book a date with SLIS for a great tutoring and learning opportunity!

Our first workshop of the year is around conducting successful reference interviews. The reference interview is an art and forms the basis for information provision in all types of libraries. You as an information professional need to understand exactly what the user is asking for to be able to know which information sources to consult, how much information to provide, on which level it should be, and to evaluate the information before supplying it.

The workshop will be conducted at entrance level for students of Library and Information Science, information professionals who just started their career and who do information retrieval. There will be practical examples and the opportunity to practice with other delegates. It is not going to be theoretical.

Workshop Presenter: Louise Mitchell, ATD Tech-Know Link

When: Tuesday 18 March 2008, 9h30 - 12h00.

Lunch will be served Where: Anglo American Auditorium

RSVP: 12 March 2008, christelle.vermaak@fluor.com

Cost: SLIS paid-up members & students (full-time or part-time but not employed) - free of charge

All other attendees: R 50,00
Further detail & workshop programme to be confirmed.

About the presenter: Louise Mitchell has been part of the Anglo American library (ATD Tech-Know Link) team for 10 years and before that has worked in various academic and public libraries. Over the last 20 years it has become her personal challenge and passion to perfect the art of the reference interview and she is still working on it. Understanding and knowing the exact information needs of their user base and being able to match it with the most appropriate information sources, in the right amount, format and time is key to their successes. The secret ingredient? One of many is definitely a well-conducted reference interview!

South African Information Services News: February 2008

2008-02-23T01:05:00.003+02:00

What are the latest news from South African Information Services:

* Dialog alerts

As a Dialog customer, you’re eligible for our special alert setup service . Utilize our expert search staff – at no charge – to assist with setting up alerts on your most business-critical strategies. You’ll be the first to know of essential information that will keep you at the forefront of your industry and eliminate hours of research time. You can also have teammates included in your distribution, at your specified frequency, so you’re all in the know. Whether you’re short on time, staff or lack expertise in a specific area, your Dialog search team is ready to help. Visit www.scientific.thomson.com/forms/alerts to request a confidential alert setup consultation -- and, make sure you’re one of the first to know.

* World News Connection
Sign up today for a free trial. World News Connection offers:
• Unique content from hard-to-monitor countries
• Content provided through and in exclusive partnership with NTIS
• Ideal source for the latest information on current developments in over 100 countries
• Receive email updates on specific topics with alerts
• Records from 1995 to present
• Updates daily with from 300 – 1,000 records per day
For a free trial and/or more information (including the source list), please contact Lynne on 011 469 4032 or lynner@saonlinefinfo.co.za

* Training and consultancy
Contact Christa on 083 980 3087 or christaf@soanlineinfo.co.za for any training needs.

UKSG Serials-eNews

2008-02-23T00:06:00.004+02:00

Some of the topics in the UKSG Searials-eNews in the last three issues were:

22 Feb 2008, no. 164

* Harvard Faculty adopts open access requirement

Harvard University's arts and sciences faculty has approved a plan that will post finished academic papers online free, unless scholars specifically decide to opt out of the open access programme. While other institutions have similar repositories for their faculty's work, Harvard's is unique for making online publication the default option. The policy will allow Harvard authors to publish in any journal that permits posting online after publication.

* CrossRef launches free citation tool for bloggers

CrossRef has launched the beta version of a plug-in that allows bloggers to look up and insert DOI-enabled citations in the course of authoring a blog. The plug-in, which is available for download, allows the blogger to use a widget-based interface to search CrossRef metadata using citations or partial citations. The results of the search, with multiple hits, are displayed and the author can then either click on a hit to follow the DOI to the publisher's site, or click on an icon next to the hit to insert the citation into their blog entry (as either a full citation or as a short 'op. cit.').

* What does Higher Education want from Publishers?

The purpose of this well-attended conference was to review the future of the textbook - a campaign which the Publishers Association has promoted since 2003. There were a number of highlights to the day, which started with an impressive overview of academic publishing and university concerns. Students and academics from Manchester Metropolitan University gave their views on how they wanted to use textbook material. The presentations from the conference are available online.

8 Feb 2008, no 163:

* Researchers of the future: underskilled?

Discussion on the report about the so-called "Google Generation" - Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future http://www.ucl.ac.uk/slais/research/ciber/downloads/

The report counters the common assumption that the 'Google Generation' - young people born or brought up in the Internet age - is the most adept at using the web. "Our verdict: This is a dangerous myth. Digital literacies and information literacies do not go hand in hand. A careful look at the literature over the past 25 years finds no improvement (or deterioration) in young people's information skills."

The report claims that, although young people demonstrate an ease and familiarity with computers, they rely on the most basic search tools and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to asses the information that they find on the web.

The report calls for libraries to respond urgently to the changing needs of researchers and other users and to understand the new means of searching and navigating information. Learning what researchers want and need is crucial if libraries are not to become obsolete - libraries and information services need to become "much more e-consumer-friendly and less stodgy and intellectual".

* Academics want to improve peer review

A study involving 3,000 authors, reviewers and editors has been written up in a new report by Mark Waring Consulting called Peer review in scholarly journals: perspective of the scholarly community - an international study. The full report, Peer review in scholarly journals: perspective of the scholarly community - an international study, can be accessed on the Publishing Research Consortium website. A summary report, Peer review: benefits, perceptions, and alternatives, is also available.

* Swets to act as global sales partner for Wiley's OnlineBooks

Wiley has announced that it has chosen Swets to act as a global sales partner for its range of OnlineBooks. This deal makes the range of electronic book material hosted on Wiley Interscience's web platform available to order directly through Swets.

* The Royal Society chooses HighWire
HighWire Press and the Royal Society have announced a new partnership in the provision of the independent scientific academy's publications online. All content of the Society's eight periodicals, some dating back as early as 1665, will be live on HighWire's e-publishing platform from 2009.

25 Jan 2008, no. 162:

* The issue of identity for institutions and individuals:

Thomson Scientific has launched ResearcherID.com, a web environment which enables researchers to create stable personal identifiers to present their works and manage public presentation of their personal metrics. Each individual identification (ID) number will act as a digital 'calling card' that the researcher can place anywhere, such as a personal home page, a CV, or a university page. The identifier links to a personal workspace that automatically updates citation data, user-generated tags and keywords, and professional information that can be shared with the public or kept for personal monitoring. ResearcherID.com ensures an accurate record of a researcher's output and attribution, providing a gateway for colleagues to pinpoint not only that researcher's published work, but also the researcher as a potential collaborator. Web of Science users will be able to create identifiers and workspaces to share publicly, with wider availability via trusted sponsors in the future.

* IEEE continues to update legacy content

Originally promised to be 180,000 documents large, the IEEE Xplore legacy collection has topped 237,286 documents as IEEE continues to complete its vision to provide the first volume, first issue release of all its technology journals.

Golonka: E-Math, E-Physics, E-Chemistry for Africa

2008-02-22T23:02:00.005+02:00

Have you heard about Golonka initiative for Africa?

The aim of the Golonka is to co-ordinate the efforts to make an African consortium for e-journals and databases. The main purpose is to promote the use of Open Access journals and other scientific resources, as well as being a platform for consortia building.

Currently, Golonka provide access to:

* E-Math Africa (http://math.golonka.se)

* E-Physics Africa (http://physics.golonka.se)

* E-Chemistry Africa (http://chemistry.golonka.se)

On these websites you can find information on: Statistical Pan African Society (SPAS); Mentoring African Research in Mathematics; European Math Departments support African colleagues; Free ACD/ChemSketch Licenses to All Academic Institutions. You can subscribe to an e-mail alerts with news about access to databases and journals. The following resources are available on each website:

- Links to: Societies, Academies & Institutions;

- Databases and Search Engines

- Reprints

- E-books ( number of full-text books/textbooks available on the Internet)

- Free Journal Archives, Open access and African e-journals ( 431 journals - Maths, Applied Maths, Statistics, IT, etc.)( 81 journals - Chemistry)(96 journals - Physics)

These "portals" to Maths, Physics & Chemistry resources will definitely be of use to undergraduates and postgraduates students. It will be useful for research, learning & teaching purposes.

Conferences: Call for papers

2008-02-22T22:33:00.006+02:00

If you are interested in writing paper for a conference, these are your current opportunities:

NINTH SOUTHERN AFRICAN ONLINE INFORMATION MEETING, 3-5 JUNE 2008
CSIR CONFERENCE CENTRE MEIRING NAUDE ROAD, PRETORIA
Preliminary Announcement and Call for Papers

Suggested Topics for Papers include (but is not limited to):
Web search Federated search Social networking & Global best practices Taxonomies, folksonomies Evidence-based librarianship Information policy Web site usability Needs assessment Collaborative working
Career development talks
Content Management
RSS Feeds
Embedded Librarian
Web search engines
Planning next generation users
Disappearing mouse – touch screens/voice
Knowledge Sharing & Collaboration Training and teaching
Internet resources Managing e-resources Mobile technology Library 3.0 Distance learning, e-learning Multimedia searching Innovative projects Incorporating new technologies Web design Content management Development & Competency issues/skills

Call for Papers: Whilst priority will be given to contributors on the suggested themes, presentations on other relevant topics will also be considered. · Concise papers (20 minutes maximum) based on practical experience or practical applications of information technology are preferred. Supporting and supplementary detail may be included in the complete, written paper. · If you wish to submit a paper, please submit your 250 word detailed abstract by no later that 14 March 2008.
E-mailed to Dr. Glenda Myers: glenda.myers@wits.ac.za
If your paper is provisionally accepted, you will be asked to submit the complete paper in machine readable format by 16 May 2008 at the latest. · The decision of the selectors is final, and no correspondence with regard to acceptance or rejection of submitted papers will be entered into.

10th ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON WORLD WIDE WEB APPLICATIONS: Cape Town (South Africa) Wednesday 3 to Friday 5 September 2008.
Please find the Call for Papers to the 10th annual event at http://www.zaw3.co.za
Topics for the 2008 event can relate to trends and developments over the last ten years; for example the growing number of “foreign” language sites; the politics of the Web; censorship and legal issues; new methods of access and device and network convergence; search engines and search techniques; emerging Web technologies, developments and trends; Web 2.0; in fact e-anything (health, government, commerce, marketing, learning, society, entertainment).

University of Pretoria Bookfest 5-8 March 2008

2008-02-22T22:01:00.003+02:00

You are invited to attend the festival of books, which mark the University of Pretoria Centenary. As part of its centenary celebrations, the University of Pretoria (UP) through the aegis of its Library Services, is hosting the BookFest and the 1st South African eBook Fair from 05-08 March 2008 in Pretoria. The 4-day programme includes:

1. Writers in Dialogue - a programme which features a wide range of South African authors, including UP alumni. This line-up includes Fred Khumalo, Sindiwe Magona, Chris Mann, Darryl Accone, PG du Plessis, Helene de Kock, Buti Skhosana, Joan Hambidge, Jaco Jacobs, Anzil Kulsen, and many others. Shimmer Chinodya, the 2007 Noma Award winner for Publishing in Africa will also be present.

2. The eBook Phenomenon
The eBook Phenomenon: A New Chapter: A symposium will be held on Friday, March 07 2008 that addresses the emerging electronic book environment and its impact on print media and publishing. Mark Carden of MyiLibrary will be the keynote speaker. The 1st SA eBook Fair - Twelve international publishers will introduce their latest eBook collections and present a virtual exhibition of eBooks. Cost: R 100

Registration at: http://www.bookfest.up.ac.za/symposium_registration.htm

3. TUKSbooks and UniverCity - a display of 1000 books by UP staff and students published during its century. This programme also includes a series of talks by various experts.

4. Future Leaders at Play - a stimulating programme of activities for local schools, children and youth which will include the participation of children's authors and illustrators.

5. Exhibitions by local and international publishers and booksellers.

6. Sunset and lunch-time concerts by the university choirs and orchestra, rap poets, street musicians, museum collections and art exhibitions will add to the festivities.

This Bookfest is being sponsored by Elsevier, EBSCO, Blackwell's Book Services, Swets, Protea Boekhuis, KWP Argitekte and OCLC.

Direct link to the programme: http://www.bookfest.up.ac.za/programme.htm

Institute of Physics: Librarian Insider Newsletter

2008-02-10T23:37:00.000+02:00

In the latest December issue of IoP "Librarian Insider" Newsletter, you will find the following information:

* News: New look for IoP. Some improvements to the website were made.
* Did you know? NEW product!

IOPscience … always more to discover. IoP introduces their new platform for electronic journal content, IOPscience. Some of the features are:
- Related Articles: A ‘Related Articles' tab has been added to every abstract page in IOPscience.
- Content Finder: The introduction of the ‘Content Finder’ allows you to go straight to a specific article in the service.
- Saved Searches: Personalization features have been enhanced, with the inclusion of a brand new tab called ‘My IOPscience’.
- Most cited: The IOPscience homepage, and all journal homepages, now show the 5 most cited articles
- Enhanced PDFs: All PDFs downloaded from IOPscience now include an interactive coversheet, allowing you to link back to IOPscience at any time.
IOPscience provides site-wide access to content from 1874 to the present day, and is available by electronically license. IoP want to give every customer cost-effective access to IOP content, through our tailored pricing model, which is based on a number of factors including the size of relevant research at your institution and your geographic location.

Click on the TITLE to view the Newsletter

ILibrarian blog: latest posts

2008-01-27T22:14:00.000+02:00

The "ILibrarian" blog posted information (24/1/08) about case study report on "Libraries and Facebook". The report provides an overview of Facebook, a brief literature review, details the project’s use of the Facebook social network, discusses Facebook groups, applications, and pages of interest to libraries, and recommends best practices for using Facebook as a librarian.

Other interesting posts are: Academic Library Blogging Book (24/1/08), 7 Things You Should Know About Lulu (web-based self-publishing service)(23/1/08), Online Higher Education ranking (23/1/08), Gamimg to Develop Research skills (18/1/08), Changing the Way We Work(16/1/08), Library use "IGoogle" as start page (15/1/08), 10 Blogs To Read In 2008 ( 14/1/08)

Elsevier Library Connect Newsletter, no.1, 2008

2008-01-27T17:55:00.000+02:00

In this newsletter:
* Sign up for Research Trends: To fulfill the increasing demand for high-quality research performance measurement (RPM) and trend-related information, the Scopus team recently launched Research Trends, a free bimonthly e-newsletter delivering updates on developments, approaches and tools in this area. Launched in October 2007, Research Trends provides objective, up-to-the-minute news on scientific trends as well as articles based on bibliometric data. The articles are written by experts in the field of bibliometrics. Each issue focuses on five categories: the value of bibliometric measures, research trends, country trends, expert opinion and citation choices of individual authors. Developed for deans, faculty heads, researchers, funding bodies, ranking agencies and research libraries, Research Trends aims to be an essential source of information for the research community at large: www.researchtrends.com
* How marketing can help increase the value of e-resource investments: Five key findings
1. Interpersonal connections make the difference
2. Training is a key component of the marketing mix
3. Never underestimate the importance of a librarian
4. Interactive promotions are effective
5. Repetition is important
* Research watch
- Academic libraries positively impact student retention
- Assessing library instruction indicates lasting results
* Community connections
- European libraries feel effects of VAT on e-publications: At the moment, many libraries are hanging in limbo, stuck between traditional print materials and the advancement of electronic publications. Statistics tracked by libraries often compare usage metrics and budget percentages allotted for each format so as to try and find a happy medium for users who prefer holding physical forms of information in their hands and users who routinely conduct research using online resources.
- Study shows migration to online books saves libraries money and increases usage: The availability of digital journals is without doubt one of the cornerstones of today’s academic library. Thousands of STM journals are currently accessible via increasingly sophisticated electronic platforms like ScienceDirect. Now, many publishers, including Elsevier, are making significant progress in bringing book content online.
* Staying connected
- Want to learn more about tagging and RSS? Visit the Elsevier TrainingDesk and register for a free topic-focused online training. The TrainingDesk also offers downloadable presentations, tutorials, practice exercises and reference materials covering best-practice use of Elsevier electronic products. While visiting the TrainingDesk site, take a look at the blog and wiki.www.trainingdesk.elsevier.com
- Reprints Desk delivering ScienceDirect articles: Since November 2007, Elsevier has been partnering with Reprints Desk, a new content re-purposing company focused on medical and scientific publishing, to provide full-service article delivery. Through this initiative, customers can order individual articles from over 2,000 scientific journals published by Elsevier and receive the articles electronically or in print. Reprints Desk delivers articles in their original format and color, either in PDF or in professionally printed hardcopy: www.reprintsdesk.com
- Academic Database Assessment Tool: JISC Collections, in partnership with DataSalon Ltd., UK, has created the Academic Database Assessment Tool — a free online database comparison tool. Librarians can use it to evaluate and make purchasing decisions for online resources. The tool provides title lists for bibliographic and fulltext databases, plus service information regarding content platforms. Sponsors include Scopus, Engineering Village and EMBASE.com, as well as Thomson Scientific and ProQuest: www.jisc-adat.com/adat/home.pl
Click on the TITLE to access this newsletter. Even if it is addressing librarians, can be very useful to the researchers and academics to read.

UKSG Serials-eNews

2008-01-15T16:49:00.000+02:00

In the Current UKSG Serials-eNews, no. 161, 11 Jan 2008, the following news are noteworthy:

* UKSG seminar report: Caught up in web 2.0? Feedback from Web 2.0 seminar. Presenters from Ingenta, CABI, Talis, etc. talked about the "the web 2.0 emphasis is on public sharing of data and enabling improved communication", "Blogs have also been used to replace email communication between library staff", "some advice on the use of web 2.0 concepts in web page design", "a publisher's view of web 2.0 and talked about the move from formal to informal scholarly communication", "number of case studies describe the use of social software for the presentation of reading lists", " about web 2.0 in relation to library management and catalogue systems", "the life of an avatar inside the virtual world, Second Life".

* Cambridge Journals Online. 2007 has been a significant year for Cambridge Journals, marking their tenth year of online journals publishing. Some key new developments were released by Cambridge Journals Online in December

* Thomson Scientific launches journal citation impact forum. Thomson Scientific have launched an online Citation Impact Forum aimed at promoting scholarly discussion about all facets of citation-based research evaluation - from Thomson Scientific's own influential Journal Impact Factor to emerging citation metrics, such as the h-index.

* Discussion paper: the identification of digital book content. An important discussion paper on the identification of digital content, written for BIC and the Book Industry Study Group in the US by Michael Holdsworth, has been published. It can be freely accessed on the website.

* CrossRef passes 30 million DOI mark. CrossRef recently registered its 30 millionth DOI. While the majority of CrossRef's Digital Object IdentifiersR (DOIs) are assigned to online journal articles, there are now over 2.5 million DOI names assigned to other types of publications, including conference proceedings, dissertations, books, datasets, and technical reports. Over 2,400 publishers and societies participate in CrossRef linking.

* JSTOR and the journal 'Science'. The American Association for the Advancement of Science has reversed its earlier decision to pull its flagship publication, Science, from JSTOR, the scholarly electronic journals archive. Officials issued this statement: "AAAS and JSTOR are pleased to announce that we have concluded an ongoing discussion and have been able to reach an agreement to continue what has been a very productive relationship between JSTOR and the journal Science."

* Wiley-Blackwell takes on journals. Wiley-Blackwell have formed two new publishing partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region. They will publish Basic & Applied Pathology and Pacific Focus from 2008. The have also been selected by the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB) to publish IUBMB Life.

Other announcement of interest are: Nature Archive go live; Nature GeoScience launched (the library order it for the Faculty of Science); Nature Publishing launches Mucosal Immunology; Future present: changing your environment with e-books? EBSCO digitises backfile for International Political Science Abstracts

SAOUG Workshop

2008-01-15T16:14:00.000+02:00

Southern African Online User Group in conjunction with South African Online Information Services are delighted to bring you a talk with a difference!

Date: Monday, 18 February 2008
Venue: Goldenpipit, End Street 241, Centurion. Tel. 012-654 3009
(see http://www.goldenpipit.co.za/map.htm for map)
Time: 11:30 – 15:00
Cost: R50 for paid-up members; R80 for non-members

Programme:
11:30 -12:00 Registration
12:00 -13:00 Financial Strategic Planning for Libraries by Dave Crawford
13:00 - 15:00 Lunch

Financial Strategic Planning for Libraries
Do you hate that time of year when you’re asked to put in your budgets for your information services? Do you absolutely hate trying to second-guess what the Rand is going to do against a basket of foreign currencies, or what nasty surprises the Minister of Finance/Receiver of Revenue have tucked up their expensively tailored sleeves with regard to VAT or other tax implications for your services? Do you wish that courses on Basic Bookkeeping 101/Excel 101/Financial Planning for Non-Financial Managers had been included in your LIS subjects for compulsory attendance? Do you absolutely loathe and detest your vendors and the publishers when they won’t reveal how their annual subscription price increases can be justified? Is there NO ONE your institution that understands Library Finance? Are you a lonely little librarian in your weedy petunia patch of onion-like finance bulbs? Do you still count on your fingers?
If you’ve answered yes to at least one of these questions, then you absolutely have to come and hear what Dave Crawford has to say! Dave Crawford is Chief Financial Planner of Crawford Employee Financial Guidance and oversees financial education. He has been involved in this work since 1992 and Writes regularly for the Sunday Times answering reader queries in the Rands and Sense column. He also hosted a financial program on Radio Today for four years.

Please RSVP by Friday 11 February 2008 to Christa on:
E-mail: christaf@saonlineinfo.co.za