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SNAL Director, Prof Camilius Sanga (third from the right) explaining about the services provided at Special Collection section 

Chairman of the Council of the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), retired judge Othmani Chande visited the Sokoine National Agricultural Library on December 16, 2020, where he had an opportunity to witness library renovation activities towards the improvement of information services delivery to academic and farmers community at large. 

SNAL Director, Prof. Camilius Sanga had a privilege to take Chairman to different library sections including Mkulima library that serves farmers community through its printed collection held at SNAL premises and electronic collection that can be accessed at Mkulima repository. 

Prof Sanga (standing) speaking on a welcome meeting at SNAL

The Sokoine National Agricultural Library (SNAL) would like to sincerely congratulate Prof. Camilius A. Sanga for being appointed by the University Council at the Sokoine University of Agriculture as a Director of the Sokoine National Agricultural Library. Camilius A. Sanga is a Professor of Informatics since 2017. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. He served as Head of the Department of Informatics (2011-2017). Prof. Sanga is a member of various Management and Professional Boards and Committees within and outside the University.

Prof Lwehabura (standing) speaking on a welcome meeting

Following his appointment, SNAL staff held a welcome meeting where Prof. M. J. F. Lwehabura, the former Ag. Director of SNAL introduced Prof Sanga to the staff. SNAL staff happily welcomed Prof. Sanga and promised full cooperation in discharging his new duties.

SNAL staff on a welcome meeting

Once again, Congratulations Prof Sanga and welcome to SNAL

Staff learning on how to use ICT e-learning tools

In preparation for the new semester, the Department of Information and Records studies (DIRS) at the Sokoine National Agricultural Library (SNAL) organised and conducted the ICT e-learning tools training on 27th and 28th May 2020.

Staff learning how to set objective questions

The training was prepared mainly for academic and technical staff aiming at exposing them to various ICT tools which supports e-learning and equipping them with necessary skills on how to use them. Also, the training involved knowledge on how to set objective questions.

Staff learning on how to set objective questions

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.