Reggie Raju

Opening access to African scholarly content: Stellenbosch University's AOARI platforms

Africa is viewed as a consumer of the worlds knowledge production. A significant factor influencing this status is the low research output, with the main contributor to this status being minimum access to scholarly content to support research. Stellenbosch University, a leading research institution on the African continent, is committed to contributing to changing this status quo through the distribution of its own research output utilizing open sources. Given the challenges that have plagued Africa in developing processes for the distribution of their research, Stellenbosch University has developed the African Open Access Repository Initiative (AOARI) which uses open source software for two platforms that support the ‘green’ and ‘gold’ route to sharing scholarly literature: Ubuntu is used as the operating system, DSpace is used for its repository and Open Journal Systems for its publication platform. It is anticipated that AOARI will be the bridge that facilitates the sharing of research output and nurtures a culture of research production in Africa.

Open access: are we there yet? - the case of Stellenbosch University, South Africa

Libraries are rapidly developing along a new trajectory which is extensively influenced by technology. The library, in its traditional format as a warehouse of information is fast being transformed into a facilitator of information. In this role as facilitator, it is functioning as a conduit bringing together the vast ocean of information that is now available in digital format. Unfortunately, despite this exponential growth of trusted and relevant digital information, there is a scarcity of information as exorbitant subscriptions make it unaffordable – especially to the developing world. Researchers spend vast amounts of time conducting and recording their research only for publishers to attach exorbitant costs to that research making it inaccessible to the information seeking research community, especially 1 Reggie Raju (PhD), who is the corresponding author, is the Director: Client Services, Library and Information Service,

Libraries Driving Access to Knowledge: a discussion paper

Libraries are critical contributors to knowledge generation. The paper provides a brief examination of the evolution of libraries and their contribution to literacy and information provision and access to that information. However, the mode of access has significantly changed, which has brought with it a different set of challenges. These include, among others, the dismantling of barriers to access in an era of information explosion and the moral obligation to drive access to knowledge and information. This paper was prepared as a discussion document for the Presidentelects Brainstorming Session held at the recent IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Québec City, Canada on 12 August 2008.

Open Scholarship Practices Reshaping South Africa’s Scholarly Publishing Roadmap

South African higher education institutions are the largest producers of research output on the African continent. Given this status, South African researchers have a moral obligation to share their research output with the rest of the continent via a medium that minimizes challenges of access; open scholarship is that medium. The majority of South African higher education libraries provide an open access publishing service. However, in most of these cases this service is via engagement with the green open access route, that is, institutional repositories (IR). Some of the libraries have piloted and adopted gold open access services such as publishing of “diamond” gold open access journals and supporting article processing charges. The experiment with publishing open monographs is a new venture. This venture must be viewed against the backdrop of the need for open educational resources (OERs). OER is an area that is very much in a fledgling stage and is gaining traction, albeit, at a slow pace. The growth of IRs, the growth in support for gold open access including the library acting as a publisher, the experimentation with open monographs, and OERs are all shaping South Africa’s scholarly publishing roadmap.

Researchers adapting to open access journal publishing: the case of the University of Cape Town

This paper reports on the contribution of the openness movement to the changing mode of distributing scholarly literature. It is argued that the University of Cape Town (UCT), a leading research university on the African continent with relatively high research output, has a social justice obligation to distribute freely its scholarly research to the widest audience possible. Contributing to this social justice obligation through the sharing of research output via open access (OA) platforms are the university’s progressive OA policy and activities to ensure roll-out of the policy as well as its commitments to support article processing charges (APCs) and follow the global trend with regard to OA publishing. The authors, using a case study design, report that these factors have contributed to UCT’s researchers adapting to publishing their journal articles on OA platforms. The investigation concludes that, in an era of fiscal constraints, the visibility of research is important to source funding and to meet the institution’s social justice obligation; and therefore adapting to new publishing trends is an imperative for UCT researchers.

Descriptive and subject cataloguing

Descriptive and subject cataloguing , Descriptive and subject cataloguing , کتابخانه دیجیتال جندی شاپور اهواز

Restructuring for relevance: a paradigm shift for academic libraries

The purpose of this paper is to report on the development of a flexible and robust academic library structure that meets the demands of an ever changing user community and remains relevant and fit for purpose in a technology-driven age. The new structure makes provision for the delivery of new and innovative services responding to the need for a paradigm shift in twenty-first century academic librarianship. The move away from subject librarianship, which has been the bastion of South African academic librarianship, is significant.,This paper used the exploratory method to gain new insights into library structures that have restructured for the twenty-first century. The exploratory study was used to gain new insights into functional librarianship. Despite the short comings of the exploratory method, the method was deemed most appropriate as UCT Libraries was not seeking definitive answers but a process that would provide opportunities to explore possibilities for subsequent processes.,The move from subject librarianship to functional librarianship has given the library the opportunity to restructure. The restructured library can now offer new and/or radically expanded services to meet the demands of a twenty-first century academic library.,The development of new and future roles and responsibilities commensurate with a robust and “future-driven” structure will consolidate the library’s role as a collaborator in the teaching and learning, and research agendas of a higher education institution.,This paper will be of interest and value to library managers and staff wanting to develop a library structure that responds positively to the redefinition of the professional roles and functions of the library and to strategically position the academic library for the future. It will also be of interest to library and information science academics who may want to re-examine their curricula for the incorporation of new trends.

Research Support Services in South African Academic Libraries

Abstract Changing pedagogy and rapid growth of commensurate technologies have triggered demand from academic libraries for new research support services such as bibliometrics, data management, digital preservation and curation, open access (OA) and open journal publishing. South African academic libraries have responded, to an extent, to the changing research support needs of their research communities. Some of the mainstream research support services provided by South African academic libraries include bibliometrics, open scholarship services and research data management. There are also some non-typical research support services and/or activities that are provided – these include research landscape analysis, research week and research engagement provision.

Promoting Open Scholarship in Africa: Benefits and Best Library Practices

Knowledge, as a prerequisite for development, is contingent on information. The main value of information is in its ability to be used, reused, and shared. Open access (OA) allows for the easy dissemination and preservation of information by providing all scholarly communication and knowledge at no cost to the end user. In the rapidly expanding, global knowledge-based economy, Africa’s steady progress from the peripheral to the epicenter of knowledge production is not to be ignored, not least because of its reliance on OA. Such access environments and institutional repositories throughout the continent are playing significant roles in maximizing the impact of research output. This paper reveals that OA content is more citable, not simply because of the quality of the output, but instead of the advantage that OA brings in maximizing accessibility and increased citation. It goes on to show that OA will enhance the research community’s existing system for evaluating and rewarding research productivity. Ultimately, OA has the ability to elevate (South) Africa, its universities and institutions, to the status of knowledge producers rather than mere knowledge consumers.

African Librarianship: A Relic, a Fallacy, or an Imperative?

African librarianship has its roots in the colonial era, with colonial powers developing excellent library infrastructure with commensurate services in anticipation of their protracted stay in Africa. However, libraries were alien to African communities, which had a very strong oral tradition and used such a tradition to share information and knowledge. The “un-African” library infrastructure was challenged by some leading African scholars, who argued that there has to be a system of librarianship that delivers on African realities and imperatives. This paper interrogates the need to transform the concept of African librarianship in search of a path that addresses African imperatives; it also examines the need to separate the relic in pursuit of reconceptualization. There is little doubt that there is a need for, at the least, a hybrid—that is, incorporating the best from the colonial era with that which is African, such as the oral tradition—that would result in the transposition of concepts to create a new, relevant, effective, and efficient form of librarianship—namely, librarianship in Africa.