Blog

The Sokoine National Agricultural Library would like to inform you that there will be a Virtual Open Repository Meetings (OR2020) that will be held on June 1-4, 2020. The OR2020 meetings were organised to substitute the OR Conference. The OR2020 conference was primarily supposed to be held at Stellenbosch University in South Africa on the same dates but due to COVID-19 pandemic, it has been arranged to be done virtually.

One of SNAL staff, Mr Gilbert Mushi will be presenting at this conference on the title: Overcoming Language Barrier in Open Repositories: A case of Sokoine University of Agriculture. Mr Mushi is scheduled to present on Tuesday 2nd June 2020 and he is a second presenter. The presentations will start at 11:00am - 12:30pm UTC (14:00pm - 15:30pm Tanzania Time).

List of presentations on 2nd June 2020 are as follows:

• The National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia – Technical, Policy and Governance Aspects – Roberto Barbera, Department of Physics and Astronomy “E. Majorana” of the University of Catania
• Overcoming Language Barrier in Open Repositories: A case of Sokoine University of Agriculture – Gilbert Mushi, Sokoine University of Agriculture Library
• Documenting the Ephemeral: Performance Archive and the Showcase Repository – Sanjin Muftic and Jayne Batzofin, The Reimagining Tragedy in Africa and the Global South (RETAGS) project at the University of Cape Town
• Skills needs assessment for South African open access repository practitioners – Ansie van der Westhuizen, UNISA
• Evaluation of institutional digital repository contents by postgraduate students of some selected tertiary institutions in Nigeria – Dr Michael Esew, Kashim Ibrahim Library, Ahmadu Bello University
• Institutional repository adoption among Nigerian private universities: Institutional factors and willingness to use – Adetomiwa Basiru, Tekena Tamuno Library, Redeemer's University

You are kindly invited to register and attend this meeting. Registration is free! And also there will be a series of conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #OpenRepos2020. Participants are asked to register for each day and for each workshop they wish to attend.

Please register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QwQNn5NOSz6qfcjhwFaUdw

Best wishes

The Sokoine National Agricultural Library would like to inform you that FAO in partnership with the United Nations Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries (UNTB) has prepared the new online training activities to enhance the access and understanding of the information tools in, Hinari, AGORA and Research4Life. The course is available for least-developed countries including Tanzania.

What is Hinari/Research4Life:

Since 2001, WHO has hosted Hinari and, since 2003 FAO has hosted AGORA. These are information tools that provide free or low-cost access to major scientific journals, books and other resources on health/life sciences and nutrition/agriculture to public institutions in the lower-income countries.

There are five Research4Life programmes that provide access to over 100,000 leading journals and books in the fields of health, agriculture, the environment, and applied sciences. More than 10,000 institutions in over 125 low- and middle-income countries are benefiting from free or low-cost online access from Research4Life.

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC):

With the joint objective to enhance the access to recent scientific knowledge, UNTB and FAO will run two editions of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) titled: “Research4Life Online Training Tools to develop capacities in information use, scholarly communication and information management in least developed countries”.

The MOOC follows a modular structure, which allows participants to study their area of interest throughout a five-week period. The course covers topics relevant across all Research4Life programmes, such as the scholarly communication landscape, information literacy skills, advocacy and capacity development strategies. Additionally, it provides discipline-specific information for the five programmes: Hinari, AGORA, OARE, ARDI and GOALI.

Please visit the course page for more detailed course information. Find information about the success of previous Research4Life courses here and past participants experiences here.

Registration Details:

The courses are set to be delivered in June and October 2020. FAO is currently collecting expressions of interest through an online application form. Interested participants can express interest via the form until the end of May.

Image source: Google images

The Sokoine National Agricultural Library (SNAL) would like to inform you that the Emerald group has prepared the "Emerald Guide to Getting Published - Online session", a training concerning authorship and publishing skills for Tanzania's academicians and researchers on Wednesday - 20th May 2020 at 11 am Tanzanian time. The academician/researcher will be required to click on the provided link (see the link below), after clicking the link you are given three options to choose: Download the window app or Join on the web instead/Continue on this browser or Already have the Team app? Launch it now/Open your Teams app. Choose the easiest way you think you will be able and comfortable to use.

If you select "Join on the web instead", you will receive a message after sometimes requiring you to set your audio and video allowing Microsoft Team to use it, then you will be required to write your name and click on "Join now".   

If you choose "Download the window app" the setup will be downloaded and then click on run to install Microsoft Teams app so that you can join the session. Upon successful installation of the app, write your name and click on "Join now".

If you have the Microsoft Teams app on your computer/laptop you can select "Open your Teams app" option, then write your sign-in address and click on "Sign in".

Please find the following link in order to be able to join the session: Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

This is an opportunity especially for young academicians and researchers to get knowledge about authorship and publishing.

Best wishes

SNAL would like to share the latest information about Emerald publishing platform demonstrations that will be conducted via Webinar sessions by Emerald executive trainer. Interested participants are encouraged to register early on time so that they can attend the sessions and there is no limit to the number of attendees.

The session will provide participants with information on:

• Emerald Content 
• Accessing the platform and holdings
• Creating profiles and setting up access 
• Search, advanced search and keywords option 
• Search Page layout and using filters 
• Article page layout
• Journal level search 
• Emerald Publishing – Librarian/Author/Researcher Zone

The platform demonstration sessions are as follows:

A. On the 12th May 2020, Tuesday, @ 11:00 am South African Standard Time & Central  Africa Time or 12:00 pm East Africa Time. Register for this Emerald General Access and Platform Demonstration through 

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3925470223116822795

                                                   OR

B. On the 14th May 2020, Thursday, @ 11:00 am South African Standard Time & Central  Africa Time or 12:00 pm East Africa Time. Register for this Emerald General Access and Platform Demonstration through 

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2518449382329463568

NB: Please note that in the Time Zone, Tanzania is not listed, therefore, you may select Nairobi for East Africa time.

Best wishes.

The Department of Information and Records Studies (DIRS) would like to inform you that Mr. Nicholaus Mwalukasa, a lecturer at DIRS, Sokoine National Agricultural Library has successfully defended his PhD on 31/03/2020.

Dr. N. Mwalukasa presenting his PhD viva voce presentation

The title of his research study is: "Mobile phone use in accessing rice information for adaptation to Climate Change in Kilosa and Kilombero Districts, Morogoro, Tanzania". 

Dr. N. Mwalukasa responding to some questions during his PhD viva voce presentation

Once again, congratulations Dr. N. Mwalukasa!